Sketch of fictional character put on author's Web site

By Alex Paul

Gazette-Times reporter

PHILOMATH - Astraea Vanderlinden's love of reading and art have earned the 14-year-old Philomath Middle School student a spot on the Web site for one of the more popular writers of modern times.

Astraea - Greek for star-maiden - sketched how she thought, Fang, a character in James Patterson's Maximum Ride book series, would look like. The sketch recently was chosen from among hundreds of nationwide entries.

Monday afternoon, Vanderlinden and her mother, Mary, visited Borders bookstore in Corvallis to purchase the fifth book in Patterson's popular series about a 14-year-old girl called Maximum Ride - Max for short. She is joined by a "flock" of human-avian hybrids who have escaped from the scientist who mutated them. They are now out to save the world, while being chased by other hybrids created to catch them.

"My grandmother from Colorado, Cheryl Steiven, sent me the first book in the series, 'Angel Experiment,' " Astraea said. "I love to read, and I liked this book right away. I can relate to Max. She's my age, and I really like action stories. These books are very active. There's some kind of action every five pages or so."

Astraea said she enjoys drawing characters from the many books she reads. She sketched Fang, Max's right-hand man, after seeing a Web site invitation asking readers to submit drawings of their favorite characters.

"I'm obsessed with books and sometimes, I just have to draw the characters," Astraea said.

Astraea said her mother, Mary Vanderlinden, has taught her a great deal about art.

"If she can get an image in her head, she can draw it," Vanderlinden said. "She is really good at mythical creatures like dragons."

Astraea is the daughter of Kevin Havre of Clackamas and Vanderlinden and her partner, Mitzi Young, of Philomath.

Although she didn't get a prize for her artwork, Astraea said having her friends and family think highly of the event is enough reward.

Alex Paul can be contacted at alex.paul@lee.net or by calling 758-9526.