True Tales from the Pelican State—from the longest Civil War battle to one of history’s worst man-made disasters Louisiana is well known for its spicy gumbo, Cajun music, and horrific hurricanes, but few may know why Tarzan once swung through the piney woods, how an entrepreneur used a land auction to build a town in a day, or how one man’s vision drew thousands of miracle-seekers to an empty field for over twenty years. It Happened in Louisiana goes behind the scenes to tell these stories and many more, in short episodes that reveal the intriguing people and events that have shaped the Pelican State. Discover how a well-drilling job gone awry turned an entire freshwater lake into a 1,300-foot-deep saltwater pit—and temporarily created the state’s tallest waterfall—in a matter of 48 hours. Relive the night that a life-changing performance finally put a world-famous rock 'n' roll legend on the path to fame. Learn the many disturbing reasons that one Louisiana prison—which today has its own radio station and annually hosts the longest-running prison rodeo in the United States—was once named the “worst prison in America.” Read about a determined, compassionate doctor from New Orleans who created a place of refuge and healing in his attempt to cure societal castaways who suffered from “the illness you do not talk about.” Bonnye Stuart is a tenth-generation New Orleanian who got her B.A. at Louisiana State University and her M.A. from the University of New Orleans. She is the author of It Happened in New Orleans, More than Petticoats: Remarkable Louisiana Women, and Louisiana Curiosities (all Globe Pequot Press) and Discovering Vintage New Orleans and Haunted New Orleans (both Rowman & Littlefield) and she lives in Tega Cay, SC.

From the earliest colonists through the latest Mardi Gras, Louisiana has had a history as exotic as that of any state. Even its political corruption--extending from French governors for whom office was exploitable property through the "Louisiana Hayride" following the death of Huey Long--seems to have had a glamorous side. Handing the colony of Louisiana back and forth between their empires, the French and Spanish left a legacy that lives in such forms as the architecture of the Vieux Carre and a civil law deriving from the Napoleonic Code. Acadian refugees, German farmers, black slaves and free blacks, along with Italians, Irish, and the "Kaintucks" who helped Andrew Jackson win the Battle of New Orleans added to the state's distinctiveness. Made rich by sugar cane, cotton, and Mississippi River commerce before the Civil War, Louisiana faced poverty afterward. Battles between Bourbon Democrats and Reconstruction Republicans followed, ultimately involving the Custom House Ring and the Knights of the White Camelia. By methods that remain controversial, Huey Long ended "government by gentlemen" with economic transformations other had sought. Gas, oil, and industrialization have additionally "Americanized" the state. Something of Louisiana's historic joie de vivre remains, however, to the gratification of residents and visitors alike; both will enjoy Joe Gray Taylor's telling of the story.

From two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo comes a story of discovering who you are — and deciding who you want to be. When Louisiana Elefante’s granny wakes her up in the middle of the night to tell her that the day of reckoning has arrived and they have to leave home immediately, Louisiana isn’t overly worried. After all, Granny has many middle-of-the-night ideas. But this time, things are different. This time, Granny intends for them never to return. Separated from her best friends, Raymie and Beverly, Louisiana struggles to oppose the winds of fate (and Granny) and find a way home. But as Louisiana’s life becomes entwined with the lives of the people of a small Georgia town — including a surly motel owner, a walrus-like minister, and a mysterious boy with a crow on his shoulder — she starts to worry that she is destined only for good-byes. (Which could be due to the curse on Louisiana's and Granny’s heads. But that is a story for another time.) Called “one of DiCamillo’s most singular and arresting creations” by The New York Times Book Review, the heartbreakingly irresistible Louisiana Elefante was introduced to readers in Raymie Nightingale — and now, with humor and tenderness, Kate DiCamillo returns to tell her story.

Increasingly disturbed by her inability to uncover the true identity of an old friend, New Orleans private investigator and poet Talba Wallis takes on a suspicious new client and encounters an ugly secret in the small town of Clayton, Louisiana.