The first book of a series about the everyday adventures of a young girl named Jessie who has two moms. In this one, she spends the day with her nanny, Georgia, and attempts to use her “magic” powers to get her neighbor’s dog, Maxim, to sit. Can she persevere when Maxim proves stubborn, and show off her powers for her moms?
Young readers will likely appreciate Jessie’s kids’-eye observations about her world. The story is pure dialog, which helps immerse readers in Jessie’s world, although the lack of dialog tags make it occasionally hard to tell who is speaking. Additionally, children who don’t live in apartment buildings like Jessie may be puzzled when she goes down the hall to her elderly neighbor’s door—they may think the neighbor is a grandmother living with them (which would then make it seem odd that Jessie calls her “Mrs. Martino”). It would have been useful for Jessie to give some indication that she lives in a building with other families.
Similarly, children without nannies may not understand who Georgia is. It’s clear Jessie spends the day with her after her moms leave for work, but her relationship to the family is never explained. (The back cover of the fifth book in the series, in which Jessie spends the day with Georgia’s own family, notes that she’s their nanny.)
Still, this is an earnest and cheerful story in which the fact that Jessie has two moms is purely incidental to the tale. Jessie, her moms, and their elderly neighbors are White; Georgia is Black.
