When Susan Bourrie was born, she was named Susan Elaine. Susan means “to be joyful.” Elaine means “sun ray or shining light.” Her mother called her Sunshine. Her father called her Bozo. She stopped taking the world seriously in elementary school when an aptitude test said she was supposed to grow up to be a poet or a forest ranger. Since people groaned at her light verse and there were no forests where she lived, she became a mother, librarian, and teacher of reading and writing.
Her love of children’s literature and libraries began when her Kindergarten teacher read the picture book, Make Way for Ducklings, to the class. It was another picture book, Frederick, by Leo Lioni that is about a mouse who writes poetry that showed Susan just how important it is to be able to entertain others and make them smile. Her first Mistletoe Mouse short story was written over 40 years ago for her own children. They asked for more stories that became the first book in a series of twelve books, The Misadventures of Mistletoe Mouse.
“The shorter read
The better said,
And so, say I.”
Published in Quote Magazine 1966 when Susan was 19 years old