That frog is back -- but this time, Tiny the Tree Frog is going back in time, back to the very beginning of Bermuda's history when the Sea Venture was wrecked off the east end of the Island.

The third, and latest, adventure of Tiny is told by Elizabeth Mulderig in `Tiny Goes Back in Time -- A Bermuda History Tour', which goes on sale at local bookstores this week.

The author and illustrator is one of Bermuda's best known artists, whose two earlier books in the series have enjoyed a popular success, combining as they do, a rhyming text to accompany her distinctively witty and colourful pictures.

Tiny is an inquisitive, strongly independent little tree frog who, in the first book, loves to explore his island home. In the second volume, the irrepressible frog dives overboard in `Tiny Tours Bermuda's Ocean'. Now, Tiny falls asleep under the shade of a calabash tree (where else?) and, in his dreams, is transported back to the early 1600s, to a Bermuda where wild hogs and turtles "dillied and dallied/In sunshine all day.'' He hops up on the wooden planking as Sir George Somers and his men build the ship that would continue on to Chesapeake Bay, and he perches on the massive cannon that sends predatory Spaniards back whence they came. He gets tucked into Richard Norwood's survey of the Islands and dodges privateers and whalers before he tests out the ducking stool that punishes `nagging' women.

Entering into the spirit of the thing, Tiny finds himself heaving barrels of gunpowder to help the Americans in the Revolutionary War. A brief respite, cradled in the arms of visiting Irish poet Tom Moore sends Tiny into "a deep, deep snooze'' on his way back to the future where he wakes up to find his fellow tree frogs waiting to hear all about "the history he'd dreamed.'' "In this book, I wanted to show the history of Bermuda in an entertaining light,'' explains Ms Mulderig. "A child can actually live through the various events that took place in the past by touring through history with Tiny.

Rather than presenting the facts in a didactic manner, I tried presenting them in a more inclusive way. Humour also plays an important role in this book.'' She admits that of the three, this was the hardest book to write.

"This was because it was locked into a factual structure. However,'' she smiles, "I've always had a talent for embellishing facts, so with the help of tiny, I was able to do this while still presenting the truth. The end result is, I hope, a book that is both a learning tool and a fun form of entertainment.'' Last year, a Tiny The Tree Frog, dressed in hot pink Bermuda shorts, straw hat and toting a camera round his neck, was introduced and proved a big hit with Tiny fans.

Elizabeth has lived in Bermuda most of her life. She majored in English at Boston University and attend the Art Students League in New York. She obtained her arts degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She has held solo and group shows in Bermuda (where four of her paintings decorate the children's ward at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital), Palm Beach, Boston and Ireland.

But Bermuda, she says, remains the main source of inspiration for all of her art.

`Tiny Goes Back in Time' will be officially launched tomorrow at A.S.

Cooper & Sons, when Elizabeth Mulderig will be on hand to sign copies from 12 noon through 2 p.m. The book costs $15, Tiny the Toy costs $21.95 and the book/toy package is also available in stores throughout Bermuda for $35.

TONS OF TINIES -- Illustrator and author Elizabeth Mulderig, whose latest book about Tiny the Tree Frog, entitled `Tiny Goes Back in Time', goes on sale this week.