November 23, 2025 • 11 mins
We spoke with Co-Authors, Kathryn Mucciacciaro and Roberto Mucciacciaro, about their children's book Dreams Need Time to Grow.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Access. I'm
Allison de Murz. My guests this morning are Roberto Muccharo
and Katie Muchicharo, and they've written a book together called
Dreams Need Time to Grow. Good morning, Good morning. So
you guys are from the Connecticut area.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah, they're both from Waterbury.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I love that I was born and raised in Waterbury.
Can't take the Waterbury out of the girl.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
That's awesome. Sure.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
So the book is called Dreams Need Time to Grow.
How did this come about? Were you just sitting on
the couch one day, laying in bed and it just
came to you?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, great question. Yeah. So Juliana our first daughter. When
she was born, obviously we were reading through her every night,
and my wife and I she's an educator and I
teach as well, and we're thinking to ourselfs, Hey, you know,
we could write a book. When we started just thinking
about different themes and ideas, and we figured if we're
going to have another child in the future, we would
(00:57):
want to wait for that individual to be part of
book as well. And when Sophia was born and in August,
we had the script ready to go, and we just
wanted to really encourage and inspire you know, both our
daughters as they grow through their childhood and into their
adult lives. So we sat down rewrote it. And the
goal really is to you know, help inspire them, but
(01:18):
then help inspire the kids as well too. So that's
really the premis of why we wanted to write the book.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Mm hmm. And without giving away the entire book, what
is the book about.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It's really a message around pursuing your dreams, right, you know,
whether it's growing in your career or going after a
goal of yours, you're always going to have some trials
and tribulations. And the story follows Juliana as she's trying
to quote unquote grow her own garden, and she's facing
some issues along the way, and you know, she realizes
she has to work through those obstacles for her garden
(01:52):
eventually grow, which it does, right. And the overall ing
and messages you know, as you're growing in your life,
you're going to face some trials and tribulations with session
and stop you from pursuing whatever you know you want
to pursue in your future.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
And I think one of the key things is that
she realized she could do it with the help of
her parents.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, exactly. And you know, you're alway going to have
a supporting cast around you, whether that's your parents, your friends,
your families, your mentors, and you know, you got to
rely on them to help you get through those difficult times.
And hopefully as she get TODER and sociated TODER, they
realize that, you know, they'll have constant support around them
to achieve their codes.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I love that because, just being honest, they hit a
certain age and they look at you, the parents, and
they're like, you don't know anything, you know, and the
parents are so unconditional and so loving, and the kids
are angry or you know, because of whatever's happened in
their lives or just hormones or whatever, and they can't
(02:54):
take it out on their friends because their friends will bail. Yeah,
so they'll take it out on us.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
And then when their brain is fully formed at maybe
twenty three, twenty four, they come back to us and
they're like, oh, I love you.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You know, they finally get it exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
And that's so true because we're so close with our
parents as well. So that's totally true. And I hope
that one day, our girls can be as close as
we are with our parents.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Well, you know, Katie, I have two daughters, twenty one
and twenty nine, and we are so tight. I mean
it's almost unhealthy really that we're so, so, so, so close.
But from eleven to twenty three I needed botox. I
was going to look like the crypt keeper. They drove
me crazy. And I see lovely couples at restaurants sometimes
(03:47):
and they'll have daughters, and I want to say to them,
you don't know, like your life is over. It's going
to be hell for like ten years, but I promise
you they'll come back to you.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, I'm most services about doing the hair. Katie to
me about that, I guess I'll have to struggle with that.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Oh that is just so funny. Just to get back
to the book for a moment. So the character is Juliana.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
And Sophia is in there as well. So yeah, Julia
is the main character per se.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
So each of the instances in the book are things
that actually happened, Like she actually did get seeds because
she's always in the garden with her grandmother and Rob's
aunt Zizi.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
In the book. And the balloon is the balloon that
my parents gave Juliana that she lost and it flew
up into the sky. So like each of those things
were very important for us to you know, include in
the book.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
And does she have big blue eyes? I'm assuming that.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah, all right, Illustrated did a really good job of
incorporating all over her key features and into it.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
So tell me why are you both passionate about education
and reading, especially for children.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
So Rob and I both grew up in working class families.
Ducations was always important to us. And you know, people
can take away everything from you, but they can't take
away your education and being a teacher. I mean, I
see firsthand the importance of being read too. I'm not
sure if you're familiar with like the million words theory.
The million word theory is that students that are read
(05:20):
to as a child are familiar with one point four
million more words than those who are not read to
by the time of the start kindergarten.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
That's just incredible, yes, amazing.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
So, I mean reading to Juliana and Sofia has been
something that Rob is very passionate about. And make sure
we read a book or two every single day.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
How old are your children now?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Juliana is going to be four and Sophia is three
months born in August.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Wow, congratulations, thank you. And why do you think you
chose following your dreams as the overall theme of the book.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
My main job is I work at Disney as a recruiter,
and I'm always unlocking the door to Disney, which is
many peoplelu dreams and my dream job was to get
to ESPN and Walt Disney Company as well. And oftentimes
I'm having conversations with individuals who are struggling to pursue
their dreams or they're trying to reach their dreams, and
they when they finally do, they realize how long it
(06:17):
took them to get there. So the idea for us was,
you know, how could we inspire the next generation of
kids or adults who are pursuing whatever dream they're going
after and just giving them the encouragement to know like
things are going to you know, be a little bit
difficult along the way, right, but eventually those dreams will
become a reality if you stick to it.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Beautiful and you have a passion for helping others and
giving back.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah. Yeah, So a few years ago, my wife and
I we started the Muchcharo Family Scholarship, which is to
help Waterbury students go to school. It was designed for
first generation Americans to get some money to time to college.
I'm a firstborn generation American myself, so I was passionate
about that. But then we also volunteer and we try
(07:02):
to get back as much as we can, whether that's
helping out within the local communities or just helping others
out wherever they need. Coming up, actually in December, we're
going to have Juliana focus on twelve days of giving
back leaning up to Christmas. And it's gonna be small things, right,
whether that's you know, running a car to somebody at
a convalescent home, or sending a thank you card to
somebody at the firehouse or police department in our local town,
(07:24):
whatever it might be. You know, it's gonna be just
small things so that she always knows that she has
to give back as well.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yes, it's so gratifying for them and for the person receiving.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
It, exactly exactly we got to. You know, you start small,
those habits become second nature, right and hopefully she turns
on passes on to her kids. Same thing with Sophia
as well.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Absolutely and again you may not see it throughout the years,
just speaking from experience because mine are so old, but
I see it now.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Oh, it's so beautiful that they love mankind and their
hearts are good and they get it when somebody's sick,
you should bring them meal or check in or qual
you know, so we give them that foundation for sure.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Tell me, are you donating partial funds of this book
to Saint Jude?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah? Yeah, so a lot of personally funds will be
going to the Saint Jude Foundation. The reason we, you know,
pick the Saint Jude Foundation was we know how stressful
it could be for families that are dealing with kids
that are going through cancer and you know, illness treatments,
and the last thing they probably want to focus on
is the finances of that. So when we're researching different nonprofits,
(08:33):
Saint Jude said out to us, just because of the
amount that they receive and amount that they give back
is incredible, and they do a lot of great work
for these families and whatever we could do that just
helpless in the burden that they might have, and that
capacity is something that we're trying to focus on. I know,
our donation will probably small compared to what they normally
(08:53):
receive when it's something to help them along the way.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Absolutely, every little bit helps, doesn't it. What do you
hope that pairs and children take away when they read
this book.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
I think the main thing that we want parents and
children to take away from this book is that you
can be anything that you dream. You can do anything
that you dream. There's going to be setbacks along the way,
but if you work hard, those dreams can become a reality,
and that reality can be great.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
What kind of response have you received from Juliana reading
the book?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
She's excited? Do you want to share a little bit?
What do you think about the book that's done?
Speaker 1 (09:28):
It's good, You're good, You're beautiful.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Princess Juliana loves the book. She loves reading the book
to her baby sister. She actually throught a few copies
to her school and we're going to be going into
her school and doing a craft that goes along with
the book, so she's really excited for that as well.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I just love that you're a married couple who wrote
this book together. It's just the beginning. So much more
is going to follow, and your children will follow in
your footsteps. It's a beautiful legacy. I always say that
great readers make great writers and make great speakers.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we've seen how important it is of
especially you know, being both an education system of you
could have what you just said right. If you have
strong readers, strong writers, and then eventually everything else falls
in line, it's so easy for them to get through
whatever life that's just thrown at them.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
I just think it's important that we have a book
of our own for Juliana to read, because Rob and
I are both avid readers. I mean she follows along
with what we do. We sit and read in our
free time, and we can see that now with her,
she always wants to go grab a book to read.
So if we can pass that along to other families too,
that would be great as well.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yes, that's what I was going to say. You're an
example to other families, the two of you together doing
this for your children. That's wonderful. You know, hopefully other
families will see this as well and say what can
we do together as a couple and as a family.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, no, for sure, and you Katie and I last,
since Juliana is the main character in this book, we're
probably enough to write. That's Sofia gets o toa realizes
that she's just a small portion of this book where
you have to prior right one to incorporate her as
the main character. Future.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yes, Oh, where do we get the book?
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah, so you can go to Amazon dot com in
order it through. Just type it in Dreams and Time
to Grow. It's actually now available on Barnes and Noble,
so if you type it into Barndenobo dot com you
could also find it there as well. We're planning on
doing a book reading with one of the Barnes and
Nobles as well, so we're excited for that. We're thinking
about the Southbury one at the turn of the year,
(11:32):
so well, once we have more information on that, we
can pass that along to everybody. Too.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Beautiful. I'm speaking with Roberto Muccharo and Katie Mucicharo. They're
a married couple who've written this beautiful book, Dreams Need
Time to Grow. Make sure you look forward on Amazon
and Barnes and Noble and they're going to be out
and about with it as well. Thank you so much
for being here today and for serving the community.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Thank you, We appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Thanks for having us
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Access. I'm
Allison de Murz. My guests this morning are Roberto Muccharo
and Katie Muchicharo, and they've written a book together called
Dreams Need Time to Grow. Good morning, Good morning. So
you guys are from the Connecticut area.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah, they're both from Waterbury.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I love that I was born and raised in Waterbury.
Can't take the Waterbury out of the girl.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
That's awesome. Sure.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
So the book is called Dreams Need Time to Grow.
How did this come about? Were you just sitting on
the couch one day, laying in bed and it just
came to you?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, great question. Yeah. So Juliana our first daughter. When
she was born, obviously we were reading through her every night,
and my wife and I she's an educator and I
teach as well, and we're thinking to ourselfs, Hey, you know,
we could write a book. When we started just thinking
about different themes and ideas, and we figured if we're
going to have another child in the future, we would
(00:57):
want to wait for that individual to be part of
book as well. And when Sophia was born and in August,
we had the script ready to go, and we just
wanted to really encourage and inspire you know, both our
daughters as they grow through their childhood and into their
adult lives. So we sat down rewrote it. And the
goal really is to you know, help inspire them, but
(01:18):
then help inspire the kids as well too. So that's
really the premis of why we wanted to write the book.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Mm hmm. And without giving away the entire book, what
is the book about.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It's really a message around pursuing your dreams, right, you know,
whether it's growing in your career or going after a
goal of yours, you're always going to have some trials
and tribulations. And the story follows Juliana as she's trying
to quote unquote grow her own garden, and she's facing
some issues along the way, and you know, she realizes
she has to work through those obstacles for her garden
(01:52):
eventually grow, which it does, right. And the overall ing
and messages you know, as you're growing in your life,
you're going to face some trials and tribulations with session
and stop you from pursuing whatever you know you want
to pursue in your future.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
And I think one of the key things is that
she realized she could do it with the help of
her parents.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, exactly. And you know, you're alway going to have
a supporting cast around you, whether that's your parents, your friends,
your families, your mentors, and you know, you got to
rely on them to help you get through those difficult times.
And hopefully as she get TODER and sociated TODER, they
realize that, you know, they'll have constant support around them
to achieve their codes.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I love that because, just being honest, they hit a
certain age and they look at you, the parents, and
they're like, you don't know anything, you know, and the
parents are so unconditional and so loving, and the kids
are angry or you know, because of whatever's happened in
their lives or just hormones or whatever, and they can't
(02:54):
take it out on their friends because their friends will bail. Yeah,
so they'll take it out on us.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
And then when their brain is fully formed at maybe
twenty three, twenty four, they come back to us and
they're like, oh, I love you.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You know, they finally get it exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
And that's so true because we're so close with our
parents as well. So that's totally true. And I hope
that one day, our girls can be as close as
we are with our parents.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Well, you know, Katie, I have two daughters, twenty one
and twenty nine, and we are so tight. I mean
it's almost unhealthy really that we're so, so, so, so close.
But from eleven to twenty three I needed botox. I
was going to look like the crypt keeper. They drove
me crazy. And I see lovely couples at restaurants sometimes
(03:47):
and they'll have daughters, and I want to say to them,
you don't know, like your life is over. It's going
to be hell for like ten years, but I promise
you they'll come back to you.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, I'm most services about doing the hair. Katie to
me about that, I guess I'll have to struggle with that.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Oh that is just so funny. Just to get back
to the book for a moment. So the character is Juliana.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
And Sophia is in there as well. So yeah, Julia
is the main character per se.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
So each of the instances in the book are things
that actually happened, Like she actually did get seeds because
she's always in the garden with her grandmother and Rob's
aunt Zizi.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
In the book. And the balloon is the balloon that
my parents gave Juliana that she lost and it flew
up into the sky. So like each of those things
were very important for us to you know, include in
the book.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
And does she have big blue eyes? I'm assuming that.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah, all right, Illustrated did a really good job of
incorporating all over her key features and into it.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
So tell me why are you both passionate about education
and reading, especially for children.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
So Rob and I both grew up in working class families.
Ducations was always important to us. And you know, people
can take away everything from you, but they can't take
away your education and being a teacher. I mean, I
see firsthand the importance of being read too. I'm not
sure if you're familiar with like the million words theory.
The million word theory is that students that are read
(05:20):
to as a child are familiar with one point four
million more words than those who are not read to
by the time of the start kindergarten.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
That's just incredible, yes, amazing.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
So, I mean reading to Juliana and Sofia has been
something that Rob is very passionate about. And make sure
we read a book or two every single day.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
How old are your children now?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Juliana is going to be four and Sophia is three
months born in August.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Wow, congratulations, thank you. And why do you think you
chose following your dreams as the overall theme of the book.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
My main job is I work at Disney as a recruiter,
and I'm always unlocking the door to Disney, which is
many peoplelu dreams and my dream job was to get
to ESPN and Walt Disney Company as well. And oftentimes
I'm having conversations with individuals who are struggling to pursue
their dreams or they're trying to reach their dreams, and
they when they finally do, they realize how long it
(06:17):
took them to get there. So the idea for us was,
you know, how could we inspire the next generation of
kids or adults who are pursuing whatever dream they're going
after and just giving them the encouragement to know like
things are going to you know, be a little bit
difficult along the way, right, but eventually those dreams will
become a reality if you stick to it.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Beautiful and you have a passion for helping others and
giving back.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah. Yeah, So a few years ago, my wife and
I we started the Muchcharo Family Scholarship, which is to
help Waterbury students go to school. It was designed for
first generation Americans to get some money to time to college.
I'm a firstborn generation American myself, so I was passionate
about that. But then we also volunteer and we try
(07:02):
to get back as much as we can, whether that's
helping out within the local communities or just helping others
out wherever they need. Coming up, actually in December, we're
going to have Juliana focus on twelve days of giving
back leaning up to Christmas. And it's gonna be small things, right,
whether that's you know, running a car to somebody at
a convalescent home, or sending a thank you card to
somebody at the firehouse or police department in our local town,
(07:24):
whatever it might be. You know, it's gonna be just
small things so that she always knows that she has
to give back as well.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yes, it's so gratifying for them and for the person receiving.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
It, exactly exactly we got to. You know, you start small,
those habits become second nature, right and hopefully she turns
on passes on to her kids. Same thing with Sophia
as well.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Absolutely and again you may not see it throughout the years,
just speaking from experience because mine are so old, but
I see it now.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Oh, it's so beautiful that they love mankind and their
hearts are good and they get it when somebody's sick,
you should bring them meal or check in or qual
you know, so we give them that foundation for sure.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Tell me, are you donating partial funds of this book
to Saint Jude?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah? Yeah, so a lot of personally funds will be
going to the Saint Jude Foundation. The reason we, you know,
pick the Saint Jude Foundation was we know how stressful
it could be for families that are dealing with kids
that are going through cancer and you know, illness treatments,
and the last thing they probably want to focus on
is the finances of that. So when we're researching different nonprofits,
(08:33):
Saint Jude said out to us, just because of the
amount that they receive and amount that they give back
is incredible, and they do a lot of great work
for these families and whatever we could do that just
helpless in the burden that they might have, and that
capacity is something that we're trying to focus on. I know,
our donation will probably small compared to what they normally
(08:53):
receive when it's something to help them along the way.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Absolutely, every little bit helps, doesn't it. What do you
hope that pairs and children take away when they read
this book.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
I think the main thing that we want parents and
children to take away from this book is that you
can be anything that you dream. You can do anything
that you dream. There's going to be setbacks along the way,
but if you work hard, those dreams can become a reality,
and that reality can be great.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
What kind of response have you received from Juliana reading
the book?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
She's excited? Do you want to share a little bit?
What do you think about the book that's done?
Speaker 1 (09:28):
It's good, You're good, You're beautiful.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Princess Juliana loves the book. She loves reading the book
to her baby sister. She actually throught a few copies
to her school and we're going to be going into
her school and doing a craft that goes along with
the book, so she's really excited for that as well.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I just love that you're a married couple who wrote
this book together. It's just the beginning. So much more
is going to follow, and your children will follow in
your footsteps. It's a beautiful legacy. I always say that
great readers make great writers and make great speakers.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we've seen how important it is of
especially you know, being both an education system of you
could have what you just said right. If you have
strong readers, strong writers, and then eventually everything else falls
in line, it's so easy for them to get through
whatever life that's just thrown at them.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
I just think it's important that we have a book
of our own for Juliana to read, because Rob and
I are both avid readers. I mean she follows along
with what we do. We sit and read in our
free time, and we can see that now with her,
she always wants to go grab a book to read.
So if we can pass that along to other families too,
that would be great as well.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yes, that's what I was going to say. You're an
example to other families, the two of you together doing
this for your children. That's wonderful. You know, hopefully other
families will see this as well and say what can
we do together as a couple and as a family.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, no, for sure, and you Katie and I last,
since Juliana is the main character in this book, we're
probably enough to write. That's Sofia gets o toa realizes
that she's just a small portion of this book where
you have to prior right one to incorporate her as
the main character. Future.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yes, Oh, where do we get the book?
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah, so you can go to Amazon dot com in
order it through. Just type it in Dreams and Time
to Grow. It's actually now available on Barnes and Noble,
so if you type it into Barndenobo dot com you
could also find it there as well. We're planning on
doing a book reading with one of the Barnes and
Nobles as well, so we're excited for that. We're thinking
about the Southbury one at the turn of the year,
(11:32):
so well, once we have more information on that, we
can pass that along to everybody. Too.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Beautiful. I'm speaking with Roberto Muccharo and Katie Mucicharo. They're
a married couple who've written this beautiful book, Dreams Need
Time to Grow. Make sure you look forward on Amazon
and Barnes and Noble and they're going to be out
and about with it as well. Thank you so much
for being here today and for serving the community.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Thank you, We appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Thanks for having us
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.