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Small Bugs, Big Ideas
In Znail Valley, every story is designed to spark more than just imagination – it’s meant to open up conversations. This page is here to give grown-ups (parents, teachers, librarians, caregivers) a behind-the-scenes look at the themes woven into each book.
Here you’ll find the intent of each book, suggested talking points and questions, and ideas for helping kids connect the story to their own thoughts, feelings, and friendships. Because sometimes, the smallest bugs help us learn the biggest lessons.
The story behind the story
“Pebble Ball Pals” was written out of love, and through a really hard time of being different, and struggling to make friends. Lee was made out of a need for representation: how do you help a child through identity when all the examples are binary? How do you talk about feeling excluded and validating the experience? What to look for instead?
Key themes
The biggest question of the book was intended to be: what makes a good friend? How do you find one? Kids are constrained in the environments they can make connections; but they still need guidance on what friendship should look and feel like. Is it really a friend if they keep rejecting you? Excluding you?
The story behind the story
“What’s That Sound” was written with two goals in mind. The first goal is to give the reader – the child – a central role. The “sound”, whether it’s in the reader’s head or out loud, is the reader themself. I wanted to send the message that the little reader matters a lot.
The secondary goal was to make it fun, and to explore funny to say out loud sounds in the process.
Key themes
The reader matters! I’d love the discussion to be: what are the signs earlier in the book that the mystery sound is the reader? How can you tell?
I’d also want to know which sounds are the most fun to our budding readers.