The Adventures of Mooty

Early one morning, a little mouse with a long curly tail came into my kitchen to nibble on my packets of instant noodles. When I came downstairs to prepare breakfast, I saw him and screamed. My family rushed down to see what the matter was. My two sons were very young then. The older one asked if I had seen a thief while the younger one asked if I had seen a ghost!

The Adventures of Mooty was first published as a 10-part series of children's stories in 1980, depicting the adventures of a loveable little mouse who endears himself to a community of animals, birds and insects and becomes their hero. Four decades on, Mooty continues to charm children and adults alike.

No one likes having mice in the house, so Grandma gets a cat to chase Mooty out. Mooty was very sad to learn that he was not wanted in Grandma's house. He leaves to find a home elsewhere and a whole new adventure begins!

After moving out of Grandma's house, Mooty finds a home outdoors. He makes new animal friends when he uses his long tail to save a baby bird who had fallen into a pond. He becomes a hero and is welcomed into the animal community. I wrote this story to show children entering different phases of their lives, whether attending a new kindergarten or school, or just playing in the playground, that they can just be themselves and make new friends wherever they go.

Mooty goes to school with the baby animals. He learns to read and write, and as a hardworking pupil, did so well in school that he was soon able to help the other baby animals with their work. The story was written to inspire children to work hard and do well in any task that they take on.

While playing with the baby animals, Mooty spies a tail and pulls it. It comes off and leaves one twin lizard in tears. But through this, the animals soon learn something amazing about lizards!

n the days before Apollo 11 was launched, there were many reports in our local newspapers of the space mission. I was inspired by these reports to have Mooty meet some "spacemen".

On 20 July 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon. The local newspapers were awash with news of this triumphant achievement and of course, Mooty had to be the first mouse on the moon!

Mooty comes of age in this story and just as I treasure the sweet memories of falling in love with the man I married, Mooty finds someone to love too.

The arrival of Mooty's son completes Mooty's little family and I saw it as a fitting conclusion to the series. However, it slipped my mind that mice have litters when I wrote the story until a friend pointed it out to me long after the stories were published. It was too late by then!