'Wordsworth, It's In Your Pocket!' - Description:

We have wonderful gadgets in the 21st century: ipods and desktops, personal mobile devices, twitters and tweets, facebooks and instant messaging. The list is growing and, certainly, we can reach out in ways we couldn't conceive a few short years ago. Yes, we can reach out, but do we really 'touch' anyone? Are we, perhaps, paying a dear price for something that is supposed to improve our connection to others but may be doing the exact opposite?

Wordsworth discovers the disturbing fact that his closest friends all seem to have disappeared. There are cell phones and ipods, video games and downloads everwhere he turns. But, where are the laughs and adventures and just plain hugs that were so much a part of his life with his friends? Who is around to tease him? Who can he race to the beach? Who would have an ice-cream cone with him, or run into the ocean to find the first sea shell? Who would hear him when he read a new poem out loud for the first time?

Maybe it was him? Maybe he just needed to hook up to a bunch of gadgets and let the little signals bounce around inside his head. Or, maybe something was terribly wrong? Perhaps something needed to be done to get back the thing that couldn't fit through a wire, or be jpeg'd or ftp'd?

It is a puzzle that Wordsworth doesn't seem to be able to solve. As he learns the truth about what has happened to his friends, he realizes it may already be too late to do anything about it. Poetry has always been Wordsworth's strongest ally; but, against this unseen frenemy, can even Wordsworth find his way? What did that old mouse mean, " It's in your pocket, Wordsworth. It's in your pocket?"

Once again, Frances Kakugawa, brings us a story so close to the challenges of our own life and times that a book meant for children has equal importance and meaning for the adults that read it to their children or, for themselves. Is 'reaching out' just another way of being in touch; or, is there something going on that we need to get in touch with, and quickly, lest the best of life becomes out of reach for all of us?

Author's manuscript, appx 50 pp. Author: Frances Kakugawa; children's literature, ages: 7+.

Watermark Publishing (Honolulu, HI), the current publisher of the Wordsworth series, has had to downsize and is unable to publish "Wordsworth, It's In Your Pocket!" at this time. Owing to its timeliness, they have generously offered to release the work to seek publication elsewhere. Publishers are invited to consider the manuscript for more timely publication than Watermark is presently able to foresee.

Available for pre-publication review:

Book Reviewers Only: If you wish to review a manuscript copy of "Wordsworth, It's In Your Pocket!", please use the contact-form link on the navigation bar at the top of this page.

In your message, be sure to include the name of the organization/company for whom you will be doing the review and the expected distribution of your finished review. A manuscript copy will be sent to qualified reviewers by reply email.

Wordsworth has come upon a strange old mouse, in a most unlikely place; the place where his favorite grove of trees once stood (see "Wordsworth, Stop the Bulldozer!"). The old mouse has some advice for Wordsworth. But, whether Wordsworth can heed the old mouse's advice or not; well, that's a very different question.

"What?" asked Wordsworth, as he put his hand into his pocket. He pulled his hand out and opened it. It held a shell, an old penny and his black and gold fountain pen; a gift from the mayor on the day he had help Emily recover from a serious illness.

The old mouse answered, "The answer's right there in your pocket." Then he turned back toward his garden, closed his eyes, took a deep breath as though he was breathing in all the fragrances around him and said again, "Ah, yes, it's in your pocket Wordsworth the Poet." Then Wordsworth heard a loud snore.

"It's in my pocket. It's in my pocket," Wordsworth repeated over and over as he ran back to Akiko's house. He stood outside her bedroom window. The webs had already thickened around her like a dense fog. They seemed to have turned Akiko into a gray misty shadow. He took the shell and rubbed it gently for a few seconds. The old mouse didn't give him any instructions but he figured rubbing the shell was a good as anything he could think to do.

"If it was good enough for Aladdin's lamp," he thought to himself, "it ought to work here." So, he rubbed it one way. Nothing happend. Then he rubbed it another way. He rubbed it three times, like the fairy-tale said; then he rubbed it three more times. But nothing seemed to work. Emily was still trapped, and the webs were getting thicker by the minute.

"Maybe," thought Wordsworth, "The old mouse just didn't know what he was talking about." But Wordsworth quickly put that thought aside. Usually, he found, our elders knew what they were talking about, even if we didn't quite get it the first time around. No, Wordsworth trusted the old mouse's words. He reached in his pocket again and took out the old penny. He'd been carrying it around for years. Sometimes he just rubbed it for luck. He'd always thought the idea that a penny could bring luck was just a silly superstition, but he'd rub it anyway, just in case.

Now, Wordsworth hoped, there must be some kind of magic in that old penny, because he sure needed some. He rubbed it between his two fingers. " Nothing," he said. The penny just layed there, a little dull from wear, but otherwise ordinary looking. Beads of persperation ran down Wordsworth's forhead and he began pacing from one side of Emily's window to the other. He flipped the penny a few times, but still nothing happened. He looked in the window. He could barely see Emily now. The tangle of wire-webbing had all but blocked her from view. Through all the tangle he could just make out what seemed to be a figure staring at a computer screen.

"I must do something. I must do something, and quickly!"

Wordsworth reached in his pocket, one last time...

Eliot is attached to an ipod, cords are dangling from one ear, but Wordsworth manages to drag him and Akiko to Dylan's house. Akiko is still in a state of confusion...

"What happened to me?"

Wordsworth said, "I'll explain later, we must get to Dylan. We've no time to lose."

Akiko and Eliot ran after Wordsworth as he sprinted toward Dylan's house. Wordsworth had his face pressed to the window pane when they arrived. Their jaws dropped when they looked in and saw what Wordsworth was seeing. Dylan was spinning around like a spool with wires everywhere coiling around him.

"Dylan! Dylan!" Once again Wordsworth tapped his pen on the window to get Dylan's attention. It looked hopeless. Then a light flashed from the pen and lit up Dylan's face, or what they could still see of it. Wordsworth looked at the pen. "Magic?" he thought. ""Uh, no. It must be the sun reflecting off the gold plating." he thought to himself. But he wasn't so sure. It didn't matter, the light seemed to waken something In Dylan, and he stuggled to turn to see who was calling him. The 'mouse-spool' slowly turned to face in the direction of his three friends. They all yelled together, " Dylan! Dylan! Come to the window."

As if in a trance, Dylan marched to the window. He looked at his friends with a blank look on his face. Wordsworth put the second sheet of paper he had brought with him against the window and mouthed, " Read this, Dylan."

Dylan crouched low and squinted his eyes. " I can't read it. The words are all blurry," he seemed to be saying from somewhere inside that giant spool of cords and cables.

Wordsworth looked at the sheet of paper. "Oh no, he said. "The ink was still wet when I folded the paper. Akiko, do you have a crayon or a pen?" Akiko took a black crayon out of her pocket and handed to Wordsworth. He stood there for a few seconds, looking at the crayon in his hand. "The old mouse said the answer was in my pocket. My pen has seemed to do the trick. But will any old pen or crayon do? Wordsworth didn't have an answer. He shook his head, wondering what to do next.

"Wordsworth!" shouted Eliot, pulling the last cord of the ipod from his ear, "Don't just stand there. Write! Write!"

Wordsworth snapped back from his thoughts. He held up the crayon and copied his poem onto the window pane. Dylan watched from his side as the little squiggles and marks of Wordsworth's writing showed through the glass. Dylan continued to squint his eyes and said in monotone voice, " The letters are all jumbled. They don't make any sense. I can't read them."...

'Wordsworth, It's In Your Pocket!' - More Information:

Unfortunately, as an unpublished manuscript, there is no more information that can be provided, at this time, about the third volume in the Wordsworth Series, "Wordsworth, Stop The Bulldozer!". Due to the unavoidable downsizing of our publisher, Watermark Publishing, they were not able to handle this Wordsworth adventure at this time. We are hoping that circumstances will soon change at Watermark or, that another publisher will be found so that you may see the book in print in the near future. If you would like to receive notice when the book is available, go to the contact section of our site and send a message. Include your email address and we will let you know when we have any additional information. Thank you.