Playing in the air, they shed dazzling sunbeams on the sparkling waves, gleaming with unusual colors of the rainbow that majestically arched over the nearby bridge. Amazed at the beautiful view, Mrs. D lifted her eyes to the cloudless sky, when suddenly a little mouse slid down the canopy that covered the hospital entrance and fell inside their car trunk. Stunned, Mrs. D exclaimed “Oh my God,” and closed her mouth with her hand. Her husband looked at her in disbelief, and before they knew it, the unwelcome guest had disappeared between their luggage. Laughing, Mrs. D could hardly believe her good luck. A story about a hospital mouse was unfolding before her eyes.

At first, they tried to scare the little intruder out by making noise and moving the luggage, but the sneaky mouse disappeared without a trace. Upset, Mr. D, who is highly allergic to any hairy creature, opened all the car doors and unpacked the trunk. Watching him, Mrs. D pulled out her notebook. She saw an opportunity for a good new story about a tiny adventurer. A hospital mouse had decided to go on vacation!

With no other choice, the couple drove back to New Jersey with the mouse in their trunk. Watching her husband traveling for eighteen hours with a mouse inside their car was another story. Someday, Mrs. D promised to make a comic book about a shrewd mouse and the annoyed Mr. D.

Though they laughed all the way home, Mr. D also jumped at the slightest noise. Besides being allergic to animal hair, he was also apparently scared of mice.

Sneezing, Mr. D finally made it home. As he parked in the garage, he opened the trunk and left the car and its hidden occupant to their cat.

Mrs. D felt bad for the little mouse, whom she had already named Carlo. In her mind, the Florida mouse resembled one of their friends, who was born in the same hospital their little guest came from. He later married a beautiful red-haired wife and had three red-haired daughters. What a beautiful family of mice, Mrs. D thought, tossing in her bed.

She did not sleep much that night because the story about a Florida mouse was stuck in her mind.

In the morning, Mrs. D carefully opened the garage door. Afraid of the mouse, her husband stood behind her, armed with a broom. But Mrs. D stopped him from entering the garage. She hoped to see their little guest alive and well. Afraid to scare him, she quietly closed the garage door and walked outside to the garage window. When she looked inside the garage, to her surprise, Carlo was sitting on the edge of the car trunk staring at Nyda the cat, who was lying on top of the car. They appeared to be having a pleasant conversation. Pleased, Mrs. D quietly walked away, but Mr. D took a fighting position by the cat’s door.

While cooking dinner, from time to time Mrs. D glanced outside through the window, hoping to see Carlo leaving the garage alive. Soon she spotted her cat outside, but no Carlo in sight. Worried, she opened the garage door from inside. Carlo the mouse was sitting on the doorstep, as if he were waiting for her to let him into her kitchen.

Scared, Mrs. D slammed the door and ran to the window to warn her husband, who was guarding the cat’s door. Afraid that the mouse could sneak into the kitchen, Mr. D opened a garage door. Seeing opportunity, Carlo zoomed outside toward Smithville Village. What happened next was pure imagination…

In the next few days, Mrs. D drafted the story “Carlo the Mouse on Vacation” and let her husband read it. Laughing, he insisted on publishing it.

How Carlo the Mouse Took the World by the Horns

George Bernard Shaw once said, “Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.” Writing her first book, Carlo the Mouse on Vacation, Mrs. D kept that advice in mind. She wanted to create a children’s book that would appeal not only to children but to grown-ups as well. She hoped her first story would attract a wide sector of readers of different ages and bring back memories of youthful fun and good laughs. Taking into consideration the fact that grown-ups are the ones who introduce books to children, she tried to lift the bar so the storyline would appeal to older readers too. If necessary, they could easily explain the story to the children if they were too young to understand it.

This decision slightly raised the eyebrows of some cynical folks. Thank heavens it did not bother the young fans. They fell in love with the daring mouse as soon as they saw the happy Carlo beaming from the cover of this book. Since the day Mrs. D introduced this adventurous mouse to readers, he has managed to find many good friends around the globe. Readers like how Carlo took the world by the horns, and Mrs. D has received emails, messages, suggestions, pictures, and even some stories about Carlo’s future adventures, which she may use when the time is right.

Anyone who has read Carlo the Mouse on Vacation might remember that the story finished with Carlo sitting inside an empty pizza box. Well … let him sit there for a while and think of how he will outsmart the man in black. Meanwhile, we will tell you the story that led to the series of books on Carlo the mouse as a baby.

It was the day of Mrs. D’s daughter’s bridal shower. Before the girls hit the town to have fun, Mrs. D volunteered to babysit for their children. The children happened to be very young, between 3 and 7 years old, and it was very challenging to entertain them all afternoon. Tired of chasing them around, Ms. D pulled out a box with books and started showing them colorful illustrations from her first book, Carlo the Mouse on Vacation. Before she knew it, the kids showered her with many questions about the Florida mouse.

Well … who does not know about that famous mouse! Mrs. D had stumbled on the famous cook who yelled “Baaam” from the TV and scared babies in the delivery room. But children didn’t know about him, and they were so excited to find out what Carlo did inside the hospital. Left without a choice, Mrs. D started cooking up new stories about Carlo as a baby. She spent a lot of time in the hospital with her sick father and had a good idea of how a nosy mouse could get in trouble. There were many questions about the doctors, the hospital staff, and Carlo’s mom and dad. The kids were coming up with so many ideas that Mrs. D’s head began to spin. They wanted Carlo to do bad things and act silly, but Mrs. D thought it would be more fun if they established some rules, which, of course, Carlo would eventually break and get himself in more trouble. In this way, younger children would learn something useful from his adventures while still having fun. Jumping in front of each other in their excitement, the children came up with many rules and some good propositions.

It was already close to dinnertime, but the game was not even close to an end. That was when Mrs. D’s husband came to the rescue. Mr. D found a few flashlights and started the real adventures. Armed with flashlights and plastic bags, the young hunters started searching all the closets in the house. While their mission was going on, Mrs. D managed to cook meatballs and spaghetti. Looking for clues that Carlo left in the closet, her husband finally lured the children to the kitchen so they could feed them.

Who could refuse Mrs. D’s meatballs and spaghetti, which Carlo did not manage to taste when he tried to visit Mrs. D’s kitchen? In no time, the plates were empty, and the children went back to searching for the sneaky mouse until they could not keep their eyes open. In the middle of the night, Mrs. D could still hear them talking about the little mouse causing trouble in the hospital.

The next day, she received calls from their parents asking her the name of the book she had read to their children, because they were still looking for some mouse that was hiding in their closet.

“Unwritten book,” Mrs. D said. At that moment, she knew she must go back in time and write new stories about Carlo the mouse, beginning the day he was born. The game the children created that summer did not stop and is going on to this day, with younger grandkids and their friends. It became more interesting because now all six books were published, and she could show her little friends how the stories were coming to life. The game also became more intriguing, because children could visualize the scenes from the illustrations and stories. But they had the opportunity to come up with their own stories, too.

It has been some thrilling ride since Mrs. D introduced Carlo the mouse to the world. The books found readers, some of them far away and some of them next to your home. As the author, Mrs. D faced a real dilemma: what to do with the original book, “Carlo the Mouse on Vacation.” Since this book includes four stories, which are for slightly older readers, she decided to rewrite them and made these stories a part of the Carlo the Mouse series. As of right now, she has published six books about Carlo the mouse as a baby and a teen. Carlo the Mouse, Book 6 gradually connects new stories to the old stories from “Carlo the Mouse on Vacation.” Presently, she is working on Carlo the Mouse Books 7, 8, 9 and 10. There will be a lot of drama in Mrs. D’s kitchen, such as the war for cheese between Carlo and Mr. D, who is an Italian and who knows a lot about a good cheese. And while Mrs. D is chasing Carlo the mouse around her home, she hopes that her six books about Carlo the mouse as a baby and a teen will entertain her readers, patiently waiting for Carlo’s new adventures.

Book 10 will not be the end of Carlo’s adventures. Many who read “Carlo the Mouse on Vacation” remember that the story ended with Carlo trapped inside a pizza box, which was handed to a man in black. The next few books after Carlo’s misadventures will take place on the streets of Paris and will be very intriguing. Spies … betrayal … and maybe some conflict between international mice… As one of Mrs. D’s young fans, Sergei, wrote in his story, may the story of Carlo the mouse never end.

As much as we want to tell you more, this is as much as we are allowed to reveal. We are very excited about this project and can’t wait to introduce young readers to the naughty Carlo as a grown mouse. For now, please use your creative minds, pencils, crayons and brushes and show us your artistic side. Take us on your adventures, write your stories, send your illustrations, and coloring pages from Carlo the Mouse fun coloring books, while enjoying some activities as you set out on adventures with Carlo. Carlo and Mrs. D would be delighted if (with the permission of your parents) young writers, artists, and readers would send them their artwork and stories so we could see their vision of Carlo’s adventures.

Dear Mom, Dad, or other caregivers, please scan your child’s work and email them to olga@mrsdbooks.com. Mrs. D and Carlo will gladly post them on Mrs.D.Books Blog or this website. And the winner will be awarded some of our gifts, like a special book with Mrs. D’s autograph, a T-shirt, or poster with Carlo the mouse or some gift cards. Please remember that books make the world a little lighter, a little brighter, and a whole lot more fun! Read and color on!