THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605290601
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BILL RUEHLMANN
LENGTH: 71 lines
At the top of the summer tourist season, the Outer Banks is alive with original kids' books.
Just out by Mary Maden of Kitty Hawk is In Search of the Lost Colony (Dog and Pony Enterprises, 20 pp., $5.95), the third in her Outer Banks Animal Adventure Series, all illustrated by Sara Hodder Daniels of Manteo.
Petey the Corolla pony heads for Roanoke Island with his sojourning sidekick, Tazz the dog, to investigate the famous disappearance of settlers four centuries back.
``We,'' confidently proclaims Petey, ``are going to find the Lost Colony!''
``After all,'' concurs his pal, ``I am part bloodhound.''
They don't find it, of course, but their failed quest dramatizes the past and even enlists the active collaboration of youthful readers.
The inquiring duo are by now veterans in pursuit of North Carolina lore, having sought out over the past year The Secret of Blackbeard's Treasure and explored what it was like aloft in Flying High with the Wright Brothers.
The fourth installment of Maden and Daniels' dog-and-pony saga, A Lighthouse Adventure, recounts the history of the Cape Hatteras light. Coming soon is Shipwreck!, concerning the USS Monitor.
Maden, 39, came up with the idea of mining local lore while observing wild Corolla horses on the dunes one day in the company of her inquisitive dog Chloe.
``The whole concept just came to me,'' she said. ``I had always kept my writing private, but suddenly I had a whole stack of children's stories about the Outer Banks. I knew they were good; I had to do something with them.''
So the former Air Force linguist and Corolla waitress refinanced her home to commence a new career in publishing.
``The distribution is the hardest part,'' Maden said. ``We're trying to push into the Hampton Roads market. This year we hope to double our sales to 20,000 copies.''
She was inspired by the successful example of Suzanne Tate of Nags Head, who has been writing her Nature Series for many years. James Melvin of Kill Devil Hills illustrates her books.
A recent Tate title, Katie K. Whale: A Whale of a Tale (Borden Printing, 28 pp., $3.95), has been named a 1996 Children's Choice Book by the International Reading Association Project. The seafaring adventure is based on a true story of a whale in Norway that became attached to a black and white ferryboat. Always scientifically accurate, the author notes a killer whale or orca is actually a dolphin that can grow to a length of 30 feet and a weight of eight tons or more.
``People wouldn't have any idea how much work goes into putting a book together,'' said Tate, 65, a former archaeologist and park ranger who has sold 500,000 copies to date of her self-published stories of the marine world. ``Writing is the easy part. It's a labor of love, but it's too much work not to make any money with it.''
Maden's books can be ordered from Dog and Pony Enterprises, 236 Hillcrest Drive, Southern Shores, N.C. 27949; Tate's are available through Nags Head Art, P.O. Box 88, Nags Head, N.C. 27959.
These hard-working women, with the help of a couple of engaging artists, employ the tools of fiction in an attempt to bring nonfiction to life.
Their work is local evidence of an international phenomenon celebrated by a major exhibit entitled ``Myth, Magic and Mystery: 100 Years of American Children's Book Illustration,'' showing at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk from June 2 to Sept. 8.
Represented in the exhibit are the colorful consequences of collaboration between dreaming authors and imaginative artists such as Lewis Carroll and Sir John Tenniel.
Writers and illustrators of children's books work in wild tandem to reveal other worlds.
As Tazz would say, right behind you, Petey my boy. MEMO: Bill Ruehlmann is a mass communication professor at Virginia
Wesleyan College. by CNB