Jennifer Rackley

Jennifer (Jen) holds a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in teaching from the University of New Hampshire, as well as a law degree from Suffolk University. She began her career as a high school English teacher but left teaching to go to law school.

Now she is an attorney in solo practice on the NH seacoast, specializing in child law and family law. She works closely with children who are abused and neglected, at-risk, or who are otherwise the subject of high-conflict litigation. She’s been working with children and families for 23 years now and loves her job. She currently resides in Stratham, NH with her daughter, Lily, and their hamster, Robert.

FROM THE AUTHOR

"Whether it's a McCloskey favorite or a Supreme Court ruling, I am always reading. And writing. For my job, I regularly write ‘serious’ reports or motions to the Court, which is often challenging and exciting. But it can also be very somber work. I offset this by acting as silly as possible the rest of the time.

I've known my co-author, Georgie, since childhood, and we've always enjoyed a very close relationship. He has been silly with me my entire life. So, one day, after he shared some verses with me,

I came up with some of my own and shared them right back. Pretty soon he had arranged it all into "Don't Play Catch With Jelly." Georgie came up with that phrase.

It cracks me up still. We both have young children and, at the time, we were talking about how we often heard ourselves repeat, "Don't! Wait! Stop!" But we found we weren't saying things like, "Don't put too much laundry detergent in the washing machine."

We were saying things like, "Don't put the CAT in the washing machine. He won't like it." That's the hilarious part about parenthood: What is an obvious forbearance to adults is just an experiment waiting to happen for kids.

I think it would be fun to follow Jelly with another book which encourages, "Do! Onward! Go!" You know, focus on allowing kids to unleash those floodgates of curiosity and then watch what happens.

The results are usually surprising and often miraculous. They are in my line of work, anyway.

I am constantly in awe of the triumph of children, despite their odds or experiences that bring them to the doorstep of my office. But that, I guess, is another story…”