'Wordsworth, Stop The Bulldozer!' - Description:

Poetry can't keep a good friend close at hand, it can't chase the blues, it can't even save a tree. Or, can it? Emily has moved away, leaving an empty space in Wordsworth's heart and a sad feeling he can't seem to shake.

To top it off, Wordsworth's favorite grove of trees, the toolbox every poet requires for solice and inspiration, is falling to some developer's axe. What can a poor poet mouse do about that? It is a challenge that has Wordsworth and his friends are hard pressed to puzzle out and brings them all into uncertain contact with a much larger world than in their previous two adventures, "Wordsworth the Poet" and "Wordsworth Dances the Waltz".

If one poet can't do much to prevent the inevitable that life brings to our doorstep, can two poets do any better? Aikiko is the 'new kid on the block', freshly arrived from Japan. However, wordsworth is too preoccupied with is own problems to think about how a stranger with a hatful of haiku might make the situation any better. Poems, pals and heartache do not seem a very likely combination to save the day. But, Wordsworth's pals are no ordinary friends; Akiko may be more than she first appears and those poems; well,they may be something far more valuable than just interesting scraps of paper. Certainly, readers will hope so. Courage, poems and friendship is really all our little troup has at hand on the day the 'dragon' appears in their midst.

"Wordsworth, Stop the Bulldozer!" is a story of insight, ingenuity. protecting our environment which parents would want their children to read. It is a story for our time, in our world.

Author's manuscript, appx. 40 pp. Author: Frances Kakugawa; children's literature, ages: 8+.

Watermark Publishing (Honolulu, HI), the current publisher of the Wordsworth series, has had to downsize and is unable to publish "Wordsworth, Stop The Bulldozer!" at this time. Owing to its timeliness, Watermark has generously offered to released the work to seek publication elsewhere. Publishers are invited to consider the manuscript for a more timely publication than Watermark is presently able to foresee.

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On the first day of school, Dylan and Eliot are discussing the new student, Aikiko. Wordsworth is still thinking about Emily who has just moved with her parents to Maine...

"I wonder what it's like to be a new student? Emily's also a new student today. But, in a far-away school. Maybe if we talk to Aikiko, someone will be speaking to Emily, too?"

Eliot, with his crinkly whiskers, knew all about being a new student. "Come on," he prompted his friends, and hurried to where Aikiko was eating lunch by herself. No one else, besides them, it seemed, had thought to see if Akiko might like some company."

"Hi Akiko," Eliot began, "I'm Eliot and these are my friends Wordsworth and Dylan. Tell us about Japan, Akiko. What do you do during recess? Do you just hang around like we do or, do you play Japanese games? How about teaching us about something Japanese?"

"Akiko stood up and bowed, "I'm very happy to meet you," she said. "My father told me that I should be as American as I can be while I am here. He said, Why should I come all the way to the United States if I am just going to do the same things I do in Japan? Maybe you can teach me to become more American?"

"I wouldn't know how to do that," Eliot said. "I don't think about it, I just am; American, that is."

"Well," Dylan, said with a chuckle, "For starters, how about shaking hands. They all laughed, and shook hands with each other. While Dylan and Akiko were shaking hands, Eliot and Wordsworth shook hands and grinned, "Hello, Wordsworth, I'm your friend Eliot," Eliot teased."Glad to meet you, uhm, what was your name?" Wordsworth teased back. "It's Eliot," Aikiko offered, with a big smile. Then they all laughed."

Wordsworth became thoughtful for a moment, as poets sometimes do, and took a long look at Aikiko. "Hmm, on second thought," Wordsworth said, "Perhaps you should just be more Japanese than American for a few more weeks."

Aikiko looked back at Wordsworth, with an expression of puzzlement. "Why do you say that, Wordsworth?" she asked.

"Because, Akiko,..."

After introducing themselves to the new student from Japan, the three companions decide to meet at Aikiko's house the following weekend to take her out and show her some of the places in her new home. Eliot is enthused about doing this because he was once the 'new student' and knows how it feels to come to a strange place.

Wordsworth shares this feeling. He is thinking of Emily and hoping, "if we are welcoming to Akiko, then perhaps someone in Maine is doing the same for Emily." Dylan, the most fun-loving of the bunch is always up for hanging out with his pals and whatever adventures that may bring.

"The more the merrier!" Dylan chimed in...."

"That Saturday, after their karate lessons, Wordworth, Dylan and Eliot stopped by Aikiko's house to invite her to explore the neighborhood with them.... On the edge of town, not far from Wordsworth's 'special grove' they came to the the lumberyard. All day long, huge trucks would turn into the main gate which with loads of enormous logs to be milled into fresh new lumber. Sometimes the boys would sit by the side of the road and watch as the trucks entered the yard, their tires screeching and kicking up clouds of dust and pebbles as bits of of bark and sawdust flew from the logs in all directions.

It was pretty exciting to see up close and Dylan often thought of sitting on top of a pile of logs as they barreled down the road, like a cowboy at a rodeo. Wordsworth sometimes wondered, if the logs could speak, would they be at all pleased with the prospect of being turned into lumber? Would they be chatting away about what kind of house they might get to become; or, would they be missing the other trees they left behind in the forest?

Today, there weren't any trucks, It was Saturday. Only Aikiko's voice saying, "I love the smell of fresh-cut wood. My Grandfather built a beautiful minka for us to live in. Every day I would get up early and go outside to listen to the sound of my grandfather sawing and shaping lumber for our minka and to enjoy the smell of fresh wood. After awhile I could tell the difference between cherry, maple, pine, sugi and other woods just by their smell.

"Akiko, what is a minka?" Wordsworth asked."

"A minka is a large, hand-made farmhouse, Wordsworth. We have some in Japan that are more than 200 years old. The wood in them is all hand-cut and hand polished and fitted. They are very beautiful. "Speaking of wood" Eliot interrupted, " Let's go and check out the lumber yard. The four of them walked through the gate and wandered among the stacks of lumber. Running his hand across one piece of wood, Wordsworth wondered aloud, "Just think, this piece of wood was once part of a huge tree."

"Look at the wavy lines on that piece of lumber," Eliot said.

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" Wordsworth said. "It's called the 'grain' of the wood. Different kinds of wood have different grains. If you cut a tree across the trunk, this line, here, is part of the ring that show's the tree's annual growth. One ring grows each year, like a clock that only ticks once every 365 days."

Dylan touched a piece of knotty pine. "How about this, Wordsworth. How did this knot get in here?"

"Oh," Wordsworth replied, "That's where a branch grew out of the tree and become part of it. When the tree was young, the branch started to grow, and it was mainly on the outside of the tree. As the tree grew, the branch kept growing, too, but the tree grew around the earlier part of the branch. That part, the part of the branch that was inside the tree, is the knot that you're looking at."

"What? I thought someone pounded it in," Dylan said with a smile. "Wordsworth, How do you know all this stuff?"

"Oh, I read it in a book," Wordsworth replied.

"Yeah," Dylan said, "but how did the author who wrote that book figure it out; about 'knots' and 'rings' and 'grain' and all that stuff?"

"Well," Wordsworth replied, "he probably spent a lot of time just watching trees grow and observing how all their parts appeared and fit together to make the whole tree."

Eliot, was already wandering away..."

'Wordsworth, Stop The Bulldozer!' - 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.