Having a summertime birthday might mean not getting to celebrate with classmates in school, but it does mean having the freedom to embrace all the great things about summer while celebrating, something many appreciate locally. In her second children’s book, Breezy Point resident Jane O’Hara highlights all of the magic of a summer birthday in “A Summertime Birthday.”
Some may remember O’Hara from her first book, “A Thanksgiving Birthday.” The idea of celebrating a birthday at a unique time was inspired by her own family. “My son was born on Christmas Eve, my husband’s birthday is Halloween, and my birthday is the day after St. Patrick’s Day, so it’s always been a thing for us that our birthdays are holidays,” O’Hara told The Rockaway Times when her first book was released in fall 2024. At the time, she was already working on her next iterations, a Christmas version and a summertime version.
In September 2025, “A Summertime Birthday” was released, but with summer officially in fully swing, O’Hara is ready to share her latest children’s book with all of those celebrating a birthday in the summer, like Sophia Santiago, her friend’s daughter who served as a source of inspiration for the book. “I was working on the Christmas book and one of my friend’s daughters would not stop talking about her birthday in the summer. I had her with me and we were walking and came across a girl selling bracelets and Sophia said, ‘I want the one that says summer. My birthday is in summer.’ It was so cute,” O’Hara said.
The summer friendship bracelet and Sophia herself are among some of the illustrations in the book, done by Half Hafren, who has local ties. While O’Hara went with the illustrator provided by the self-publishing company, Page Publishing, for her first book, with more experience under her belt, she opted to go for someone who could add a more personal touch to this one. “The illustrator has local connections and is super familiar with Breezy and Rockaway and really helped bring the images to life. I was able to have more engaged back and forth with her to make tweaks and frame some of the writing edit around the illustrations, so it was more fun to work with someone who had connections to the neighborhood,” O’Hara explained.
Author Jane O’Hara
And those connections come through clearly to those who live locally. What better way to write a book about summertime birthdays than to feature a community that lives for summer? “This is about all of the little things that you can do to celebrate your birthday in the summertime, and we know here why it’s better than any other time of the year,” O’Hara said. Some may recognize familiar scenes like the Breezy Point lighthouse and the Rockaway ferry gracing the cover of the book. Dive deeper into the pages and you’ll find more familiar sights like the Riis Park clock, Roxbury’s former Sugar Shack, The Dugout at the baseball fields in Breezy Point, a pool with some slides inspired by those found at the Breezy Point Surf Club, and of course, the beach in Breezy Point. “I thought it was one of those things where if you’re not from here, it just looks generic and beachy, but if you are, it’s more fun and adds to it so people from the neighborhood can identify with it,” O’Hara said. Plus, there are references to other summertime activities for those who explore birthday options beyond a beach town, like a day on the river.
In “A Summertime Birthday,” O’Hara also introduces a new character, who will become a staple in her birthday books going forward. Snacks the Troll, who likes to steal birthday snacks, can be found throughout the pages, with a note asking readers to see if they can spot him, giving a more interactive, fun element to the book. “On one page, you’ll find Snacks the Troll licking an ice cream cone over a kid’s shoulder when he’s not looking,” O’Hara said. “It’s just a fun way to keep the child engaged and make it an activity, not just something to thumb through in five minutes.”
Since starting to promote her book in May, O’Hara has taken it right to the target audience by reading it at a few schools including her son’s school in Breezy Point, P.S./M.S. 105, The Bay School in Far Rockaway, a school in Brooklyn and one in Rockville Center. “It went great,” O’Hara said. “There’s a lot of excitement when you get to Snacks the Troll. Kids love looking for him. Plus, it’s fun for kids to read it, especially local kids who identify with some of it.”
One of the book’s biggest fans, of course, is Sophia Santiago. “She loves it, she’s obsessed. She’s on the cover with my son, Gregory, and in a lot of it, which was really fun. Some of the other illustrations reflect some of my other friends’ kids too, so that’s fun,” O’Hara said.
O’Hara is already set to release book three, “A Christmastime Birthday,” which will be about those who celebrate a birthday around December and early January, but she’s waiting for the perfect time. “I’m waiting to release it for when it’s closer to the holidays,” O’Hara said. And she’s already thinking about what other holiday or special time of year she can highlight in future books.
In the meantime, “A Summertime Birthday” is available for purchase wherever books are sold, including Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
