Lewis and Clark and the canine.

Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard

As its bicentennial approaches, plenty of books have been written, and more are sure to come, about the 1804-06 Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Not many are from the point of view of a dog.

A Eugene children's book writer and a 17-year-old Willamette High School student teamed up to create "Passage: A Dog's Journey West with Lewis and Clark."

The 38-page paperbound workbook presents the historic journey from the point of view of Seaman, a 150-pound Newfoundland that accompanied the Corps of Discovery on its way West.

Seaman was an actual dog, well documented in the expedition journals, and his adventures in "Passage," from chasing squirrels to being wounded by a beaver, actually took place.

Robert Young, the book's author and a curriculum/staff development specialist with Lane Education Service District, had been looking for a way to bring the great American adventure tale alive for young readers.

"I like history and knew the bicentennial was coming up," he explains. `I was looking at what was on the market and thinking, `How can younger kids access this story?' '

Young is the author of several other published children's books, generally educational and covering such topics as money, baseball and Old Ironsides. But when he proposed telling the story of Lewis and Clark through a dog's eyes, he was rejected by more than three dozen publishers. Too quirky, they said. Or, more diplomatically, we've already got a Lewis and Clark book in the works.

So Young decided to go it alone and to publish the book himself. For an illustrator, he called on Danielle Wenke, daughter of Lane ESD colleague Jeri Ingallinero, who helped design the book.

Wenke, who's taken high school art classes but had never been published before, readily agreed. More writer than artist, Young dummied the book onto blank paper and showed Wenke what kind of pictures he wanted. The teen-ager spent the next six months producing 11 final drawings.

"I probably did five versions of each one," she laughs. "The hardest thing to draw was the prairie dog. For some reason, I just couldn't draw that prairie dog. So I went on the Internet and finally found a prairie dog that didn't look like a mobster otter, and drew a picture of that."

Like several of the book's drawings, the prairie dog, which appears on page 13, is only partly completed - in this case, the left-hand side of the picture is blank. That's because "Passage" is designed as a workbook to engage young readers, ages 8 to 12.

"The purpose of the book is to pull young kids into the story," Young said. "Both reading-wise and art-wise." The book asks readers to "complete and color" the partial pictures, or, in one case, to "add more cactus plants - then color."

Wenke said she learned a lot about Lewis and Clark in the process of researching and producing the drawings.

"I had no idea they would taste dirt to find out what minerals it had," she says. Tasting dirt, in fact, made Capt. Merriwether Lewis ill at one point. "And I knew they had a dog. But I didn't know the main reason they went."

"Passage" is just off the presses.

Young had 2,000 copies printed and is just now beginning to market the book, which he would like to see in museums along the Lewis and Clark route in time for next year's bicentennial.

For now, it's available at Borders Books and Music and at the Book Mark in Eugene.

You can also order by mail: Mad Dog Press, 2901 Norkenzie Road, Eugene, OR 97408.

The cost either way is $6.95.

CAPTION(S):

Danielle Wenke, a 17-year-old Willamette High School student, has illustrated a children's book about the Lewis and Clark expedition that was written and published by Eugene children's author Robert Young. Thomas Boyd / The Register-Guard