Messy May
May 2025 Edition of the Super Readers Club
Hiya Super Readers! May is getting a little messy: allergies, muddy puddles and the growing pains of the changing seasons. Are you feeling it? These days I’m sneezing my way through sharing new work, while holding myself to task on books that won’t release til the end of the year. Sometimes you just have to embrace the mess! And that’s what we’re doing here today in the Super Readers Club! Enjoy a NEW Kitty & Cat comic, sing Happy Book Birthday to Muddy Puddles, catch up with illustrator
in the NEW kidlit interview, and then slow down with the gentle picture book Hello, New House!The Funnies
If you were a cat, would you be an indoor cat or an outdoor cat? While my spirit is totally outdoor adventure, my body is more let’s-stay-inside thanks to a fun little affliction called allergies! Oy! How about you?
Muddy Puddles Book Birthday
I’m thrilled to announce that the new picture book Muddy Puddles, from myself and celebrated children’s musician, Laura Doherty, is now available EVERYWHERE books are sold! Yahoo! Get ready to giggle as Muddy Puddles the Pig adventures across the widest, deepest, muddiest mud puddle of all to discover a springtime surprise on the other side: a hootenanny beach party!
• READ/SING the book at home, school or library!
• LISTEN to the song that inspired the book!
• PLAY the song on an instrument! BONUS chorus sheet music included in the book!
• MOVE along to the story/song! BONUS movement guide included in the book!
• ORDER from your favorite booksellers:
Super Story Time LIVE
I’m excited to invite you to this month’s Super Story Time LIVE with a very talented special guest: Zara González Hoang! Hooray! Zara will be reading her lovely new picture book, Yay! And I’ll be reading Teddy’s Bear Takes a Tumble (which—if you can believe it—is turning 1 year old this month!) Join us this WED 5/14 at 1pm EST over on Instagram! (Or check out the recording once it posts over on the Super Jane YouTube channel! ;)
Mini Interview with Zara González Hoang
Q: What is your most favorite page or spread from Yay!? Tell us about it!
ZARA: My favorite spread in Yay! is the second spread, "For every try. For practicing again and again," and the third spread that comes right after it.
Those spreads show a young ballerina trying to dance—at first she's a little hesitant, not sure she is doing it right but then getting a bit more confident until you turn the page and "YAY!" She's on stage and soaring.
I like these two pages because I really loved creating the character, I think she was one of the first that came to me as I was making the art for Yay! She's not the stereotypical ballerina—when I am creating characters, I try to think deeply about who they are and what type of child they might speak to. To be honest, I maybe think too deeply about it sometimes and stress myself out by overthinking—but if that overthinking comes out as thoughtful characters that kids relate to then I feel like I've succeeded! And anyway, I just really liked drawing and redrawing her and I loved making the second page, the "YAY!" page for that sentence. It was just so joyful to make.
Q: As an author-illustrator, you’ve done lots of school visits. What are some of the most funny/interesting/best things a kiddo has said to you while visiting their school?
ZARA: I love doing school visits—talking and drawing with the kids is my absolute favorite thing to do. Kids say so many interesting things, but I think some of my favorite moments are when I get to connect with kids on a personal level.
I remember a moment at a school visit I did earlier this year where after I introduced myself, a kid eagerly raised his hand and told me that he and I shared the same last name—and later when I was signing a book for him we started talking and I told him my family was from Puerto Rico and got super excited because that is where he was from too and we had an nice little chat and I felt like we connected, it was great.
Or there was another instance where I was doing a series of school visits at the same school and I was there multiple days in a row and there was a girl one of the classes that was a bit chaotic and I wasn't sure if I connected with her, but when I was walking into the school the next day I saw her and I struck up a conversation with her as we went in and I said her name as we were talking and I could see her eyes light up...because I had cared enough to remember her name.
These little moments of connection, they are so important and they always remind me that being able to go into schools like this and connect with kids, through stories or language or just simply paying attention and listening to them, is so important and I feel so lucky to be able to be able to drop into schools do my silly presentations and be able to (hopefully!) inspire them a bit.
Q: What are you reading/watching/listening to these days that is inspiring you?
ZARA: I've been insanely busy this year with projects and also parenting, which is a constant push-pull in my life, so most of my media consumption has been of the light and mindless variety but a few things that stick out are:
Bad Bunny's Tiny Desk Concert (which I watched twice in a row and am already thinking about to watching again)—I'm a fan of Bad Bunny for many reasons, but his ability to be exactly who he is creatively regardless of what other people say or think is really inspiring.
Everything is Tuberculosis on Audiobook. I never read John Green's YA books, but his non-fiction books—read in his voice on audiobook have really been inspiring to me. I love that he spent the early part of his career writing YA and has pivoted to something completely different—obsessing about tuberculosis and then writing a book about it and also using his platform to advocate for change and attention. It is really inspiring.
On a more typically creative note, I've also been obsessed with learning (and trying to make) comics lately and so I've really been enjoying illustrator Andrew Tan's YouTube channel, Drewscape, which is a treasure trove of quick tips about comics and creativity. And Fionn McCabe's Substack, which is full of interesting comic exercises and tips as well as this comics song by Lucy Knisley that explains comics and how to make them in a super simple way that I will be sharing in future school visits with kids because it is amazing!
• Visit Zara & all her beautiful books HERE!
National Moving Month
As spring slides toward summer, the seasonal shift can be a time of change. The school year winds down. Little kiddos get bigger. What once served is traded for sometime new—whether it’s a toy, a school or even a dwelling. Since it’s #NationalMovingMonth, I thought it would be lovely to highlight the picture book, Hello, New House! It reflects my real life move from the west coast to the east coast back in 2016.
But even if moving house isn’t in your plans, this gentle story can serve as a comforting mantra during times of change. Try reading it at home, school or your local library!
BONUS: Enjoy the printable companion activity kit HERE! Woot, woot!
See You Later, Alligator
As ever, thank you so much for being here, Super Readers! I hope you’ll give Muddy Puddles and Hello, New House a read. Maybe even leave em’ a book review if they make you smile? And if you haven’t yet enjoyed the SRC Spring Activity Kit from the March edition, I encourage you to give it a try while we’re still in the season!
Looking ahead, please note that Super Story Time LIVE will be taking a break in June. But don’t worry—it’ll be back in July with special guest Joyce Wan! And June will still be exciting, because you have the NEW Summer Activity Kit to look forward to! Yay! Until then, I hope you’ll embrace whatever mess is yours and gently slide right into the long summer dayz ahead…