Spear Perret

If only you believe in yourself, you can do anything! That’s the lesson this little float learns in the New Orleans based adaptation of Watty Piper’s classic tale, The Little Engine That Could. The Little Float wants to be a part of the big parade this year. To get to New Orleans, the float will have to cross a really tall bridge. It will take some persuading to make it across and onto the parade route! What will give the float the confidence to get across and entertain all the costumed children waiting to see the parade?

Some of native New Orleanian Yvonne Spear Perrets’ earlier memories take her back to long-ago Mardi Gras days spent on St. Charles Avenue with her family, including seven younger brothers and sisters a tradition that continues to this day. A magna cum laude graduate of Tulane University, Perret has taught math and English for twenty-five years in New Orleans high schools, most recently at Isidore Newman School. Perret has written for numerous publications, including USA Today, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Gambit, New Orleans Magazine, and Disney’s FamilyFun, and was the editor of The New Orleans Wedding Guide. Her popular book, Yat Wit: Chicken Gumbo for the New Orleans Soul, continues to tickle the funny bones and warm the hearts of grown-up New Orleanians. Inspired by her childhood memories of Mardi Gras, she decided to reach out to the younger yats with The Little Float That Could, hoping young readers will take the story’s message of hope and determination to heart. A member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrations, Perret and her husband Paul reside in Metairie, Louisiana.