Susan Bourrie

The Melodious Adventures of Molly Dolly

Click on cover image for larger version.

© 2023 by Susan Bourrie

For Pre-K through 4th Grade—and children of all ages.

Synopsis

Join Molly Dolly and Mistletoe Mouse, whose adventures and misadventures filled the pages of The Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse, More Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse, The Merry Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse, and The Collected Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse, as they prepare to make another Christmas terrific.

Molly Dolly has been working with Mistletoe Mouse for several years. But now he's getting on her nerves as he hops on his noisy old typewriter and listens to music she dislikes. She's also tired of sleeping on Santa's lumpy old couch. So the determined doll sets out to learn what she must do to have a home and office of her own. She's assisted by many friends, including Junior Elf and Express, the super reindeer. In addition, four beautiful new dolls are introduced. They are Black, Latina, Asian, and Indigenous.

The Melodious Adventures of Molly Dolly is sure to please children of all ages as they learn that what the world needs most is love.

Editing and cover design by Leonore H. Dvorkin and David Dvorkin

The Collected Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse

Click on cover image for larger version.

© 2021 by Susan Bourrie

For Pre-K through 4th Grade—and children of all ages.

Synopsis

Join the intrepid Mistletoe Mouse and his friend Molly Dolly as they work to make terrible Christmases terrific in Book 1, help others cope with the pandemic in Book 2, and become wider-ranging Caring Consultants in Book 3. Their friends include Santa and Mrs. Claus, an express reindeer, many elves, various human families, and Alexa. Misadventures abound, but hope and joy triumph in the end.

Editing and cover design by Leonore H. Dvorkin and David Dvorkin

The Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse

Click on cover image for larger version.

© 2016 by Susan Bourrie

For Pre-K through 4th Grade—and children of all ages.

Synopsis

Celebrate the Christmas season with the lovable and hardworking Mistletoe Mouse. After he befriends Molly Dolly, a doll who is left behind on Christmas Eve by Santa's elves because they did not have her ready in time to go on Santa's sleigh, the pair join forces and, with the help of an express reindeer, work to make terrible Christmases terrific.

During the following year, Mistletoe Mouse experiences one misadventure after another as he and Molly Dolly save the show when a little girl cannot sing her solo, comfort a grandmother whose grandchildren are caught in a blizzard, and teach boys and girls who cannot afford gifts for their parents how to make something even more valuable than presents.

Whether he is dangling from a tree, covered with seaweed, confronting a stranger, or scampering through a skyscraper, Mistletoe Mouse tackles every Christmastime surprise and challenge with energy and imagination.

The Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse is a traditional and wholesome tale that is sure to please children of all ages.

Editing and cover design by Leonore H. Dvorkin and David Dvorkin

Reader Reviews

CAPTIVATING!!!

This book provides a charming adventure for all ages. There's nothing like an escape from reality to a magical land. My younger sister is a person with autism. Reading about Mistletoe Mouse calmed her down and helped us both find happiness during a difficult time. I recommend that everyone take this adventure with Mistletoe and a loved one; it's a great way to spend time together for the holidays.

Enjoy!

—Kristy Lyn Sowa, Social Work Intern
Loving Sister and Legal Guardian to a Young Lady with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities(IDD)

This is a delightful little holiday book for kids which might be read aloud as part of a tradition for a family. It is the story of Mistletoe Mouse and his friend Molly Dolly. Mistletoe Mouse meets her in Santa's workshop where she is sitting alone and sad because she wasn't chosen to go on the sleigh because she hadn't been finished yet. Her bow is untied and her shoes are across the room.

Mistletoe helps her out and makes her Christmas brighter and happier. In return, she suggests that they make it their business to find folks whose Christmases are going to be sad or bad and help them out. The following chapters take these two friends to many places where they help assorted people to have a merrier Christmas.

Like many books for young readers, it is a moral tale, stressing kindness, compassion, responsibility, helpfulness, problem solving and love. These morals aren't blatant, but the book resonates with their light. Anyone who reads this book will be in no doubt as to what the friends' mission is.

Because this is a fantasy, one must suspend belief for the duration, but this might be an excellent topic of conversation between parents and kids around a dinner table. "Can reindeer fly thousands of miles in minutes?"

All in all, I found this to be a charming Christmas book, and would recommend it highly as an addition to one's holiday library classics beside Rudolf, A Christmas Carol and A Visit From St. Nicholas.

—Ann K. Parsons
Author of the novel The Demmies (© 2017)

More Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse

Click on cover image for larger version.

© 2020 by Susan Bourrie

For Pre-K through 4th Grade—and children of all ages.

Synopsis

Celebrate another Christmas season with the lovable and hardworking Mistletoe Mouse. Two years ago, he befriended Molly Dolly, a doll who was left behind on Christmas Eve by Santa's elves. The fearless duo joined forces last year, and with the help of an express reindeer, they worked to make terrible Christmases terrific.

Once again, in this delightful sequel, Mistletoe Mouse and Molly Dolly experience one adventure and misadventure after another. They help put out a forest fire, find a home for a homeless family, visit patients in the hospital, and teach a reluctant elf that there's no place like school.

During a year that is not just terrible but also horrible and unbelievable, Santa teaches Mistletoe Mouse, Molly Dolly, Express, and the elves the real meaning of Christmas. More Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse, like The Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse, is for Pre-K through 4th Grade—and children of all ages.

Editing and cover design by Leonore H. Dvorkin and David Dvorkin

Reader Review

This second book about Mistletoe Mouse is a delightful story written to help children who are confused by the many serious events of 2020. Mistletoe Mouse and his friend, Molly Dolly, learn that a sickness has closed many stores, schools, and churches. Even Santa wears a mask! A reindeer named Express, who has magical powers, flies Mistletoe Mouse and Molly Dolly to many places in the world to help terrible Christmases become terrific Christmases as children deal with fires, storms, and protest marches as well as the sickness. The elves collect and deliver by sleigh necessities such as food, clothing, and toiletries along with toys. Mistletoe and Molly even learn to use a computer. They meet with children using Zoom to communicate with them, their classmates, and their relatives.

Almost every chapter ends with hope and with a technique for dealing with the confusion of this year, such as imagining a future when kids can return to school and visit grandparents. Although dealing with the serious events of this year, there is a lot of humor and the story ends with feelings of hope and good will.

Parents and teachers can use this book to open discussions about how children are feeling and coping at a difficult time. The book will remain a resource that can be used even when this time has passed and we look forward to much better Christmases ahead!

—Sherry Warden, special education teacher and parent, President of the Washtenaw Retired Teachers Association

The Merry Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse

Click on cover image for larger version.

© 2021 by Susan Bourrie

For Pre-K through 4th Grade—and children of all ages.

Synopsis

Celebrate yet another year with the lovable and hardworking Mistletoe Mouse, who befriended Molly Dolly, a doll who was left behind on Christmas Eve by Santa's elves.

In the imaginative first book in the series, The Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse (2016), the two created a business, Mistletoe and Molly Christmas Consultants, to make terrible Christmases terrific.

In the sequel, More Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse (2020), the pair confronted serious issues such as sick grandparents, unemployed parents, and homeless families with compassion and gentle comic relief.

Now, in The Merry Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse (2021), Molly Dolly and Mistletoe Mouse expand their business to include not just Christmas but the entire year. They do this by becoming Caring Consultants rather than just Christmas Consultants. Mistletoe Mouse experiences even more adventures and misadventures as Molly Dolly embraces technology and Junior Elf works to invent a cure for the worldwide sickness.

The Merry Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse, like the two previous books, is sure to please children of all ages.

Editing and cover design by Leonore H. Dvorkin and David Dvorkin

Review

Reviewed by Sherry Warden, parent and special-education teacher, president of the Washtenaw Retired Teachers Association.

The Merry Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse is the third in a series of delightful books about Mistletoe Mouse and his friend, Molly Dolly. In the imaginative first book in the series, Mistletoe and Molly form a business as "Christmas Consultants" to help to make terrible Christmases terrific. In the second book, which takes place at Christmas at the end of a year of illness, they help children deal with the serious issues resulting from that. Now, in The Merry Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse, they decide to become "Caring Consultants" who will work year round to help children find ways to cope with the stresses they face.

This book, like the two previous books, uses humor to approach topics that may be troublesome to children, while also injecting common sense solutions into difficult situations. The story begins with Santa returning to the North Pole after delivering presents around the world. Of course, he brings gifts back for Mrs. Claus, including a lovely Nativity set. Molly decides to help the children around the world help to make others merry by teaching them that "just having someone nearby who listens to what you're thinking…is better than any gift."

During the year, Mistletoe Mouse learns to embrace technology and to ask Alexa for help. Junior Elf gets into trouble for taking things without permission and then asks Molly if he can help her care for people. And Molly learns that even with the best intentions, it is more important to listen to others than to do everything efficiently. The story ends with everyone learning to be more caring and considerate.

The author, Susan Bourrie, combines originality, humor, and a hopeful, positive tone.

This is a lovely book to be read to younger children and for older children to read independently.

Princess Meander

Click on cover image for larger version.

© 2020 by Susan Bourrie

For Pre-K through 4th Grade

Synopsis

When Meander, Cinderella's second cousin thrice removed, is chosen by charming Prince Fred to be his lucky bride, no one at Wildwood Castle is expecting the newest princess in the realm to be dissatisfied with courtly life. But Meander is indeed an unhappy princess. Wouldn't you be if you were stuck inside a castle most of the time?

Princess Meander was accustomed to doing many things and doing them her way. After turning the castle upside down and roaming the entire countryside, she finally finds something that makes her happy as she sits quietly for hours and hours on her royal throne. Read this delightful story to learn what it is.

Editing and cover design by Leonore H. Dvorkin and David Dvorkin

Review

Reviewed by David L. Faucheux, Library Journal's Audiobook Reviewer of the Year for 2018 and author of Selections from Across Two Novembers: A Bibliographic Year (C 2019)
Website: https://www.dldbooks.com/davidfaucheux/

Meander has her work cut out for her. Doing nothing, but doing it very well, is challenging. Being curious and understandably bored, Her Royal Highness explores workarounds, including baking cookies, fluffing up pillows, and gardening. But she is not allowed to do any of these by the overzealous servants into whose domain each task falls.

Her queenly mother-in-law finds cultured, artsy things for her to learn. But it is when this princess-with-a-purpose visits her fairy godmother, an appurtenance no fairy tale heroine should be without, that she learns to read and soon is caught up in the joys of books.

Princess Meander is a delight and would be something for a parent, grandparent, or older sibling to share with a younger child. A book for all ages.

About the Author

Susan Bourrie

Susan Bourrie grew up in LaSalle, Illinois, where she wrote and won awards for her light verse poetry. When she moved to Midland, Michigan, she started writing for children. Her three children's narrative poems, "Mortimer J. Readabook, the Medicine Man"; "Admiral Seasalt's Waterbed"; and "When Mommy Puts Her Jeans On," were beautifully illustrated and published in Humpty Dumpty's Magazine (now Humpty Dumpty Magazine).

In 1980, Ms. Bourrie managed the children's room of the Madison-Jefferson County Public Library in Indiana.

She attended the First Vassar Institute of Publishing and Writing: Children's Books in the Marketplace. Her articles about Lloyd C. Douglas and William Holmes McGuffey were included in The Dictionary of Midwestern Literature in 2001. While she was completing ALA core classes in Library Studies at the University of Michigan and earning master's degrees in both Children's Literature and Library Media at Central Michigan University, Ms. Bourrie's formalist poems and song lyrics placed in writing contests. She taught children's literature and writing classes at several universities in Michigan while earning an Educational Specialist Degree in Curriculum, Teaching, and Educational Policy, with an emphasis in Literacy, at Michigan State University in 2003.

Ms. Bourrie has a vision impairment and advocates for people with disabilities as a member of The University of Michigan Council for Disability Concerns and the Washtenaw County Commission for Disability Issues. She was invited to speak at The University of Michigan School of Public Health and the School of Information Studies Talking Points Project. Her blog promoted the early screening of children for potentially blinding eye diseases and taught people with vision impairments how to live with their condition rather than merely cope with it.

Contact Information

Email: susanbourrie.writer@gmail.com