tell you right away if they don't like a story or they are bored.'' Kaufmann has been telling stories to children for years, whether to her classmates on the school bus or her own children and grandchildren. Now, in collaboration with Bermudian illustrator Dana Cooper and English designer Jane Pearson, she is sharing the tales of Bellsie the Cat, Angelica the Angel Fish and Naughty the Conch with the rest of Bermuda's children in Rainbow The Chameleon.

The 48-page book is designed to be read aloud, according to Kaufmann. "TV, to a great extent, has replaced the one-on-one of the storyteller,'' she points out. "The storyteller creates a sense of ambiance and reprocity between the child - that feeling of `What happens next?'' The storyteller in the book is Rainbow, a chameleon, who shares the stories with five children who are all friends and have the same surname, Bridge (Kaufmann was formerly an Outerbridge). The book is set in Tranquility - named after the Kaufmann family home in Somerset - on an island called Fish Hook which, of course, is the shape of Bermuda.

"There is always an underlying message in the stories,'' explains Kaufmann.

"It's not meant to be preachy, but subtle - such as not expecting things to be a certain way. For example, cats are supposed to be afraid of water but Bellsie the Cat jumps off Somerset Bridge and wins a boat race.'' While her photographer son Graeme Outerbridge has published two books and Kaufmann herself is in the publishing business as the energetic editor and publisher of the weekly tourist magazine Preview, this is her first attempt at a book. American-born Kaufmann says she was inspired originally by her great-grandmother.

"She lived in Wisconsin, a state I've never been to, and it was so far removed from Palm Beach, Florida where we lived that stories about ordinary life there seemed fantastic to us.'' By sheer coincidence, Rainbow is being published by a Wisconsin company.

Rainbow is adapted from Kaufmann's final exam paper at McGill University in Montreal, where she enrolled in 1984 and majored in children's literature.

"My professor, Ron Reischertz, was so complimentary and encouraging about it, he told me it should be published.

"Initially I was too busy with Preview and I wanted to meet someone whose illustrations reflected more than one level, like in the stories, and I thought that Dana Cooper was the perfect person. Everything then just came together. She knew Jane Pearson, who knew the technical end of things, so it took a `Bermuda triangle' of talent to bring it into creation.'' Cooper, RG Magazine's art director, published her own children's book, My Bermuda ABC in 1991 and Kaufmann says Cooper's 26 watercolour illustrations "really mirror perfectly the art of storytelling. Some people when they illustrate want to tell everything, whereas I think you've got to let the children use their imagination.'' Kaufmann feels much the same way about text. "I don't think you should only use three-letter words. Why not use a word like `privilege'? You've got to let their imagination stretch and make them ask `What does that mean?'.'' Cooper says she was inspired by the imagery of Kaufmann's animal characters and the fact that it was a Bermudian story. "I tried to include lots of things that children can look for in the pictures as well as the humourous aspects of the story.

"Having worked on my book, it was a lot easier second time around. I wanted to do this book because as a Bermudian growing up on the Island, there were very few Bermudian children's books and there are so many foreign ones.

Kaufmann meanwhile, is already planning her next book. `There are,'' she grins, "a lot more stories where this came from.'' Rainbow The Chameleon will be published by Worzalla Publishing Company, Stevens Point, Wisconsin this month. Price not available at press time.

One of Dana Cooper's illustration from the fantasy world of Rainbow The Chameleon.