Bigfork artist Larry Janoff’s 7-year-old granddaughter died unexpectedly 10 years ago and the book he wrote and illustrated for her spent the last decade sitting on his shelf.

Then two weeks ago, “Wimley The Worm Wants a New Home” went from gathering dust on the shelf to commemorating Jessie Geyer’s memory, while also teaching young children about different types of fruit and wildlife.

“After her death, I gave up and shelved it since then,” Janoff said. “My heart just wasn’t in it any more after Jessie died.”

Jessie died of a blood infection that stemmed from a skinned knee from inline skating in 2003.

She was Larry and Yvonne Janoff’s first grandchild and the first daughter of Bigfork’s Michelle Massey. She loved to read and go on walks with her grandfather.

“Jessie would just love her books. She loved them more than anything,” Janoff said. “We used to walk sidewalks after the rain and the worms would come out of the lawns and be dead on the sidewalk, and I would say, ‘Look, he drowned,’ so I said, ‘Let’s do a trials and tribulations of a worm since she is a bookworm.’”

“Wimley” is a short story about a bookworm who is tired of living in the ground where his books get dirty, so he goes to a nearby orchard in search of a new home. But he discovers that squirrels also like peaches, pigs also enjoy pears and robins hang out around apples. The book’s moral is “the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.”

Janoff is known for his career in the fine arts with his works still on display across the country even after his retirement. His artistic roots trace back to cartooning for magazines from the late 1950s through the mid-1970s.

“Wimley” maintains his signature style but with a cartoon flair, drawn by hand and done in acrylics.

“It was hard to get things to rhyme, to get that flow and make things rhyme,” Janoff said.

He said “Wimley” was turned down for publication the first time, but his sister, Arline Flint, encouraged Janoff to give publication another try.

Janoff said it’s easier to get books published now than it was 10 years ago. After some small changes and a cleanup on Photoshop by his wife, “Wimley the Worm” was published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing last month. It is available at www.amazon.com and www.tower.com

Janoff said he is considering making another “Wimley” book, but he’s waiting to see what happens now that the first one was published.