Now you can listen to the children’s classic, ‘Taffy of Torpedo Junction’

“Taffy of Torpedo Junction” has been a favorite of young and old alike since it was first published more than 50 years ago on May 9, 1957. And now you can listen to some of the 10 chapters online.

The book tells the thrilling story of 13-year-old Taffy Willis of Buxton, who, with the help of her pony and dog, exposes a ring of Nazi spies operating on Hatteras Island during World War II. For readers of all ages, the book brings to life the dramatic wartime events on the Outer Banks, when German U-boats turned an area around Cape Hatteras into “Torpedo Junction” by sinking or damaging almost scores of Allied ships in just a six-month period in 1942.

The book’s author, Nell Wise Wechter, an Outer Banks native who died in 1989, was a widely admired author, storyteller, teacher, historian, and journalist. Taffy was her first -- and some think her best -- children's book. It won an American Association of University Women award for best children's book by a North Carolina author the year it was published.

As a schoolteacher in Buxton on Hatteras Island during World War II, Wechter could look out her classroom window and see ships being sunk by the Germans. Her story was inspired by these real events and the courage of the people who lived through them. In fact, the character of Taffy was based on the girlhood of Carol Dillon of Buxton. Wechter boarded with Dillon’s parents when she taught school on the island, and during that time of war, Dillon was a teen-age islander who rode the lanes and beaches on her pony.

When the book's original publisher decided in 1995 that it could no longer keep Taffy in print, an outcry ensued, probably sparked by Raleigh News and Observer columnist Dennis Rogers, who wrote that the book was "perhaps the best piece of children's literature ever produced in this state" and that, "there must always be room for the adventures of a 13-year-old from North Carolina."

Rogers' column lamenting the loss of Taffy didn't go unnoticed by editors at the University of North Carolina Press, which obtained reprint rights and continued publishing “Taffy” in 1996.

As part of the Newspapers in Education project, the UNC Press will be posting online  audio of the first eight chapters of “Taffy of Torpedo Junction” each week for the next five weeks.

You will enjoy the audio with its cast of readers performing the roles of Taffy, the postmistress, the grandfather, Big Hans, and more.  The sounds effects on the audio are also fun.

Children love the book, and so do most adults. 

For more information on the book and to listen to the chapters, go to http://www.uncpress.unc.edu/Taffy/index.html

You will find the current chapter posted on the site.  Previously recorded chapters are located under audio archives at the top of the page.  New chapters are posted on Mondays.

Another story about the book with an interview with Carol Dillon about growing up on the island during the war from the 1996 Island Breeze also appears on the Island History page of this site.

And if you want to know how the story ends, you can find the book at many local shops, including Buxton Village Books.  The bookstore is closed for a few weeks, but you can order from the Web site.  It’s http://www.Buxtonvillagebooks.com or you can click on the ad on the first page of The Island Free Press site.