Lost in the Stacks: The Rhinestone Sisterhood
Hold on to your tiaras, folks, the competition for the coveted crown of Miss Frog Queen of Rayne, Louisiana is fierce.
Even as a little girl Chelsea Richard dreamed of being Miss Rayne Frog Festival Queen, just as hundreds of little girls in Louisiana envision themselves as future Swamp Pop Queens or Rice Queens, Yam Queens or Swine Queens. Welcome to the world of small-town festival queens where despite the wacky titles (Miss Tamale, Miss Gumbo, trust me the list goes on and on...) the competition is fierce and the expectations high for these young women who must represent and promote their town and/or industry with poise, grace, and knowledge,
In The Rhinestone Sisterhood, author David Greenwood follows Chelsea and three other festival queens (Fur, Cotton, and Cattle) as they perform their duties as queens, from parades to frog kissing, glitzy balls to greased-pig catching, always with crown, sash, and smile firmly in place. Chelsea and the other queens must not only juggle the competing demands of a festival queen with school, jobs, family, and romance, but also prepare for the ne plus ultra pageant of the festival world: Queen of Queens. I started this book with a mental smirk (who would want to be Frog Queen?) but finished it being thoroughly charmed and respectful of these hard-working queens and the plucky communities they cheerfully represent.
