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Olga D'Agostino (aka Mrs. D.), an award-winning children's author, was born in western Ukraine. She lived in the historical city of Lviv, where she studied business in Lviv Business College. In 1992 she immigrated to the United States with her two small daughters and for years worked in her own business. In 2011 she began her career as a writer, focusing on writing children's books that have meaning and provide valuable lessons. Two of her children's books, The Trees Have Hearts and Good Morning, World, won Mom's Choice Awards in 2013, and three are winners in the 2014 Readers' Favorite contest. She is a member of SCBWI and speaks a few languages fluently. She lives in the famous town of Smithville, N.J., with her husband Patrick and a meticulous old cat named Nyda.
Published children's books by Mrs. D. include Carlo the Mouse on Vacation, The Trees Have Hearts, The City Kittens and the Old House Cat, Good Morning, World!, Runaway Clothes, The Royal Palm, and Carlo the Mouse, Book 1: Too Many Rules for One Little Mouse.
The full series of Carlo the Mouse and her new books The Mysterious Life Inside a Closet, That Is How Things Are (two connected stories: The Autumn Wind and The Kitten and the Sparrow), and her new book, The Cat Who Wonders, by Itself, and three rhyming stories in Who Is Most Important in the Fridge? will be published in the near future. Her books are available in print on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and as e-books for most popular e-devices.
She is presently working on her first novel, The Chinese Princess, and a short story, "A Taste of Bread." For updates on Mrs. D.'s books, please visit her website: mrsdbooks.net.
Reviewed by Lee Ashford for Readers' Favorite
The Royal Palm by Mrs. D. joins this author’s growing collection of richly illustrated and highly imaginative stories for children. In this latest tale, a beautiful specimen tree has been planted in a special garden, fulfilling her life-long wish to leave behind her small island and move to the mainland. While pondering the circumstances which brought her to that point, the silvery Royal Palm reflects upon the true friends she left behind, who accepted her just as she was in spite of her assumed arrogance toward them. She recalls the hurricane she thought would destroy her, and remembers how the smaller, more common palm trees rallied round her to protect her from the blowing sand, waves and wind. While she expects to be happy in her new life, she comes to the realization that she will always miss her old friends, regardless of how many new friends she may one day have.
The Royal Palm is a wonderful fantasy, told in the flowery language one might expect from an anthropomorphized tree, the wind, and other elements of a tropical paradise. Intended to facilitate the growth of a child’s imagination, this story also comes complete with a valuable life lesson. As they become a part of the story, young readers will learn to appreciate the other people in their lives. They will learn that it is not always wise to prejudge those around them because a day of reckoning may come when those whom they might think poorly of will become the ones on whom the child must depend for help. Although understated, The Royal Palm shouts loud and clear to young readers: “Don’t judge by appearances. It’s what’s inside that counts.” This very well-written tale from Mrs. D. is a must-have, particularly for early/intermediate readers.
