The first book, "Wildwood," will be released Tuesday, and expectations are high. Their editor, Donna Bray, thinks "The Wildwood Chronicles" could be "nothing less than an American Narnia." The combination of Meloy's narrative imagination, Ellis' inventive illustrations, and Meloy's built-in audience as leader of the Decemberists, could entrance middle-grade readers and grown-ups for the next decade. Meloy and Ellis would love nothing more.

"The Wildwood Chronicles" is their dream project, one they've been imagining since he was playing guitar at open mic nights in Portland and she was a bartender at Fellini.

They understand the creative path they're taking involves choices, though. The Decemberists, the band Meloy started with some friends in 2000 and built into one whose last album debuted at No. 1, will go on hiatus for awhile, he says.

Meloy and Ellis love to go for walks in the park where they talk about "The Wildwood Chronicles," the series of books they're writing and illustrating that are set in a fanciful version of Forest Park, where owls and foxes battle an army of coyotes, and English ivy is the ultimate evil.

While Meloy and Ellis talk on their patio, their son relaxes in his room, reading a book of mythology, out of sight but on their minds. He'll start kindergarten in a few days, a milestone every bit as important as what his parents are doing with their creative lives.

"(Hank) happens to be one of the most wildly imaginative people I've met in my entire life," Meloy says. "He has Asperger's. He was diagnosed on the autism spectrum when he was 2 1/2. It's funny because they say one of the hallmarks of autism spectrum is a difficulty in imaginative play, which couldn't be farther from the truth with him. He can find anything, like a blanket piled up in a weird way or a shadow on a wall, and it becomes a fortress and his hands are dragons flying around it."

Read more here: http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2011/08/wildwood_review_debut_novel_fr.html