Camas resident Sue Dockstader has mice on her mind, as well as hedgehogs, foxes, squirrels, moles, rabbits, stoats and water voles. If these creatures bring to mind classic tales from the English countryside like Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows” or Beatrix Potter’s enchanting books, you would be, as the British say, spot on.
The aforementioned animals all appear in “The Adventures of Henry the Field Mouse,” penned by Dockstader’s mother, Jo Coker of Gloucestershire, England. What began as a sheaf of old letters blossomed into a children’s storybook with two sequels, an intergenerational project that brought Dockstader’s far-flung family together in ways she couldn’t have imagined. Not bad for a humble field mouse.
“I set out on the project to have something to give my mom beyond a physical thing. I wanted to give her a sense of achievement,” Dockstader said. “The benefit to both of us has just been phenomenal. Really, if I never sell any books, it doesn’t matter because I achieved what I set out to do.”
Coker invented her mousy protagonist 20 years ago, when Dockstader, her American husband and two toddlers were living in Hong Kong. Coker wanted her grandchildren, then 3 and 4, to feel connected to their English heritage.
“My mum got this idea in her head that her grandchildren were growing up in a high-rise apartment and would know nothing about where their grandmother lived,” said Dockstader, who was also raised in rural England. “She would write letters to the children about animals in her back garden to give the kids insight into the English countryside.”
It worked, Dockstader said, because whenever the family flew home to England, the children were eager to accompany their grandmother on jaunts through fields and meadows, collecting feathers and snail shells. Coker’s love of nature shaped her stories about Henry and she aimed to be as accurate as possible by researching facts about hibernation cycles and diet, Dockstader said.
“One thing that Mum was clear about was that she wanted them to be real animals doing more or less real animal things,” Dockstader said. “They’re not wearing waistcoats and drinking tea. They’re diving in the river for water iris and digging in the compost pile.”
Though Coker’s animals are animals, they’re also interesting enough to hold a young human’s attention. To move the plot along, Coker gave her creatures the power of speech. Henry encounters other mice as well as an array of domestic and wild animals, including a grumpy Jack Russell terrier (modeled after Coker’s own) and a scary stoat (a relative of the rodent-eating weasel). When the mice want to visit the seaside, the railway station or a manor house, they must devise a way to get there, like creeping into a car or the luggage compartment of a bus.
“She came up with some quite good methods to tell the story which are somewhat plausible,” Dockstader said. “A mouse could crawl inside a car. It’s not ludicrous.”
Dockstader saved all her mother’s hand-typed letters, promising herself that one day she’d do something with them. A lawyer by training, Dockstader had always worked with words and had even lent a keen editorial eye to others’ book projects, although it never seemed like the right time for Henry. Dockstader said she had no commercial ambitions for the stories; she just wanted to create a permanent record for her mother and grown children.
In 2015, the Dockstaders were living in Charlotte, N.C., where Dockstader met Barbara Richards, a graphic designer and artist. Richards was charmed by Dockstader’s plan and offered to illustrate the tales. In 2017, Dockstader presented the completed book to Coker.
“She was just astonished that I had been secretly working on this,” Dockstader said.
Richards’ watercolor drawings brought Henry to life in such a marvelous way that it seemed a shame not to print a few more copies of the book for friends and acquaintances, Dockstader said.
“We still had a few stories left over, so we made a second book,” Dockstader said. “Then the illustrator said, ‘Oh, it’s always nice to have a trilogy,’ and so at the ripe old age of 86, Mum worked on another set of stories. That was our (COVID-19) lockdown project, getting this set of stories down on paper.”
However, the process presented a steep learning curve. To promote the books, Dockstader, 63, learned how to build a website, write e-newsletters, manage social media platforms and create an Etsy shop.
“We got into the bookmaking process in a very haphazard way. I knew about writing and editing and not much about producing and selling. Now I do. I know a lot of things I shouldn’t have done,” Dockstader quipped.
One challenge is that only a few hundred printed books remain, delivered to stores by Dockstader and Coker or personally mailed to online buyers. Locally, books can be found for $15 each at Periwinkle’s Toy Shoppe in Camas, Sweet Peas Tea Room in Battle Ground and the Friends of Fort Vancouver Bookstore, where Dockstader will offer a reading and signing from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Aug. 6.
“As the piles dwindle, then it’s ‘good news, bad news,’ because I’ve got to do something else,” said Dockstader, who is considering whether to adopt a print-on-demand format or perhaps approach a publisher.
In the meantime, Coker is relishing her modest fame in the Cotswolds town of Northleach, where Henry’s tales are for sale at the post office and pharmacy, among other places. Dockstader’s daughter, now 28 and living in Frankfurt, Germany, has even traveled to England to help her grandmother promote and sell the books.
“Mum walks around with her shopping trolly full of books for the local bookstore and local coffee shop,” Dockstader said. “The local radio station asked her to read her stories. … It’s not many 86-year-olds who become a radio star.” (Visit adventuresofhenryfieldmouse.com to hear Coker’s recordings.)
As for Dockstader, she’s proud of herself for keeping the promise she made two decades ago, in spite of being a “serial procrastinator,” she said.
“It was a labor of love. I had no idea what was involved in making a book. It started as sort of a lark but then I realized I’ve got to see this through,” Dockstader said. “As far as Mum’s concerned, she says, ‘If you have an idea, give it a go. Don’t ever think you’re too old to do something because you’ll surprise yourself with what you can achieve.’ ”
