Eudora ? Bedtime for the children in the Thevarajoo household, like many households across the world, is a synonym for story time.

In other homes, parents might bring out worn copies of Dr. Seuss books or thrill their kids with the latest adventure of Harry Potter, but Eudora resident Paul Thevarajoo does something a little different.

He entertains children with stories of his own.

One of his children’s favorites involves an unlikely hero named Jack the Spacemouse.

“A bedtime story is how it started, and every day we came up with a new chapter,” Thevarajoo said.

Last week, “The Adventures of Jack the Spacemouse” blasted out of the Theravajoo’s home and into the imagination of the outside world in the form of a 76-page children’s book printed by Able Incorporated in Bonner Springs.

“It’s basically an action-adventure for kids about a space mouse getting to know life on Earth,” Thevarajoo said.

John Searight, right, stands by as his son, Phillip, checks out a new children's book called The

The book opens as Jack crash-lands on the planet and follows the cosmic rodent as he encounters friends and experiences the new world.

He quickly finds a companion in the form of a cat named Mel, and roams from adventure to adventure with little more than his friends, naivete and a ray gun.

As the story progresses, Jack becomes a leader to his fellow mice and develops an unabashed love of cheese.

“I would say my biggest influence was watching movies and their sense of adventure,” Thevarajoo said.

The publication of the book, however, couldn’t have come soon enough for Thevarajoo, a native of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and his family.

It took Thevarajoo more than a year to write the book as he split time between his career as a salesman and home life.

“After I told the story, the hardest part was putting it on paper and trying to structure it,” Thevarajoo said. “Once I started on paper, it was hard to remember what I had said and keeping the flow going so it wasn’t chaotic.”

After he translated Jack’s adventures to the page, he read it over the course of a year to Barbie Hartwell’s second-grade class at Nottingham Elementary School. Later, students drew their favorite scenes from the book.

Different students drew different scenes, and almost all said they liked the book, Thevarajoo said.

“That really made me feel good that it wasn’t only my kids liking the story,” Thevarajoo said. “That was my test market, I guess you could say.”

Thevarajoo had an inside strategy to spark reactions from the youngsters: Throughout the project, his kids – Jasmine, 6, Hannah, 9, and Morgan, 10 – guided Jack’s actions with their own suggestions.

“They had feedback on what they wanted to happen, so we made it up together,” Thevarajoo said. “They had a blast because they were a part of the storytelling.”

The children said they were excited about the release of the book.

“It’s really cool. We’ve been waiting forever,” Morgan said. “We’ve been asking him every day, ‘Is it published yet?'”

After signing books in Eudora and Lawrence, Thevarajoo said he hopes the Christmas holiday will jump-start book sales.

Able Incorporated has published the book in two forms: a standard paperback edition and a “kid-friendly, coil-bind” edition.

“(The coil-bound edition) is easier for kids to hold the book,” Thevarajoo said.

Thevarajoo said he plans two more volumes of Jack’s adventures.

Copies of “Jack The Spacemouse” can be purchased at C&S Market, 1402 Church St., Eudora; Fun And Games, 830 Mass.; or online at www.jackthespacemouse.com. Each copy is $7.95.