Books

Myron Tassin
We are Acadians: Nous Sommes Acadiens The Delta Queen: Last of the Paddlewheel Palaces Fifty Years at the Grand Ole Opry

Myron Tassin is a native New Orleans author and one of Louisiana’s own Acadians. He worked as a public relations consultant until his retirement. Tassin considers himself a proud Acadian and believes the Acadian culture is a major component of his unique heritage. From this cultural perspective, Tassin has written several books about the rich history of New Orleans and the southern experience he reveres. He lives in Florida where he has made his vacation home a permenant residence.

About the Author

Glen Pitre

Belizaire the Cajun
Great River
We Are Acadians: Nous Sommes Acadiens

Glen Pitre has pursued many media-oriented careers, including television, film, and writing. However, he has also worked as a shrimp fisherman, house painter, ship’s cook, roadside vendor of garlic, assistant zookeeper, and oil-field laborer. His work experiences and interactions with people of every economic level make him a well-rounded and worthy resource of information. Born in Cut Off, Louisiana, Pitre is a bilingual Cajun whose films and written works often focus on Cajun, Creole, and Southern culture.

After graduating from Harvard University in visual and environmental studies, Pitre returned to Louisiana. There he founded Cote Blanche Productions and became well known for the films that he wrote and directed. Many of these films have attracted audiences in Canada and France, as well as in America. In 1988 the French government bestowed on him one of the highest civilian honors—the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres—in honor of his contributions. Pitre also served as Louisiana film commissioner from 1989 to 1990, and his live storytelling is a regular feature of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival folklore stage.

By the time Pitre was twenty-five, American Film had already dubbed him the “father of the Cajun film.” His early film productions include La Fièvre Jaune and Huit Piastres et Demie!, the first Cajun-dialect movies released in Louisiana theaters. Pitre’s first book, Belizaire the Cajun, is based on a film he wrote and produced in 1986. The movie was an official selection of the Sundance, Cannes, and Toronto film festivals. The story recounts the exploits of Belizaire Breaux, a Cajun herbalist and traiteur (healer). Pitre also wrote Great River, which tells the story of Robert Cavelier de La Salle and his famous journey down the Mississippi. He provided an eloquent foreword to the 2011 edition of Myron Tassin’s We are Acadians: Nous Sommes Acadiens, also published by Pelican, in which he discusses the book’s influence on his career. Besides producing and writing a number of other works on Cajuns, Creoles, and the state of Louisiana, Pitre also owns the Louisiana Catalogue, a mail-order service offering a number of products associated with the culture and history of the state.

LOUISIANA SEAFOOD BIBLE: OYSTERS

By Jerald and Glenda Horst

Oysters vary in taste and quality more than any other Louisiana seafood and that’s why knowing how to choose the best oysters is so important. Fisheries expert Jerald Horst and his wife Glenda, who grew up cooking in a commercial fishing family, carefully guide readers along the path to successful meals, beginning with a comprehensive review of oyster biology and the oyster industry.

From inspecting shells and water quality to checking the appropriate weight and tags, this oyster encyclopedia includes detailed information no seafood lover could resist. Photographs accompany invaluable instructions on shucking and freezing the delicacy without damaging its sensitive soft tissue.

Somewhere between choosing ingredients and understanding the oyster life cycle comes the best part—more than seventy-five delectable recipes have been added to this collection, including Drago’s Charbroiled Oysters, Angels on Horseback, and Dudley’s Deadly Fried Ones, all of which prove well-worth the shucking time.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Jerald Horst is a retired fisheries expert who taught fisheries science at Louisiana State University for more than thirty years. He is a member of the Louisiana Chapter of the American Fisheries Society and frequently writes for Louisiana Sportsman magazine. He is the coauthor of Angler’s Guide to Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico, available from Pelican.

Glenda Horst was born and raised on Bayou Sorrell, Louisiana, a small commercial-fishing community on the edge of the Atchafalaya Basin. The daughter of a commercial fisherman, she learned the basics of Cajun cooking from her mother.

The Horsts also coauthored three other volumes of The Louisiana Seafood Bible Series, covering shrimp, crawfish, and crabs. They have repeatedly appeared on Good Morning New Orleans, The Food Show with Tom Fitzmorris, and Outdoors with Don Dubuc. The Horsts live in Franklinton, Louisiana.

COOKING / Specific Ingredients / Seafood
SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Biology / Marine Biology
COOKING / Regional & Ethnic / American / Southern States
224 pp. 8 x 9 1/4
210 illus. 197 color photos 13 b/w photos Index
ISBN: 9781589809697 $25.00

MOSQUITO

By Virginia Kroll Illustrated by Betsy LePlatt

Fun wordplay including rhyme, alliteration, and onomatopoeia follow a pesky mosquito as she buzzes about the forest. This little insect makes a nuisance of herself to all the other animals and ignores their frustrations with her. She continues on her way until she finally bothers the wrong neighbor. A list of mosquito facts appears at the end with informative material about the story's main character and one of her forest foes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Virginia Kroll is a prolific children’s author whose work has received numerous awards. Among her accolades are three Benjamin Franklin Awards, a Jane Addams Peace Association commendation, a Skipping Stones multicultural book award, a KIND Children’s Book Award from the Humane Society of the United States, an Outstanding Trade Book in the Field of Science, and an International Reading Association/Children’s Book Council Children’s Choice Award. She is also the author of The Thanksgiving Bowl from Pelican. She lives in Hamburg, New York.

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR Betsy LePlatt is a freelance designer and illustrator. She has worked for an advertising agency, corporate art departments, and product design departments. Her clients have included General Mills and Anagram International. LePlatt lives with her husband and daughter in Chanhassen, Minnesota.

MOSQUITO
By Virginia Kroll
Illustrated by Betsy LePlatt
JUVENILE FICTION / Animals / Insects, Spiders, etc.
32 pp. 8 ½ x 11
31 illus.
ISBN: 9781589808836 $16.99

LAFAYETTE, La. – As springtime approaches in southern Louisiana, colorful colonial wading birds flock to the rookery in the nearby Lake Martin area to breed, nest and raise their young.

With thousand of egrets, Roseate Spoonbills and herons of many types being hatched each spring, this area is said to have “one of the most spectacular wading bird rookeries in North America.”

That’s the description used by nature photographer and writer Nancy Camel in her new book, “The Nature of Things at Lake Martin: Exploring the Wonders of Cypress Island Preserve in Southern Louisiana.”

The book is a pictorial and a documentary dealing with Lake Martin and Cypress Island Preserve, of which the lake is a part. Containing some 130 color photographs – most notably of the birds, the mammals and their environment – the book describes the personalities and mating rituals of the birds and tells the history of Cypress Island Preserve. It also discusses ways in which The Nature Conservancy of Louisiana – the preserve’s largest landowner, with 9,300 acres – works to manage the preserve and the activities of humans who visit it.

“The book is about the birds, the people and the environment – and their interrelationship,” Ms. Camel says. “It is intended to be a documentary on the true nature of things at Lake Martin and Cypress Island Preserve.” In the spring nesting season the rookery is home to thousands of pairs of wading birds. Throughout the year there are more than 200 species of resident, migratory and wintering birds; 1,200 to 1,800 alligators; and wildflowers, butterflies, dragonflies, frogs, snakes, turtles, squirrels, beavers, nutria, otters, foxes, rabbits, deer, raccoons and other furry animals.

Located off I-10 east of Lafayette and south of Breaux Bridge, the preserve attracts more than 50,000 human visitors from all over the world who come to witness the annual rite of spring at the rookery. Among the visitors are scores of professional photographers, who enjoy unrivaled accessibility to this wonder of nature. They are able to set up their gear on the roadside and take many of their pictures from this unobstructed vantage point.

Ms. Camel photographs at the preserve not only in the spring but in all seasons. Recording the cycles of life at Lake Martin over the years has been something of a mystical experience for her. Her book is like an ode to the beauty and wonders of nature.

“I have spent six years observing and photographing the birds, alligators, mammals, environment and people of Cypress Island Preserve and Rookery,” she writes in her introduction. “And still I am filled with excitement and anticipation every time I make that one-hour, early morning trip from my home in Baton Rouge, over the Atchafalaya Basin, to the preserve. Turning onto Rookery Road, I am enveloped by the raw nature that surrounds me…. I become part of the environment, changing from spectator to participant.”

And she’s not the only one, Ms. Camel says, explaining that she knows a number of people who go to the preserve frequently just to enjoy the peace and quiet and the primal beauty of nature, to clear their heads and regain their perspective on life.

“Cypress Island Preserve…has become a part of the soul of so many of us who recognize its beauty, its peace and its value,” she writes. add 2-2-2…Lake Martin

Published by Acadian House Publishing of Lafayette, La., the 128-page, 9 x 11½-inch hardcover book is available through bookstores nationwide. It can be obtained via the internet (www.acadianhouse.com) or by mail order from Acadian House, P.O. Box 52247, Lafayette, LA 70505, (800) 850-8851. It retails for $44.95, plus $4 for shipping.

The book includes maps of the Lake Martin area and preserve, tips on photographing birds and other animals, and lists of the more than 200 birds identified in the area.

A resident of Baton Rouge, La., Ms. Camel is a graduate of the Louisiana State University School of Journalism and a member of various state and national photography and birding organizations. Her work has appeared in National Wildlife, Outdoor Photographer, Birdscapes and Wetlands International, as well as on Audubon calendars.

THE CAJUN NUTCRACKER
By Chara Dillon Mock
Illustrated by Jean Cassels

Based on the classic E.T.A. Hoffmann tale, this story takes place outside of New Iberia, Louisiana, on Bayou Teche. Young Merrae dances to the sound of Zydeco music and eats gumbo during her family’s festive Christmas fete. When her godfather, Parrain Comeaux, arrives, he presents the children with gifts, including a Nutcracker for Merrae.

Later that night, she awakens to find herself surrounded by the Alligator King and his swarm of nutria. But the Nutcracker and toy soldiers come to Merrae’s rescue. The Nutcracker then turns into a prince and sails off into the swamp with Merrae in a pirogue. When they arrive in New Orleans, they meet the Sugar Cane Fairy and such dancing delicacies as crawfish, cayenne peppers, beignets, king cake, and a flaming bananas foster.

During the adventure, readers will learn about Louisiana culture, along with a few Cajun words and French phrases. With vibrant illustrations of a fantastical ballet, this book is perfect for aspiring ballerinas.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Native New Orleanian Chara Dillon Mock is an education coordinator and ballet teaching artist at the New Orleans Ballet Association. In addition to dancing her first production of The Nutcracker with the New Orleans City Ballet, she performed works with the Jefferson Performing Arts Society, Ballet Hysell, and the University of Kansas Dance Company at the University of Kansas, where she received her BA in dance. Mock has been studying dance for more than three decades. She lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
Jean Cassels is a teacher at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts. She attended the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Illinois School of Art & Design, where she received a BA in studio arts. Cassels has received such honors as the Golden Kite Award for Best Illustrated Children’s Book and the LSU Giverny Award, among others. She lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.

THE CAJUN NUTCRACKER
By Chara Dillon Mock
Illustrated by Jean Cassels
JUVENILE FICTION / Holidays & Celebrations / Christmas & Advent
JUVENILE FICTION / Fairy Tales & Folklore / Adaptations
32 pp. 8 1/2 x 11 31 color illus.
ISBN: 9781589809789 $16.99