FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Homeless and Dyslexic, He Built a Reading App for 5,000 Libraries. This Week, He Launched a Stink Bug.
Jesse Bray’s A Perfect Hat for Poe — a free interactive storybook about a grump who can’t be fixed by a hat — lands on top of Inklings Book Club, the library-card reading app with 16 founding library partners. Featuring Francis Santora, the friend who taught him to build on traction instead of feelings — and who, it turns out, grew up in a small Maine library too.
PACE, Fla. — October 30, 2026 — Poe is a stink bug, and he is a curmudgeon. He tries on six hats to fix himself — cowboy, builder, chef, top hat, bowler, birthday — and every one fails. He ends his story exactly as grumpy as he started it. What changes is the only thing that ever does: he gets content being himself.
That is A Perfect Hat for Poe, the free interactive storybook Jesse Bray launched this week — narrated by Bill Dillmeier, funded by a Kickstarter campaign, every backer named in the credits. Its thesis fits in one line: your value doesn’t come from what you wear, but who you are.
Poe is one brick. The wall is Inklings Book Club: 100 public-domain books, excerpts and quizzes at six reading levels, and kids get in with one credential — a library card. No ads. No dark patterns. Free forever for kids and libraries; sponsors fund the build, and a sponsor’s logo never touches a child. Sixteen founding library partners are already in, from The Ferguson Library in Stamford, Connecticut to one-room libraries in Utah and Oklahoma — and Bray’s studio is building directory pages for the more than 5,000 U.S. libraries with no digital presence at all.
“I grew up homeless, and I’m dyslexic,” Bray said. “A small library outside Sanford, Maine was my sanctuary. Everything I’ve built since is one brick at a time toward one thing: getting kids to read.”
Featured in this release: Francis Santora — investor, writer of the blog Tremendous, and Bray’s friend since they met on X. Santora said yes to Bray’s podcast before Bray had anything to show for it. What he really gave him was candor: cut the feelings, wave off the fanciful LOIs, build on real traction. Bray sent Santora this release before anyone else. His reply revealed something neither of them knew:
“I actually had no idea that Jesse grew up in a small town in Maine. I lived in Hartland, Maine when I was little. Going to the library was really important for me too. It was a window into the outside world. I’m so glad that Jesse is building something for the next generation of kids at the library. I think they’re going to really enjoy it.”
— Francis Santora
Two kids from Maine. Two small libraries. The same window.
Poe is free at mrbray.com/a-perfect-hat-for-poe. Inklings Book Club is live on iOS.
About Mr. Bray Labs
Mr. Bray Labs is an independent studio in Pace, Florida, founded by Jesse Bray — Supervising Producer and Technical Director on Apple TV+’s Yo Gabba GabbaLand! (seasons 1–2) — building learning products at the intersection of story, software, and play. Its work has reached 150,000+ users and 60,000+ learners. Press: mrbray.com/press
Contact: Jesse Bray, Founder & CEO, Mr. Bray Labs — jesse@mrbray.com · +1 503-334-7521
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Release: https://mrbray.com/press/poe-launch/
Press kit: https://mrbray.com/press/
