Middle Grade Author Event with Rachel Marsh

A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR OUR YOUNG READERS: JOIN US AT THE GDBS ON SATURDAY, APRIL 11 AT 11AM TO MEET AUTHOR RACHEL MARSH AS SHE HANGS OUT AND SIGNS COPIES OF HER MIDDLE GRADE NOVEL GRANDPERE'S GHOST SWAMP

The Garden District Book Shop is thrilled to host author Rachel Marsh on April 11 to celebrate her middle grade novel Grandpere's Ghost Swamp. The event will kick off at 11AM with Marsh hanging out, signing copies of her book, and chatting with young readers.

The event is free and open to the public.

ABOUT THE BOOK

"A perfect recipe of humor, family connections, honoring the natural world, and a ghost with unfinished business." —Lynne Kelly, USA Today bestselling author of Song for a Whale

Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Ferris meets Ghosts of Tupelo Landing in this cozy ghost story about family, environmental activism, food, and friendship.

Basil Theriot has spent her entire life in New Orleans—in her family’s famed Cajun restaurant in the French Quarter, really—but she’s never been out to the bayou where her grandfather grew up. She’s also never seen a ghost, even though dozens of ghost tours pass by the restaurant every day and her best friend Tommy is determined to be a ghost hunter.

But then Grandpere’s ghost appears. And he has a mission for her.

Basil wouldn’t mind being haunted if Grandpere could be helpful and share his secret recipe that might save the restaurant. But instead, he’s intent on connecting Basil with her Cajun heritage. He sends her out to the bayou to meet his friends: an airboat captain, a shrimper, and a scientist rebuilding Louisiana’s fast-disappearing coastline.

For fans of Gracie Under the Waves and A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall, Grandpere’s Ghost Swamp has a little bit of everything: a pinch of spookiness, a dash of environmental activism, and a heaping of family.

###

Rachel M. Marsh is the author of Rougarou Magic, which was a 2024 Junior Library Guild selection. She earned her MFA in creative writing for children from Simmons University. Originally from Baton Rouge, she now lives in New Orleans, where she and her husband eat the world’s best food and renovate their almost-hundred-year-old house.

The Garden District Book Shop 

The Garden District Book Shop (GDBS) is one of the most prominent independent bookstores in the Gulf South, having played a supporting role in the literary careers of authors from Anne Rice to James Lee Burke under founder Britton Trice. Current owners, Barkley Rafferty and Carroll Gelderman are dedicated to ensuring that GDBS will be enjoyed by locals and visitors for years to come and have hosted authors such as Walter Isaacson, Laura Dern & Diane Ladd, the Bush twins, Steve Gleason, and Octavia Spencer since they purchased the shop in 2021. They also own the bookshop's neighboring restaurant, The Chicory House, and opened a full cocktail bar within the bookshop in the summer of 2024. For more information on GDBS, please visit us at www.gardendistrictbookshop.com. Connect and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.