a professional writer
BY FRANK SANTO
Jessie is like a lot of little girls. She teaches her dog tricks,Doudoune Moncler Femme, loves the outdoors and has big dreams.
And,moncler pas cher, oh, by the way, she has two mommies — a fact that comes almost as an aside in the recently published Jessie series of children’s books, written by Phyliss DelGreco, Jaclyn Roth and Kathryn Silverio.
The trio takes a matter-of-fact tone for books like “Monday With Maxim, the Amazing Maltese,moncler doudoune,” “Tuesday With Mommy ... and Pterodactyls” and five other books, a full week’s worth of titles following Jessie’s experiences.
“I don’t know any children’s stories that focus on the heterosexual relationship between mother and father,” says co-author DelGreco, a lawyer.
So she’s happy to be behind books where there’s no special emphasis on the same-sex parents, who can sometimes seem like an afterthought as Jessie takes center stage.
This is not, after all, 1989, when Lesléa Newman’s “Heather Has Two Mommies” arrived in bookstores and caused a stir.
The new books detail the life of Jessie, a 6-year-old girl whose life is rendered in bright color, thanks to inviting illustrations by Rory Smith.
Each of the seven books in the series follows a different day of Jessie’s week, and a different aspect of her everyday life.
On Monday, she takes her dog for a walk. Tuesday, she fantasizes about dinosaurs with one of her mothers at the museum. Wednesday, she has an adventure in the park with Grandpa.
The new books are available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. And earlier this year the Jessie team held their first book reading at Frolic, a playspace in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Co-author Jaclyn Roth, a professional writer,moncler pas cher, says parenting with her partner to raise a 6-year-old daughter served as inspiration for the series.
“My daughter is about to turn 6,doudoune moncler femme,” Roth says. “In her life, she hasn’t had any issues. She’s in public school. She does tae kwon do,moncler pas cher, ballet. She’s been asked a couple times and kids are like,air jordan pas cher, ‘Oh.’ It’s a very innocent age.”
In addition to simply entertaining readers, the authors’ goal in writing the series is to present a world in which gay parenting is not an issue.
Still,jordan pas cher, DelGreco knows there are still challenges and controversies.
“In these books,Moncler,” she explains, “we are sitting in an advanced society where it doesn’t matter. In many places today it still does matter.”
Indeed, Utah recently restricted access to a children’s book in an elementary school because it portrayed a gay couple raising a child.
Gay parents are unlikely to cease being a hot-button issue in the near future. But the little girl in the Jessie series doesn’t have to care about what anyone else thinks about her upbringing.
“LGBT families are not some different species,” DelGreco says. “Jessie’s family is just a family. We are all aligned in the human experience.”
Editor's note: A version of this review appeared in the Sunday edition of the Daily News