'Mademoiselle Grands Doigts' for all year long

It's not exactly New Year's Eve, but Johnette Downing and Heather Stanley's book on a Louisiana legend centered around the holiday is a book to be enjoyed all year long. 

"Mademoiselle Grands Doigts: A Cajun New Year's Eve Tale," written by Downing and illustrated by Stanley, was released by Pelican Publishing Company of Gretna in February and we're not sure why. But it doesn't matter. It's a long-standing Cajun tale that deserves a kinder retelling regardless of the date.


The story goes that on New Year's Eve Cajun families place their shoes by the fireplace in the hopes that Madame Grands Doigts, or Madame Long Fingers, will fill them with something special like oranges or small gifts, much like the anglo version of stockings on Christmas Eve. And like St. Nicholas and his naughty and nice list, if a child misbehaves they would be warned that Madame Grands Doigts would visit with her long, gnarled fingers, able to slide her nails inside the tightest locks. Pretty frightening, don't you think?

Downing and Stanley take a more gentler tone, casting Madame Grand Doigts as a lovely young maiden with "lovely long fingers and hands." Jealous girls put a gris gris on her, turning the maiden's lovely looks into something horrid.

"In the morning, as the sun began to rise,
Mademoiselle Grands Doigts opened her eyes.
Her lovely long fingers were covered in warts
and her hands were ugly and knobby in parts.
Her skin was scaly like a crawfish sack,
and she had bumps on her face and a hump on her back.
Her nose was like a beak of a crane,
and her hair looked like moss from her bed after rain."

Karma gets those jealous girls but poor Mademoiselle Grands Doigts lives hidden away, except on New Year's Eve when she finds nice children and fills their shoes with treats. It's a sweeter tale than the one Cajun parents spinned to keep their kids in line, and a delightful book with beautiful illustrations.

Downing is a multi award-winning musician and author and winner of the 18th annual Louisiana Writer Award. Stanley worked as director of creative services at the Audubon Nature Institute.

Louisiana Book News is written by award-winning author Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes romances and mysteries under the pen name of Cherie Claire. Her first book in each series is FREE to download as an ebook, including "A Ghost of a Chance," the first Viola Valentine mystery.