Cranford Moms Capture the Magic of Summer in New Children’s Book ‘Summer in Our Town’

Happy First Day of Summer! In a heartfelt celebration of Cranford, NJ’s charm, local moms Kathleen Reilly Streicher and Meg Solebello have teamed up to create a children’s book that captures the magic of summer in our beloved town. Summer in Our Town is a love letter to Cranford, beautifully blending Kathleen’s lyrical storytelling with Meg’s enchanting watercolor illustrations.

Inspired by their own experiences strolling through Cranford’s picturesque streets and parks with their children, this book invites neighbors and families to rediscover the simple joys and hidden treasures of their community. Readers are reminded of the beauty and connection that can be found in their own backyard, making this a must-read for every Cranford resident. Read our exclusive interview to find out more about the inspiration behind the book, the collaborative process, and the personal memories that make this story so special. Plus, discover the hidden “Easter Eggs” in the illustrations that add an extra layer of fun and nostalgia for our local readers!

What inspired you to write this book, and how did you come up with the concept of a summer stroll as the central theme?

Kathleen: Nature has always been a source of inspiration for me. Sitting outside with a cup of coffee and writing is something I truly enjoy. I think this love reached new levels during the pandemic when with young children (both under 5 at the time!), we were given few other options than to spend time on walks outside together, in our little pods! Now I realize that during those many strolls, I was connecting with my child, and my child with nature. While this was happening I was reconnecting with myself on those walks, through my town, in the summer. I want my children to know how special that time will forever be to me.

Can you share more about the process of collaborating on this project? How did you first get together and decide to create this book?

Kathleen: This ENTIRE process has been about taking one brave leap after another! I had never met Meg, but saw a beautiful watercolor house portrait she painted and shared on @thecranfordcreative. It was exactly the dreamy look I envisioned for my summer stroll, and perfectly matched my vision for the book.

Meg: This book began one day in Track 5 Coffee in a “30 minutes with Meg” discovery meeting that Kathleen booked on my site, www.megsolebello.com. Her message read that she was “a first-time author in Cranford hoping to produce a children’s book based on walks around Cranford with my small children.” I immediately lit up for this opportunity to illustrate and design a book! Even more because this was a concept that I was already so connected to!

Kathleen: I woke up to her eager response, and soon learned that she too had recently taken a giant leap into a more creative, fulfilling full-time career. She also walked her babies around town, noticing and appreciating the same natural gifts. It’s been so special to channel our shared “WHY” for this book, using her artwork and my words to write this love note to our children and our town.

Are there specific landmarks or places in Cranford that are depicted in the book?

Kathleen: We had SO many ideas and iterations of different beloved spots! We thought of so many businesses and/or people we would have loved to feature – but we landed with the sites, unnamed, that best captured the sensory experience of a summer’s day, and that an individual can interpret and make their own. That’s also why I don’t say “Mom” or “Dad” but instead say “we,” or “a friend.” I want this to be something a child, grandparent, parent, or any reader can make their own.

Kathleen, you mentioned that the book is a love note to your children and your town. Can you elaborate on some personal memories that are woven into the story?

Our cover models are two actual Cranford residents, named Dan and Harry. On any weekday, you will see Dan and Harry at the local Track 5 Coffee shop. During the pandemic, they couldn’t sit inside, and so Dan and Harry sat by the clock at Eastman Plaza sipping coffee instead. My then 2-year-old son (an old soul) became fast friends with them, despite the 75+ age difference! Every day we would walk to meet them by the clock to watch the trains and buses go by, name the birds, and find connection during an especially isolating time.

I learned so much about their lives, including Dan’s stories of his adult children and his successful business career. We also found out that Harry is a birder, a writer, and has sung in many of the greatest opera houses in the world and with some of the finest singers! After living in places as diverse as Barcelona, Philadelphia, and New York, he’s settled with living in Cranford, NJ! I deeply appreciate our multi-generational friendship, and I wanted the book to reflect the beauty of nature and connection – not just for children, but for all of us!

How were the locations chosen, and what role did these spots play in your personal lives as well as the story? Are there any hidden messages?

Meg: Within the locations shown, I wanted the audience to be able to relive their own family moments and memories. Some are intentionally drawn without detail, have the characters’ backs to the audience, and are shown close-up, to leave them open to interpretation for the viewer to place themselves in some of the scenes. Let’s dive right in to reveal what is captured – in reliving some of our moments, memories, and rituals in these special spots, in our town!

• The clock spread at Eastman Plaza is dedicated to the connections we all make at the Clock Plaza – meeting up with friends, or new people for the first time, and the friendship that Kathleen and her family made with Dan and Harry. If you have ever stepped foot inside or near Track 5, you may recognize them here. And Harry is holding a Track 5 cup to represent this special place to us where it all began.
• The book begins with Kathleen’s husband helping their son put on his sneakers. I wanted to start close and intimate, to pull the viewer in along the journey…
• The driveway with chalk drawings depicts our children’s real drawings and signatures that I had created from photographs. I wanted to work these in to showcase their own artwork in the published book. (The blue watercolor washes on the end pages with the heron drawings also include a mix of my brushstrokes, along with my children’s!)
• The child with ice cream is Kathleen’s daughter from when she was a toddler. The age and photo were perfect with her little baby squat, chubby wrists, and cheeks being so universal to that age!
• The page with the clouds is Nomahegan Park and features a family that I met and modeled for me pointing at the clouds on Mother’s Day 2023. My husband Mike, daughter Molly, and son Michael are an “easter egg” here, painted from photographs I have of them fishing in the Mohawk Park pond near our house. I chose to leave the fountain out at Nomahegan pond to represent that. Included in cloud shapes from left to right are a horse, a smile, a fish, a whale, a turtle, a kangaroo, a heart, an elephant, and a T-rex.
• The bus, with a view of the Cranford Theater, represents my days riding NJT transit for the years after moving to Cranford. Hickory and Hill’s rocking chairs facing the bus driving away symbolize the transition from my career in the city to being present locally and the change of pace from the city to small town.
• I wanted to feature the First Presbyterian Church of Cranford for the years my son went to Helen K Baldwin, and the special moments we shared after school playing out front in the yard, across the street in the gazebo, and throwing rocks in the river.
• Droescher’s Mill features our nature-loving and exploring sons pointing to the blue heron.
• The canoe and turtles from Rahway River near the Cranford Canoe Club are illustrated from photographs I had taken from family kayak outings from The Canoe Club.
• The flower fields behind Dreyer Farms were the inspiration for the flowers, butterfly, woodpecker, doves, and bee page. I sat out in this field where I participated in The Artist Framer en Plein Air event this past September.
• My daughter (from a younger age) and I are painted on the second to last page – to capture the beauty and connection of the mother-daughter bond, and the desire to capture the stillness of our children growing up.
• And the final page is a painting of Kathleen and her children walking hand-in-hand down the path in Hanson Park.

Kathleen: My children and I often take my old disposable cameras and go on “beauty hunts” around town, where we snap photos of everything and anything we find to be beautiful or interesting. That activity truly does change your “lens,” and theirs! It trains your eye to see the beauty that is always available to you, which could be something as simple as the way light shines through a window, a dandelion grows in a sidewalk crack, or two friends smile when laughing together on an early morning.

I think Cranford has an exceptional number of beautiful, accessible parks that give people of all ages space to dream, connect, move, and make memories together. It’s such a gift to the people who live and love here! We all walk these same paths so often over the years with our toddlers, teens, parents, and friends – we unwittingly begin to memorize where the sidewalk cracks, puddles collect, or paths turn! These local spots truly serve as the backdrops for our “good old days.”

What are the key messages you hope children and their families take away from this book?

Kathleen: Our central theme is “Look! There is beauty everywhere! And it’s yours to share, admire, sit with, and feed into some creative expression of your own.” That’s why the last page of the book provides space for the reader to draw or write their own summer stroll. The joy of nature, and the creativity and peace those experiences yield, are totally free and available to all of us!

How important is the theme of connecting with nature and spending time outdoors in the story?

Kathleen: I guess I’m trying to capture and name something we all already know but sometimes forget. The best memories made aren’t typically manufactured, and they usually don’t cost a thing. The sweetest moments together often involve a slow stroll, a cool breeze, a deep breath, a familiar park, and the company of living things (people, birds, trees, or otherwise!).

How has the book been received by the community so far? Are there any memorable reactions or feedback you’d like to share?

Kathleen: We are blown away! Everyone has been so supportive. Grandparents are buying the book for grown children and grandchildren who live far away. Parents are buying for teachers, people are filling their “Little Free Libraries,” and one grad from the CHS Class of 1981 ordered three copies the first day and had them shipped to Ohio to show his family Meg’s depictions of the place where he grew up!

We even had one order from THE Tooth Fairy! It is SUCH a joy to hand-deliver these gifts to people of all ages locally, and to ship them to places as far as Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, and California. I LOVE writing the personalized messages from parents to their children. They are often thanking them for the cherished memories they’ve made together. I tear up nearly every time.

Meg: The feedback has exceeded my expectations. People are coming up to us saying how much they love the book, and how the simple message and Kathleen’s beautiful writing has touched so many and brought them to tears. Children also get a kick out of sharing with us that they have read our book and love it! Knowing how loved and appreciated my work is, truly warms my heart. It makes the tedious work poured into every visual detail all worth it. It is something that I am proud of, and I hope will live on in a corner of a library someday after I am gone.

What impact do you hope this book will have on readers, especially within your local community?

Kathleen: We want everyone to know that they too have dreams that are planted in them for a reason. And they too can take leaps (or baby steps) of faith – no matter their age, income, or life situation – to make something that will not only serve their own creative selves but might also shine a bright light on their communities. Go outside, notice the beauty that surrounds you, notice the beauty within you, and figure out how you want to share those gifts with others. We can’t wait to see what YOU do!

A few more questions for Kathleen…

Tell us a little bit about your background, family, and why you love living in Cranford!

I have always written, either in my day job raising money for nonprofit organizations, in the writer’s group I co-founded at the Cranford Library, or on my draft button poetry Instagram account, @cranfordnotes. A poem of mine was most recently published in Local Gems Press Spring 2024 edition. I grew up in Toms River, NJ. My husband is originally from Ohio, and we met while working in Princeton, NJ. We both worked in Manhattan and ended up in Cranford after our daughter was born in 2015. Cranford is such a friendly, supportive, creative community, and we are thrilled to raise our children here. I also serve on the Board of The Cranford Public Library, a spot where so many of our favorite memories have been made over the years.

How did your personal experiences as a local mother/wife influence the narrative and characters in the book?

The book is directly pulled from my experiences with my children here in Cranford (I swear I see a blue heron in the river 80% of the time, and there seriously are adorable bunnies everywhere!). I joke that we are living in a Disney movie!

But that said, I hope that children and families everywhere can relate to the healing, creative power of being outdoors with people you love. The heron could just as easily be a squirrel or a pigeon, or a tree, or a wind chime, or a sunset reflecting off a skyscraper! If your lens is looking for beauty, and if your heart is open and calm, you will be able to appreciate your surroundings and better connect to these special moments.

And a few questions for Meg…

Can you walk us through your illustration process? What mediums and techniques did you use to bring the story to life?

The book first took the shape of a very loose storyboard that I sketched out when Kathleen read her story to me the first time we sat down to meet. From there, more planning and scouting locations and taking lots of photos all around town took place. I needed to make sure the foundation and groundwork were in place before I could dive in. From that point, I went into quick pencil sketches of each page in the book that I created from photographs, and then into paint.

The illustrations in this book were rendered in watercolor to achieve the fluid, yet delicate balance of control and spontaneity. Pencil was then used to add lively expressive line work to capture the essence of the subjects. An oil pastel was also one of the mediums I used in the book. After the paintings were complete, I then composited them together and designed the book in Adobe InDesign.

Were there any particular artists or illustrators who inspired your work on this book?

Two illustrators’ work that I highly admire and am inspired by are Jon J Muth and Sebastian Meschenmoser. Muth has such a soft, atmospheric painterly quality and layout sensibility. And I love Meschenmoser’s expressive drawing quality, attention to detail, and dynamic compositions.

Can you share local events or community gatherings where the book has been featured?

• Thursday 6/20: Special Summer in Our Town Family Yoga at Alluem 3:00 PM
• Friday 6/21: Storytime and book signing at Max and Luna, 12 PM
• Friday, 7/12: Magic of Make Believe w/ Erin Hornberger and the Cranford Public Library at Hanson Park, 9:30-10:30 AM

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