A
couple of children bring home a bunny one spring who turns out to be the Easter
Bunny in “The Littlest Bunny in Louisiana: An Easter Adventure” by Lily Jacobs,
illustrated by Robert Dunn. As the bunny makes the rounds, readers are treated
to Louisiana locales such as Sam Houston State Park, Tiger baseball and the
East Baton Rouge Parish Library. At the book’s conclusion, readers are
challenged to find the 20 eggs hidden among its pages. Sourcebooks, which
published this cute title, also published the localized holiday books “A
Halloween Scare in Louisiana,” written by Eric James, illustrated by Marina Le
Ray, and “Santa is Coming to Louisiana,” written by Steve Smallman, illustrated
by Robert Dunn and Jim Mitchell.
Michael
J. Rosen incorporates a variety of felines to teach poetry to children in “The
Maine Coon’s Haiku and Other Poems for Cat Lovers,” beautifully illustrated by
Lee White. Each poetic turn highlights a type of cat, such as Turkish angora,
Burmese and Ragdoff. For the British Shorthair, perched on a car peppered with
his paw prints, the haiku reads: “paws plant mud-daises, along the polished
hillside, parked on the cat’s street.” For the Birman tossling the ball of
yarn, “up to bat again, white-mitted kitten hits! runs!, fields! slides into
home!” In the back of the book are details about the spotlighted cats.
Another
lovely book that teaches children about nature with breathtaking photos of
birds in flight is “Sweep Up the Sun,” by Helen Frost with photography by Rick
Lieder. The prose is lyrical and inspirational while the photos both delight
youngsters and provide lessons in bird identification. Like Rosen’s haiku book,
“Sweep Up the Sun” offers details in the back about the birds used in the
story.
We
have to admit, pop-up books amaze and delight us, especially modern pop-ups
with their intricate designs. Shawn Sheehy takes readers through a woody
neighborhood in “Welcome to the Neighborwood.” There’s a hummingbird, garden
spider, a potter wasp and the underwater stickleback, among others, and all
combine at the end in a magnificent display. “Neighborwood” is a fabulous
introduction to nature with children sure to love the creatures leaping from
its pages.
Just
in time for baseball season is “Growing Up Pedro” by Matt Tavares, which at
first glance appears to be about Pedro Martinez, three-time Cy Young winner and
part of the Red Sox World Series team. The book does center around Pedro but
the story details his close relationship with his brother, Ramon, who also
played Major League Baseball. Because of this touching sibling relationship
that lasted throughout their careers, even when they played against each other,
“Growing Up Pedro” has to be one of my favorite children’s sports books. Sports
fans, Sox fans or fans of a moving story will not want to miss this book.
Ellen
Ellzey, a high school teacher from Sulphur, has self-published a young adult
fantasy titled “Crimson Ashes” which takes place in Louisiana and revolves
around Alida Mouton who has a harsh reputation, an abusive uncle and a living
fire inside of her. Her best and only friend, Angeline, knows her secret until
a beautiful boy named Casey Comeaux starts following her. While Alida struggles
with deceit, murder, voodoo and homelessness, he and his friends try to push
their way into her life, changing it forever. The book is currently available
as a digital download on Amazon, but print copies will be available soon.
Leif
Pedersen, the Lake Charles author and creator of “The Adventures of the Swamp
Kids,” has published “A Zoo Ta-do” that takes place in New Orleans and
incorporates Tim Banfell’s illustrations and photography from New Orleans FOX-8
TV anchor, John Snell. “I
knew from the outset that if I was going to give children a true and vivid
visual overview of the Swamp Kid’s visit to the zoo, it would require that I
pair the two into the storyline and I am very pleased with the resulting
outcome,” Pedersen wrote me by email. “As I’m sure you are aware, many of
the animals/reptiles at Audubon Zoo are unlike any others found in the world
and this treatment gives them what I had hoped for. And Tim masterfully ‘dropped’
his illustrated characters into each scene beautifully.” The
book includes comments by Audubon Institute President and CEO Ron Forman.
New adult releases
Maggie
Collins, a former English teacher and resident of Loreauville and current
educational diagnostician with the Jefferson Parish Schools, has published her
novel “Celestial Blue Skies,” which was shortlisted for the Ernest Gaines Award
in 2014. The novel was also nominated for the Push Cart Prize. Collins has a
bachelor’s degree from UL and a master’s from UNO and participated in the
fellowship with the Center for Black Literature. She is currently writing
another novel titled “A Vampire in my Farm Town Utopia” as well as a nonfiction
book, “The Last of the Traiteurs and Tea Men.” “My
book ‘Celestial Blue Skies’ is dedicated to my Uncle Roman Auzenne of
Leonville,” Collins wrote me by email. “He was a great storyteller who inspired
my novel.”Collins
will sign and discuss her books Saturday, April 4, at the Iberia Parish Public Library
Main Branch on 445 Main Street in New Iberia.
George Takei
George
Takei, known for playing the character Hikaru Sulu in the “Star Trek” series,
will speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 4, at the University of Louisiana at Monroe’s Brown
Auditorium as part of this year’s Lyceum Series. Takei
has performed in television, film and on Broadway since his “Star Trek” days
and performed voice-overs in films such as “Mulan,” “Mulan II” and “Batman
Beyond: The Movie.” He’s also narrated documentaries and is the author of
several books, including his latest, a biography, “To The Stars: Autobiography of
George Takei, Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu.” 
A
documentary on Takei’s life and career titled “To be Takei” came out last
August.
A
vocal advocate, Takei has a large social media following, including yours
truly, which veers from humorous and sarcastic posts to political. Takei
was detained in two U.S. internment camps during World War II, one of which was
located in southern Arkansas about 100 miles from Monroe. He is chairman
emeritus and a trustee of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles,
has served as the spokesperson for human rights campaigns and was cultural
affairs chairman of the Japanese American Citizens League. He was appointed to
the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission by former Pres. Bill Clinton and the
government of Japan awarded Takei the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with
Rosette, for his contribution to U.S.-Japanese relations.
Book events
The
29th annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival concludes
today at various venues in New Orleans. For more information, visit http://www.tennesseewilliams.net/
The
Writers’ Guild of Acadiana will hold its monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at
Barnes & Nobles in Lafayette.
Louisiana Book News is written by
Cheré Coen, the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom
Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A
Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding
Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment