Story time is a big deal for Dennis Scherer's grandchildren Blake and Logan.
“So for story time we didn't always read books. We made up stories,” said Scherer.
It turned into a passion and he has been self-publishing children’s books for charitable causes in the Yellow Moon Mouse Children’s Campaign he created. Scherer usually raises about $6,000 a year from books sales and fundraisers. The majority of the money raised goes to charities and a portion goes into printing the books.
His latest book book is called Midge Goes Crackers! Blake and Scherer are the co-authors and Robin Baird Lewis is the illustrator.
The book will be released on Oct. 28 with a book signing at Lakeside Church on 7654 Conservation Rd. from 10 a.m. to noon.
Scherer’s grandson Logan had leukemia in 2018. He is cancer free at nine-years-old. Logan’s older brother Blake, 12, had an idea for a story of his own and asked his grandfather to help make the story come to life.
Blake said working with his grandfather was really fun and Scherer said sometimes it was a tug of war.
“This book would have never happened if it wasn't for him, because I would have never thought of this,” said Scherer.
“And I think that if you work together, do it properly, it can turn into something good,” said Blake.
Scherer said working with people on a creative project is all about collaboration. “Classic example here was the beginning of the story, and he didn't know where to take it. And I didn't know where to take it at first,” he said.
With time the plot of the book came together.
“And honestly, I just thought it was a good idea that could possibly be turned into a book. And one that I could tell to a lot of people in the future,” said Blake.
Midge Goes Crackers! is about their family dog Midge who enjoys playing with her stuffed squirrel. One day the squirrel goes missing and a real squirrel named Crackers is the one who took it thinking Midge was hurting the stuffed squirrel. Blake, Logan and their father kept buying Midge stuffed squirrels and they kept going missing.
Hootey the owl comes in to tell Crackers the squirrels aren’t real and what he was doing was stealing. Crackers apologizes to Midge and they end up sharing the stuffed squirrels.
“Then naturally in this book here, the whole premise is you can't steal, you can't cheat, you can't take something that don't belong to you,” Scherer said.
The story is based off of Midge losing her stuffed squirrel which was found behind the couch.
Blake’s Grade 7 classmates think it’s awesome he wrote a book. “Everyone calls me famous,” he said.
After seeing his brother and grandfather work together on their book Logan decided to write his own book. The story just has to be expanded, said Scherer.
Logan thinks Midge Goes Crackers! goes “above and beyond.”
Logan and Blake don’t necessarily want to become writers when they’re older but appreciate the creativity from creating stories. Logan wants to be a YouTuber and Blake wants to be a chef.