The Cajun Mardi Gras book was selected to represent the State of Louisiana at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. in September 2017. In October 2017, Johnette Downing received the 2017 Louisiana Writer Award at the Louisiana Book Festival.
It’s Fat Tuesday, and things are getting hot. This Courir de Mardi Gras, one clever rooster vows that he will not end up in the gumbo pot! As masked Carnival revelers travel across Acadiana begging for ingredients for their communal gumbo, the rooster flies ahead to warn the alligator, goose, crawfish, shrimp, pig, oysters, turkeys, ducks, rabbits, and chickens to hide and stay out of sight. Although the revelers visit every farmhouse, there is “nary a critter from a gator to a mouse”! How will the Cajuns celebrate Mardi Gras without gumbo?