Cooley, Regina Françoise 1940-

Personal

Born 1940, in Flanders, Belgium; married Leland Frederick Cooley (deceased); children: Michael, Elizabeth Dunn. Education: H. Heart College, degree (teaching).

Addresses

Home and office—St. Helena, CA. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Children's book author. Worked variously as an educator, actress, model, and arts reviewer.

Member

Authors Guild, Authors League.

Awards, Honors

Children's Book Award, Northwest Center for the Arts, 1991, for The Magic Christmas Pony.

Writings

The Magic Christmas Pony, illustrated by Hans Henrik Hansen, Capstone Publishing (Bellingham, WA), 1991.

Sidelights

In The Magic Christmas Pony Regina Françoise Cooley uses a time-travel tale to introduce young readers to the history and traditions of the Far East. One Christmas Eve, Frederick and his sister Valentina discover that a magical carousel has the ability to take them through time and space. The enchanted carousel transports the siblings back to the nineteenth century and deposits them on the Great Wall of China, where they meet the Dragon of Fantasy. The Dragon guides Frederick and Valentina to the Forbidden City—known today as the Imperial Palace of Beijing—where they meet the Imperial Dragon, as well as China's emperor and empress. Frederick and Valentina's adventures are drawn to an exciting close when they are invited to an elaborate banquet that includes exotic fruits and appetizers and entertainments by cymbal-playing musicians, acrobats, and imperial dancers. When the children finally return home, it is Christmas Day and an assortment of unique Chinese gifts await them under the family Christmas tree.

The illustrations Hans Henrik Hansen creates for The Magic Christmas Pony incorporate the deep red tones that, in addition to being symbolic of Chinese culture, "lend regal splendor to the text" in the opinion of Small Press reviewer Molly Gill. The critic also commented on Cooley's decision to incorporate advanced vocabulary throughout her text, and deemed The Magic Christmas Pony a "wonderful book" containing "a truly magical story."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Small Press, summer, 1992, Molly Gill, review of The Magic Christmas Pony.

ONLINE

Regina Françoise Cooley Home Page,http://www.themagicchristmaspony.net (February 12, 2007).