The Extraordinary Life of Chowder the Field Mouse (Paperback)

Introducing Chowder, an orphaned baby field mouse raised by his loving human family and his heroic brother Copper, who happens to be a great big dog. Join the brothers as they star in their first adventure book! Based on a true story, this sweet picture book for kids will tickle your funny bone and warm your heart. Katelin Cole’s precious illustrations bring Chowder and Copper to life on the pages of Maria Schell Burden’s first children's book.

Hello! My name is Maria Schell Burden. When I was young, my mother took all five of us kids to the library every single week. It was without a doubt the highlight of the week in our family. We would each come home with a stack of books and my mother would read to us every night. We read aloud to each other in the family car on road trips (passing the book from person to person, each reading a chapter until the book was finished). And of course, we broke the rules and read under the covers after lights out until the flashlight quit working. My love of literature and books is all your fault, Mom and Dad. And I've done it to my own kids--when they were young, we read all of my childhood favorites (our #1 all-time favorite will always be T-Bone the Babysitter by Clare Turlay Newberry) and carried on the tradition of reading everywhere we went. Books are in my DNA and stories have been trying to get out of my brain and onto paper since I learned to talk, read and write. I have always read a lot of historical fiction, (I cut my teeth on the works of Janice Holt Giles, Allan W. Eckert, Gwen Bristow and others). I love anything related to American history, be it fiction or nonfiction, I enjoy a good mystery, and yes, on occasion, a well-written romance novel keeps me curled up by the fire for hours. Children's literature has always been important to me, and I love to discover talented new authors in this field. I am married to Kent Burden, a brilliant nonfiction writer who is a health and wellness expert. He has 8 or 9 books published last time I counted and has many more in development. We own a small independent publishing company called MLF Press and we have two grown children. I hope you enjoy my stories!