MARDI GRAS!

Bright with color photos of floats and costumed celebrants, a straightforward description of the New Orleans festival's origins and history and how the modern ``krewes'' all year prepare for the pre-Lent celebration, especially for the many parades between Twelfth Night and Ash Wednesday. Coil (Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1993) makes a point of the participation of the African-American Zulu krewe and the ``Mardi Gras Indians,'' organized into ``tribes'' descended from ``African-American Creoles (people of mixed African, American Indian, and French or Spanish descent).'' She describes the enormous expenses involved as borne by individual participants, but not the effect of the spectacle on tourism and the local economy. An admiring, upbeat presentation that pictures this unique American phenomenon as an example of ``how people of different races, religions, and backgrounds can get along together.'' Index. (Nonfiction. 7+)