The Names We Carry: A Louisiana Creole Story

Some names are more than what we're called. They are the stories that carry us home.When twelve-year-old Gabrielle Boudreaux returns to her family's ancestral home in Louisiana, she expects to hear the familiar stories passed down through generations.Instead, she uncovers a mystery hidden within old letters, faded photographs, and family memories. >But some names were taken, not given. As Gabrielle digs deeper, she uncovers her family's Attakapas Indigenous heritage, a people whose rolls were closed and who were written out of the official records even as they lived on in the blood. She learns how Louisiana Creole families carry African, French, Spanish, and Indigenous lineages together, and how some of those lines were erased on paper while surviving in memory. What Gabrielle comes to understand is that a family keeps its people alive by remembering them, and that the names we carry are a promise, made to those who came before and to those who are still to come. >Perfect for readers who enjoy heartfelt family stories, historical mysteries, and cultural heritage. For readers ages 8-12. Book 12 in the Light Keeper Legends series by M.K. Mélange.