In April 2020, First Lady Tammy Murphy launched the “Tammy’s Tremendous Tuesday Tales” series to engage with young students and encourage them to expand their minds and imaginations through the joys of reading. Since then, the First Lady has read over 170 books and counting every Tuesday to her young audience. The series, posted on her social media and watched by thousands of young viewers, emphasizes the voices of diverse authors from New Jersey and around the world and explores different cultures, holidays, experiences, and points of view.

“Reading is an essential skill for young learners to succeed academically,” said First Lady Tammy Murphy. “However, the benefits of reading to young children go far beyond improving language skills and include expanding their imaginations and helping them develop empathy. Highlighting New Jersey’s incredible children’s authors – and revisiting a few of my children’s favorites – has been a pleasure and I look forward to continuing to share these stories and encouraging a lifelong love of reading in our youngest residents.”

“There is no better way to understand the lives and stories of others than by reading,” said Governor Murphy. “Unfortunately, in recent months we have seen an attempt to whitewash and water down our nation’s education system to cover up and censor the stories and experiences of others past and present. In New Jersey, we will not hide from our past, but learn from it. We will not suppress people’s voices, but amplify them.”

Tammy’s Tremendous Tuesday Tales has explored the works of many authors both from New Jersey and around the world, including Beth Ferry, Paul Czajak, Damian Alan Lopez, Amy B. Mucha, and Pooja Makhijani. The series covers topics ranging from famous Americans to climate change, voting rights, cultural and religious holidays, gender identity, and women’s history, and most recently Juneteenth, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and Pride Month.

Catch the latest episode of Tammy’s Tremendous Tuesday Tales by following the First Lady on Facebook at @FirstLadyNJ.

To view all episodes, click here.

[photo credit] Flickr: Phil Murphy