Best Mardi Gras themed books to enjoy on Fat Tuesday! |

Mardi Gras themed Books!

This Mommy is a die-hard lover of The Big Easy and all things Mardi Gras! We’ve been to a few and fell in love with the culture, the action, the fun that is New Orleans! Now your little one can too – and they don’t need to go to Louisiana to enjoy the costumes, the colors, the music, the food and the parades! They can pick up a good book!

Hello, New Orleans!, by Martha Day Zschock

Here are two of our favorites!This is the perfect book for anyone, any age to introduce themselves to the places to go when visiting New Orleans, or for those of us who know it well, to make us homesick! Follow Pelican and Duck through The Big Easy! If you have visited NOLA before you will love this book, as the two make stops at all your favorite familiar places! I’ll expand upon the places the book shows Pelican and Duck but doesn’t mention specifically, so just in case you’re planning a trip, take notes!: Have beignets (and don’t forget the café au lait) at Café du Monde across from Jackson Square! Cruise down the Mississippi on the Steamboat Natchez! Listen to jazz at Preservation Hall in the French Quarter! Ride the street car down St. Charles Avenue! Visit the zoo and aquarium or ride the carousel in City Park! Earn your beads in the Mardi Gras parades! Stick around a few months and check out all the great blues and zydeco bands at Jazz Fest in the spring! Many of you may know Ms. Zschock is the author of the Journey Around series. I first heard of her from this book but I will say, if the rest are as good as this one, then it’s worth buying the whole series!

“Dinosaur Mardi Gras” by Dianne de Las Casas. (Book Review) Following the Deepwater Horizon (BP) Oil Spill, I got a job as a research scientist and spent about 2 years working all over the Gulf coast states, and falling deeper in love with the people, the food, etc.! So when I was pregnant with Dolly, naturally, we went to NOLA, my favorite place on Earth, for Part 1 of our BabyMoon! After eating my weight in crawfish boil, jambalaya, gumbo, muffalettas, pralines, and so on, I made sure to pick up some books for the baby (Dolly) that was on the way, and this was one of the favorites we got!!!

It’s Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but not just any Mardi Gras, its Dinosaur Mardi Gras!! The parade rolls through all the famous streets and Every page we get to read a resounding, “Dinosaur Mardi Gras! Chomp! Chomp! Dinosaur Mardi Gras! Stomp! Stomp!” which is really very fun! You can check out Doll’y review of this roar-some book here! http://diapers-and-daydreams.com/dinosaur-mardi-gras-by-dianne-de-las-casas-book-review/

The Cajun Cornbread Boy, by Dianne de Las Casas We all know the story of the Gingerbread Man, but have you heard about the Cajun Cornbread Boy who suffered a similar fate? In this adorably spicy tale, a sweet, old woman living on the bayou cooks herself up a hot and peppery cornbread, but the bread in the pan becomes a real boy and gets up and runs straight out the door, “Run, run as fast as you can, You can’t catch me, I’m full of Cheyenne!” The Cajun Cornbread boy manages to allude some terrifying swamp animals looking to eat him for supper but will he eventually become somebody’s dinner? This story is told in a Cajun voice that is lovable and fun and just as silly as it sounds.

The Greentail Mouse by Leo Lionni (Dragonfly Books)

Originally published in 1973, this is the offbeat fable of a city mouse who visits his peaceful country cousins and tells them about Mardi Gras in the city. The country mice are inspired to have their own Mardi Gras. And at first, it is fun wearing their masks with sharp teeth and tusks and scaring each other, but after a while, they begin believing that they really are ferocious animals.