In 1642, the great explorer of the Dutch East India Company, Abel Tasman, commissions two of his most trusted captains, Willem van Noos and Henrick Lojren van Borsch, to investigate a previously unknown land in the South India Ocean, whereon the future nation of Borschland will be located. The two adventurers separate and quest along separate coasts, coming upon two sets of indigenous peoples who tell the same tale: a tree, blooming in the dead of winter, will provide glorious treasure when found, including a pair of silver skates. But beware that which guards the tree, say the natives. When the Dutchmen arrive at the tree, uniting their separate journeys, what they find is even stranger than the legend. D.W. Frauenfelder began writing stories at the tender age of very young and his first novel was the critically-acclaimed (by his teacher) "Dawe and the Typhoon," about a boy from the South Pacific who has to shift for himself when his family is wiped out by a storm. Recently, Frauenfelder realized that "Dawe and the Typhoon" was probably written in imitation of the Newberry Award-winning novel "Call It Courage" by Armstrong Sperry, though he has no recollection of reading this book. Frauenfelder has followed up this homage by writing novels inspired by such diverse influences as P.D. Eastman (author of Go Dog Go), Else Holmelund Minarik (author of the Little Bear series), Ursula LeGuin (author of the Earthsea Trilogy), Homer (author of the Iliad and the Odyssey), and Hergé (author of the Tintin graphic novels). He lives in Texas with his family and pet pygmy hippopotamus, Etwart.
