Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Pet ferett is topic of children's book

Being a published author is something for which Wendy Hawkins has been striving for many years, and her dream recently came true with the printing of her childrens book Binkey Gets Lost.

Hawkins, who is disabled, recently moved to Gurdon, but has other family in the area. Her mother, Rita Camp, lives in Hope and did the illustrations for the book. They told her to make them child-like, and for a professional artist, thats hard, she said.

Binkey is a ferret, and there is nothing made up about the story. Hawkins said she decided to write about the family pet because there is a new-found interest in ferrets.

People are just starting to realize they make good pets, she said.

In the story, Binkey gets out of the house and is lost in the yard after chasing a butterfly. Because ferrets are near-sighted, he has to wait for his owner to return from school so that he can be taken back to the house.

The book is the first in a series about Binkey. The second is scheduled to go to press soon, and the third has not been completed. Hawkins said she hopes to end each story with a moral lesson for children to learn.

Writing about animals not only helps children relate to the stories, but Hawkins said it helps her come up with content. I was raised around animals, she said. I could probably write a million stories about animals.

Hawkins said she had been wanting to write for a living since being widowed nine years ago. She is finally in the position where she can do that. She also has a novel in the works that should be finished by the summer.

Its nice to do something you enjoy, she said. I can now dedicate a lot of time to my writing.

She said she also hopes to show her children that no matter how old one is, it is never too late to start something new.