American writer Cindy Dawn McCallum captures the power of nature and its amazing ability to heal, in her new children's book "Caretaker of Tree Palace".

As a child, Mrs. McCallum watched as the woods she'd grown up playing in near Dallas, Texas were torn down for a new building development. The woods were located on a hill that was a local landmark in Duncanville, Texas.

"If you drove towards Dallas from any direction it was very flat until you reached Duncanville," Mrs. McCallum told the Bookworm Beat. "Sadly, back in the 1980s along came the developers and bulldozers. Although people around protested, the city would not listen and the trees are now gone forever. Ironically, although the trees were removed immediately, the land wasn't even developed for the next two decades. So they could have left the trees up for many more years."

It's a scenario that will certainly sound familiar to Bermudians who struggle to balance the need for space for modern living and space for nature.

"Caretaker of Tree Palace" is a work of fiction that draws from her experiences as a child, and as an adult. It comes with a teacher's guide and would be an excellent book to use as a springboard to talk with children about the recent debate over developing the Botanical Gardens.

"I think nature has always been an interest of mine," Mrs. McCallum said. "Our house had trees all around it. The 'tree palace' were the trees that I grew up in, in the Dallas, Texas area.

"Nature has always been a part of my life. All of my books have stressed that nature is so powerful and that we have to respect it."

The title of her book just popped into her head one day, but it was several years before she knew what to do with it.

"I thought the title would be a poem or a short story," she said. "I had just started writing children's literature. I had been trying to write adult fiction and I was finding it difficult to break in. I probably wasn't ready for it. It takes ten years before you get good especially with fiction. I changed my focus to children's literature."

She put the title "Caretaker of Tree Palace" on the shelf for a little while, then one day the main character in the story, 'Doodles' appeared.

"I could picture him standing right in front of the book shelves," she said. "He had this black and white striped shirt and had a notebook under his arm. Usually, when I come up with a character they will just start talking right away, but it took a little while for Doodles to open up."

In "Caretaker of Tree Palace", Doodles loses his mother in an accident while trying to save a baby bird. Through the solace of the woods, Doodles starts to work through his grief. He finds an injured mourning dove and nurses it back to health, healing himself in the process. Meanwhile, the woods are under threat from developers.

"Caretaker of Tree Palace" is being published by Longhorn Creek Press, a small press that only publishes one or two books per year.

"The publisher was familiar with some of my short stories and read some of my publications in a national magazine," she said. "He asked me if I had something longer, ideally with something with animals. I didn't have anything. I had one adult novel and two other manuscripts, one of which is a futuristic story. I told them them about the character of Doodles but didn't have that much to share."

The story began to come together when Mrs. McCallum and her husband found a mourning dove in her neighbourhood that had been shot by a local boy with a beebee gun.

"The dove's wing was clipped," she said. "My husband loves birds and immediately saw this bird and took him home and put medicine on him. We kept the bird in a box. My husband is a busy man and has his own company, but when the bird was hurt he couldn't bear it. Doodles is very much based on my husband."

Mrs. McCallum said she believes that nature has a tremendous power to heal.

"It is the beauty of it," she said. "It transcends our daily experience and fills us with the necessary healing. Nature is about the place of the spirit, while the city is the place of the body."

She didn't set out to write a book about the environment, but that's what happened.

"It happened, because that is what I care about," she said. "I don't always recycle and eat organic food, I am just someone who loves nature."

The writer is formerly a middle school teacher. Today, she writes and edits books for other people.

The cover of "Caretaker of Tree Palace" looks like the kind of beaten up green notebook that many children use to sketch, write and dream. Inside, there are many illustrations that are meant to represent Doodle's drawings.

"The concept is that it is his notebook," she said. "By opening this book you are entering his world. Anytime there is a mention of him drawing something the reader gets to see the illustration.

"We looked at a few different illustrators and they sent me the samples. My publisher was wonderful in that they allowed me to participate in this stage of the book's production. This let me have some input to really capture the spirit of the book."

Eventually, Morgan Doxey was chosen to be the illustrator.

"He is like me," said Mrs. McCallum. "He grew up playing outside a lot and enjoying the trees and catching animals."

Mrs. McCallum recently did a book tour in the southern United States. Everywhere she went she found there were the same conflicts about tearing down natural habitats.

"Sometimes I see animals wandering around where they shouldn't be and I feel for them," she said.

So far the response to her book has been positive. She has heard from many teachers and parents.

"They have been in contact me and have remarked that they were touched by the beauty of it, beauty of the language and the values it teaches children. I try to have a light touch in how I address issues of environmental awareness and family members."

For more information about ordering the book go to www.cdawnmcallum.com. For more information about other books published by Longhorn Creek Press go to www.longhorncreekress.com.

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