For 11 years, Paulette LeBlanc spent her free time writing children’s stories based on her childhood friendship, and life lessons she learned—or wished she’d learned—growing up.

Last December, after a serendipitous meeting two years earlier with a woman who would eventually become her publisher, Toofer & The Giblet was published by Naples-based Dragon Horse Publishing. It’s the first of seven in a series by the St. James City author, the editor of the Pine Island Eagle.

“Toofer & The Giblet is based on me and my best friend, if you could imagine writing caricatures,” LeBlanc says of two mice living in a tree, Humble Tree. “It’s sort of an exaggerated view of our personalities. I thought, ‘How would we look in the mouse world?’ I see somebody and say, ‘That guy’s a turtle.’ It’s been like a gift how the stories dropped into my head.”

Her best friend’s father and her father also are featured. There are mice, foxes, beavers, otters, raccoons and others in the mythical Nimblewood.

“Some are based on characters I knew, but some are made up. Some don’t even know, but many do know. Toofer knows who she is,” she says. “I think Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web inspired me as a kid.” 

The cover describes Toofer as reserved, thoughtful and observant, while The Giblet is outgoing and sociable. LeBlanc tailored the books to teach children how to value friendship, prize honesty, act with integrity and handle loss. But the stories will appeal to parents, grandparents and teachers. 

“These are adult books for children. It’s like (Charles) Frazier for little kids,” she explains. “The parents will realize the life lessons.”

LeBlanc’s journey to children’s book author followed years as a journalist. She was an editor of Gulf Coast Woman; she freelances for Lifestyle magazine; she writes a grief newsletter, Chapters, for Madsen Ink; and she’s been the editor of the Pine Island Eagle since 2019, after years of freelancing as a reporter for the Breeze Newspapers.

After a divorce and her father’s death, the stay-at-home mom began writing the stories while her son and daughter were teenagers. The first book took a year, the second six months and the third 1½ weeks. Pine Island and the Pine Island Eagle play a part in the sixth book. “The stories fell out of me. I lived in a beautiful house alone on the water,” she says.

“I just had an unstoppable force inside me. I mailed publishing houses and they said, “They’re lovely stories, but we just don’t think kids will understand it. We don’t have a place for them.’ You kind of worry if anyone is going to find value in it like I did.”

Publishers also said the words would be difficult for children to understand. “Everyone loves words,” she says, questioning that. Others balked at “The” before Giblet. “It’s needed because The Giblet is full of himself,” she explains. 

While covering an awards ceremony in 2019, she interviewed nominee Julie Koester, president and co-founder of Dragon Horse Agency, a local marketing business. Koester loves children’s literature, so LeBlanc asked for her advice. 

“Publishing houses told me they couldn’t find Toofer & The Giblet a home. Julie not only found them a home, she and Patrick (managing partner at Dragon Horse) made them a home. What they did was create a publishing house. It’s a big compliment.”

Koester said she reluctantly agreed to read it after LeBlanc told her she’d written to publishers for 10 years. 

“The night I read it, without reaching out to Paulette, or my Dragon Horse business partner Patrick Renda, I created and registered a publishing company, Dragon Horse Publishing,” Koester says. “The next day, I told Paulette and my business partner that we would represent her and fund and publish the books, and that this series was destined to become a classic.”

LeBlanc envisioned black and white illustrations. “Absolutely not!” Koester told her, then found a Ukranian illustrator, Dmitriy Morozov, whose beautiful watercolors, like those of Beatrix Potter, brought the characters to life. 

Dragon Horse built a website, tooferandthegiblet.com, and Facebook page for the book, which sold 200 copies in less than a month after its release. Koester says readers already are asking about the second book’s release.

Now that LeBlanc has finished writing the last in the series, Koester is planning a new project for her. 

“I’ve lived Toofer & The Giblet for so long, I’m not in a hurry to put it away,” LeBlanc says. “I can’t wait for people to meet them. I’m so excited.”