Mimi told Tante Conette all of the family news as they walked into the house that was warm with the smell of spicy jambalaya. When they had finished their dinner, the family took their pecan pie dessert outside to sit on the porch in the moonlit night. When Mimi asked Uncle Rabbit to tell her all about the Cajun Mardi Gras, he pulled out a pipe and filled it with sweet-smelling perique tobacco. He slowly lighted it, and began--"Mimi, our Mardi Gras goes back further in time than your New Orleans Mardi Gras. . . . It's totally different, you'll see."

Mimi and Jean-Paul's Cajun Mardi Gras is an explanation and a celebration of the Courir du Mardi Gras, or "Running of Mardi Gras." Mimi, a native New Orleanian, has never seen this spectacle. Through Aunt Conette, Uncle Rabbit, and her cousin Jean-Paul, she will hear the history and customs of this little-known event. It will be one she will not soon forget. With authentic details from the building of the screen mask to the chasing of the chicken for the gumbo, this story will surely stir up interest in this unique cultural festival.

Alice Wilbert Couvillon and Elizabeth Butler Moore are both native Louisianians and residents of Covington. Both are also the authors of Mimi's First Mardi Gras ($14.95) and Louisiana Indian Tales ($13.95) and are graduates of Newcomb College in New Orleans.

Illustrator Marilyn Carter Rougelot, who also provided the illustrations for Mimi's First Mardi Gras and Louisiana Indian Tales as well as Portraits of Extraordinary Women ($19.95), is a native New Orleanian and a fine arts graduate. She began her art training in the city's Vieux Carré and is an accomplished painter specializing in portraiture.

MIMI AND JEAN-PAUL'S CAJUN MARDI GRAS
By Elizabeth Moore and Alice Couvillon
Illustrated by Marilyn Carter Rougelot
32 pp. 8½ x 11
19 Color illustrations
ISBN: 1-56554-069-7
EAN: 978-1-56554-069-9 hc