by Len Lear

After graduation from the University of Notre Dame, Marilou Reeder, now 44, was torn between finding a job and applying to grad school. “My father had served in the Peace Corps when he graduated college,” she explained, “so the idea of doing service work was very appealing to me. The Vincentian Service Corps allowed me to do service while gaining great professional skills and to defer my student loans for a year. It was an enriching and fun experience.”

Reeder, who grew up in Wisconsin, joined the Vincentian Service Corps to work with inner city youth for one year. They assigned her to Good Shepherd Mediation Program in Germantown, where she gained valuable experience as a mediation trainer. It is no secret that many teens have little or no impulse control and that many resort to violence with minimal provocation. Therefore, any program that can teach them to deal with conflict in a responsible way is extremely valuable.

“I trained middle and high school students and faculty in the process of mediation, and guided them in the implementation of a mediation program within their school,” explained Reeder. “The mediation program encourages disputing parties to find creative and lasting solutions to conflict without resorting to violence.”

Needless to say, no one volunteers for this program for monetary rewards. “Because all of the volunteers in the program lived off a modest stipend, I learned to live with less! I also learned that kids are passionate, energetic and ready for change. Most of the schools I worked with embraced the program, and it was gratifying to see so many young people eager to resolve their conflicts through mediation.”

After the year of volunteer work in Germantown, Marilou moved to center city. A couple years later, she moved out to the Main Line. She now lives in Wayne with her husband, Jack, and daughters, Sophia, 13, Sasha, 11, and Annabel, 7.

Before having children, Marilou was a software consultant, and she still takes on occasional business and technical freelance writing projects.

Marilou never dreamed of being an author when she was a child, although she “had many teachers tell me while I was growing up that they saw something special in my writing.” It wasn’t until she had children of her own that she fell in love with children’s literature and decided to try her hand at it. She gained motivation from a boy next door who is a friend of Marilou's youngest daughter. “He rides his scooter down hills and cartwheels around the neighborhood. They are always looking for adventure, and I was inspired by their friendship.”

Marilou began writing “The Daring Prince Dashing” in 2012. The story went through many revisions, and Marilou settled on a final version in 2013. Prince Dashing is daring; he bathes in a crocodile-infested moat, eats while dangling upside down from the tallest trees and toasts his s’mores by dragon’s breath. Most of the kingdom looks on in horror, but the prince is about to meet his match.

The night of the royal ice cream social, there’s a loud ZING-BOING that comes from outside the palace. A girl walks in holding a pogo stick, but when Dashing demands to see it, she’s already bouncing off across the room to eat her sundae on the nearest tightrope. The party rages on as the prince catches sprinkles on his tongue and the girl balances waffle cones on the tip of her nose. The adventurers proceed to engage in a future of fearless fun and friendship.

After an exhaustive search, Marilou found an agent, Kathleen Rushall of Marsal Lyon Literary. She found a publisher, Sky Pony Press, who matched the story with an illustrator, Karl West. The book is designed for children aged 3 to 6. On Goodreads.com, where any reader can post a review of a book, the average rating for “Prince Dashing” has been 4.7 out of a possible 5, and it has received favorable reviews from Kirkus Reviews and the School Library Journal, which can influence what school librarians buy.

Is Marilou working on another book now? “I’m always working on something, either brainstorming for new ideas, getting a first draft down on paper or revising something I’ve already written … My ultimate goal is to write a book that will stand the test of time and stay in print for many, many years.”

“The Daring Prince Dashing” ($16.99) is now available at bookstores and online.