Sometimes the best stories begin in the most ordinary—and unexpected—places. For children’s author Simon Dorey, one of those places was between his young daughter’s toes.
Simon recently joined host Peter Anthony Holder on The Stuph File Program to talk about the stories behind Little Picture Books, his journey from chartered accountant to children’s author, and why he believes books can do more than entertain children—they can also help support schools, literacy, and children’s hospitals.
During their conversation, Simon shared how one of his earliest stories began more than 25 years ago, when he was doing what parents have always done: entertaining his daughter with silly stories and rhymes. One of those rhymes was inspired by something decidedly unglamorous—toe jam. Before long, Simon had created a rhyming story about toe jam, other parts of the body, and the consequences of not keeping them clean.
That funny family moment eventually became Toe Jam, one of Simon’s growing collection of Little Picture Books. But getting from a silly rhyme shared with his daughter to a published children’s book took time.
🎧 Listen to Simon's Interview
Hear Simon Dorey chat with Peter Anthony Holder on The Stuph File Program about the stories behind Little Picture Books, writing for children, and combining literacy with fundraising.
Stories Inspired by Real Life
Simon began creating stories for his eldest daughter in the late 1990s. Although he experimented with turning some of them into books and even worked with an illustrator, producing illustrated children’s books was expensive. The stories remained with him while life, work, and family continued.
Then came COVID. With more opportunity to focus on his creative work, along with access to grants that helped with areas such as digitization and website development, Simon began seriously pursuing something that had started decades earlier. He also began learning more about the craft and business of producing children’s picture books, eventually finding someone who could coordinate illustrators, book design, and production.
And he certainly had no shortage of material. As Simon’s family grew, so did his collection of stories. His son’s tendency to drool inspired Conrad’s Cool Drool. Smelly children’s feet helped inspire Cheese Feet. And when Simon and his younger daughter found themselves dealing with mice in their apartment, the experience became Dad and Danica Versus the Mice.
The approach is wonderfully simple: take something that happens in everyday family life and, as Simon describes it, make it funny, make it silly, and make it outrageous. Children understand that kind of humour because they live in that world too. Drool happens. Feet smell. Mice get into places they shouldn’t. And sometimes there really is stuff between your toes. Instead of pretending those messy little parts of childhood don’t exist, Little Picture Books celebrates the fun that can be found in them.
An Accountant Walks Into a Children’s Book...
There’s another unexpected twist to Simon’s story. By profession, he’s a chartered accountant and has worked in accounting for more than 40 years—a career that might not immediately bring silly children’s stories to mind.
Simon, however, doesn’t see a contradiction. Accounting is something he does, he explained in the interview; it isn’t necessarily who he is. He was also quick to challenge the idea that accountants don’t have a sense of humour, joking that there certainly wasn’t a “101: Being a Boring Accountant” course when he trained.
That ability to see humour where others might not expect it seems to be part of what makes his children’s stories work. The ideas don’t have to come from extraordinary adventures. Sometimes you simply have to notice the funny story hiding inside ordinary life.
Ten Published Books—and Many More Waiting
So far, Simon has brought 10 children’s books through to publication, but what’s perhaps even more remarkable is what is still waiting behind them. Simon estimates he has approximately 100 books in some stage of development. Some are little more than ideas, while others are much further along, with text, illustration concepts, or editorial work already underway. One planned series alone includes 12 books and will add another creative element: music.
The challenge isn’t coming up with ideas; it’s bringing each idea all the way to publication. Producing an illustrated picture book requires illustrators, design, editing, and other production costs. Simon estimates that creating one picture book can cost approximately $5,000, and he would also like to make French and Spanish translations available.
Then there’s the part many readers never see: marketing. As Simon has discovered, writing the book is only one part of being a children’s author. Authors also have to figure out how to get those books into the hands of families who will enjoy them. That challenge led to an idea that could make Little Picture Books about something much bigger than selling books.
Where Literacy and Fundraising Meet
Simon began looking at schools differently. Schools are filled with children—the readers Little Picture Books is intended for—but they are also directly connected to those children’s parents and families. At the same time, many school parent organizations spend considerable time and energy trying to raise money.
Why not bring those things together?
Instead of relying solely on traditional book sales, Simon developed a fundraising model that allows schools and parent organizations to promote Little Picture Books within their communities and receive a portion of the sales. As Simon explained during the interview, rather than having that percentage go toward a traditional sales commission, he would rather see schools benefit from it.
For him, the combination simply makes sense: fundraising and literacy. A fundraiser can help a school raise money while putting books into children’s hands at the same time. It’s a model that recognizes that schools are not only places where children learn to read, but communities of parents, teachers, and families who are already invested in supporting those children.
And the idea doesn’t stop with schools.
A Very Special Book With a Bigger Purpose
Among Simon’s books is one with a very different story behind it. Kyla’s Kite Is Flying was created as a commemorative book for Simon’s former niece, Kyla, who died at a very young age. Through the book, Simon hopes to support children’s hospitals, allowing funds to be directed to a hospital selected by the purchaser. Hospitals in both Canada and the United States have already registered with the initiative.
Simon is candid that the first major promotional effort didn’t achieve everything he hoped it would, but he doesn’t see that as the end of the story. It’s a starting point, and perhaps that is one of the themes that runs quietly through Simon’s entire journey.
The first version of Toe Jam began more than two decades before the finished book made its way into the world. Ideas have waited patiently while children grew up, careers continued, and life intervened. Some books are published, while others remain in notebooks or somewhere along the production journey. Yet Simon keeps moving them forward.
One Book at a Time
With dozens of stories waiting to be developed, it would be easy to become overwhelmed by everything still to be done. Simon knows the answer is to focus on what comes next: finish the next book, move the next project forward, get the first series out the door, and then continue from there.
As he observed during the interview, life has a way of distracting us while we’re busy making other plans. Perhaps that’s also why Little Picture Books feels so rooted in real family life. These aren’t stories dreamed up in some perfectly quiet writing room removed from everyday experience. They come from raising children, cleaning toes, dealing with drool, discovering mice, laughing at smelly feet, and noticing the funny moments that could easily have been forgotten.
Simon noticed them, and then he turned them into stories. Now those silly little stories have the potential to do something surprisingly meaningful: make children laugh, encourage them to read, help schools raise money, and even support children’s hospitals.
Not bad for something that started with a little toe jam.