It is late summer on the bayou, and the friends are sad because soon summer will be gone. Christophe Cricket chirps sadly, “Je suis triste, je suis bien triste, parce que l’été est passé,” which means “I am sad, I am so sad, because the summer is over.” The bayou friends are even sadder because it is time for Bertile Butterfly to leave. She must fly south for the winter with the other monarch butterflies and cannot stay in the bayou much longer. To wish Bertile bon voyage, Clovis throws a going-away party, complete with music and entertainment. All of the friends will be there—they all want to say good-bye to their friend Bertile.
But when a cool north wind brings a pinecone spinning down from a tree, pinning Bertile’s pretty wing to the ground, the friends must help her save her wing and get her started on her way.
About the Author
Mary Alice Fontenot is best known as the children’s author of books on Cajun culture. She created the famous wetland characters of Clovis Crawfish and his friends more than thirty years ago. In addition to the Clovis Crawfish Series, Fontenot wrote several other children’s books, including Mardi Gras in the Country and The Star Seed, both published by Pelican. Fontenot worked as a kindergarten teacher and, for thirty-five years, as a newspaperwoman. Her dedication to children and to her art earned her the 1998 Acadiana Arts Council Lifetime Achievement Award. She died in 2003 at the age of ninety-three.
About the Illustrator
Illustrator Scott R. Blazek resides in Clovis, New Mexico, where he is a Lutheran minister and an award-winning freelance artist. He has illustrated more than half of the books in the Clovis Crawfish Series, and he won a $2,500 prize from the U.S. Mint for designing a five-dollar gold coin featuring James Madison for their Bill of Rights Commemorative Coins set.
CLOVIS CRAWFISH AND BERTILE’S BON VOYAGE
By Mary Alice Fontenot
Illustrated by Scott R. Blazek
JUVENILE FICTION / Animals / General
32 pp. 8 1/2 x 11
31 color illus.
Ages 5-8 Grades K-3
ISBN: 9781589805415