It lacks the simplicity and logic of genuine folklore.
But the tale itself is over-romantic and too fantastic to be credible. Readers will linger long over the eight full-page paintings which dramatically illustrate the story. The Legend of the White Doe is handsomely designed with generous margins and graceful print. She is shot and becomes a ghost deer, visible even to this day, as she wanders the Great Dismal Swamp. When the young lovers run away they are caught in a magic ring of fire, and the evil medicine man transforms Ulalee into a white doe. Renamed Ulalee, the child grows up to be courted by two rivals, a handsome young brave and an ugly old medicine man. On Croatoan Island, where the colonists sought shelter from the enmity of Chief Wanchese, the young widow Eleanor Dare falls into madness and throws herself into the sea, leaving the baby Virginia to be adopted by Chief Manteo's mother, Lady Winona. But from the point where history tells no more, Hooks constructs a fantastic story in which elements of magic and folklore are wildly blended. Grade 4-6 Hooks' story of Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America, begins with the basic historical facts. After the destruction of the English colony on Roanoke Island by hostile Indians forces the survivors to live with a friendly tribe, Virginia Dare finds her first love coming to a tragic and supernatural end.
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