Sag Harbor’s Madelyn Simon Uses Her Love of Nature To Create Children’s Books

Sag Harbor resident Madelyn Simon has spent her life creating. After running a thriving landscaping business where she harnessed her passion for nature to craft stunning outdoor spaces, she switched gears and decided to devote her retirement to authoring children’s books. These series of stories are set in the enchanting Mungo Bungo Jungle, offering equally captivating and picturesque settings.

The books follow Poppy the toucan and her friends, Margie the elephant and Sticky Fingers the monkey. There are also all the typical tropical creatures, like jaguars, butterflies and lizards. Brimming with fun, joy and playfulness, these stories promise an engaging read for the audience, and are geared to ages four to eight.

“It’s about the theme of friendship in a heartfelt and meaningful way,” Simon said of her books. “And it invites young readers to reflect on their own relationships and how they can better connect with others. But it’s also fun and funny.”

Despite the toucan protagonist, the sloth is Simon’s favorite character. “It has a smile on his face all the time,” she said.

Simon has published five books, with a sixth written and waiting for illustration. She has spread her books throughout the East End, with readings at local libraries, including the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton and the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor, where she appeared in mid-January.

“It was really cute, and we had a big turnout in Sag Harbor,” she said.

Simon has had a home in Sag Harbor since 2006, but she also has a place in Manhattan.

“I love it out there, and I love it in Manhattan,” she said. “We’re fortunate to be in the best of both worlds.”

Despite living in the city, Simon has an innate love of nature, especially plants and animals. Simon went to school for interior design, and worked for Newark Airport for four years as a designer. But her hobby was her plants, which grew to a passion that took up 40 hours a week.

She started a landscaping company, Madelyn Simon & Associates Inc., in 1979, which designed, installed and cared for indoor and outdoor landscaping. The company grew to over 700 clients and 100 employees. Simon loved her work, and more importantly, felt it had a positive impact on the city.

“Landscaping in Manhattan was really affecting people in a good way,” she said. “We would add beauty and nature to their otherwise office environment. And we did outside, we did parks, we did terraces and corporations indoors. A plant in a pot in the corner.”

After Simon sold her company in 2006, she still wanted to make an impact but wasn’t sure what she should do. She began to paint and was inspired to tell stories, like she did with her own daughter, who made her tell three stories each night before bed when she was young.

Given her love of nature, when it came time to create characters for her kids books, picking animals from the tropics felt right.

“A tropical jungle is like my soul home” she said. “It feels right. It feels delicious. To have characters in the tropic with flowers and fragrance — it’s just, it’s great.”

During the pandemic, Simon began painting toucans. After completing her artwork, she felt the toucans she had created could have something to say.

“I said to myself, ‘Well, the toucans need a story. You just can’t paint the toucans.’ So then I started to write these stories, and it was so fun to develop these fun stories.”

As she produces more books, Simon feels they are getting better and she feels creatively freer. She’s inspired, as she once again feels she’s making an impact, this time on the children who read her books. Her most recent story — “Poppy Says, ‘It’s Okay, You’re Okay!’” — is all about welcoming people and focuses on a new friend arriving in the Mungo Bungo Jungle, as the main characters try to make them feel welcome.

“It’s a wonderful thing for kids to hear, that you’re welcome here … and every kid is worried about being different or picked on,” she said. “I think to have a fun, colorful picture book, talking about how you’re really okay no matter what. It’s a lovely thing.”

The last page of each of Simon’s books contains fun facts, like that macaw parrots have the intelligence of a toddler and they like to repeat things. Different books also deal with different themes. For example, the first book, “Poppy and the Gold Ring,” tells the tale of Poppy and friends dressing up for an event. Despite the glamour and grandeur, the characters still did not feel whole.

“It felt kind of empty, but when they were dancing with each other in the sunshine, that was glorious,” said Simon.

The second book in the series, which tells a sweet story about siblings, is Simon’s favorite. She got the idea from a visit to a friend’s house when the friend’s granddaughter shared that she doesn’t play piano simply because she will never be as good as her sister.

“People quit because they think they’re not good at something when they don’t even try. And that’s true for adults too,” said Simon.

Simon recently traveled to Costa Rica, where she photographed the animals that make it into her books, which are illustrated by Michael Sherman.

“I learned about the animals, and the more you know about the animals, the more interesting it is because you want the knowledge of them to shine through to the story,” she said. “And I think the fun facts at the end … why shouldn’t the kids learn the real stuff about these animals? It’s fascinating.”

For more information about Madelyn Simon’s books, visit madelynsimon.com.