Clovis Crawfish and Simeon Suce-Fleur — Mary Alice Fontenot

Clovis Crawfish finds a hummingbird in need of help in the charming series that is “simply fun to read” (Houston Post).

It's springtime in south Louisiana -- or is it? Clovis Crawfish isn't about to wait around in his mud house to find out! Instead, he sticks his head and whiskers outside the opening to his mud house, and finds Rosalie Redbird and Christophe Cricket singing about the arrival of le printemps (spring). But if spring has arrived, where are René Rainfrog, Gaston Grasshopper, and Josette June Bug? Clovis decides to head for the swamp to find out. There he meets Simeon Suce-Fleur, a tiny hummingbird who is looking for threads to build her nest, and wise old Henri Hibou (Henry Owl), who warns Clovis that it is not yet spring . . .

When tiny flakes of snow begin to fall, Clovis discovers that Henri Hibou was right, and dashes back to the warmth of his mudhole. But when he arrives, he sees Simeon Suce-Fleur lying on the ground, shivering from the cold. Has he arrived in time to save the little hummingbird?

“In Louisiana's bayou country, Clovis Crawfish is a favorite folk hero of children who have met him in Fontenot's lively tales. . . . The stories have suspense, lessons in nature lore, French words, and plenty of fun.” -- Publishers Weekly