{"id":177702,"date":"2026-03-27T21:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T21:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/177702\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T21:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T21:24:07","slug":"attorney-pens-love-letter-to-brooklyn-in-new-childrens-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/177702\/","title":{"rendered":"Attorney pens love letter to Brooklyn in new children\u2019s book"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gibilaro wanted to be thorough about adding the Bay Ridge flavor to the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a culture here that doesn\u2019t exist in a lot of places, which is that sense of the neighborhood and really helping each other and celebrating each other,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can show up at a block party or a festival and everyone is essentially strangers but by the end of that hour or two, you might leave having a new friend or making a new connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the book\u2019s release, Gibilaro has had book signings and events at stores such as The BookMark Shoppe, and she received positive feedback from both children and adults.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have told me they really love it,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re seeing elements that they don\u2019t usually see illustrated in children\u2019s books like the Verrazzano Bridge, which is iconic and amazing but it\u2019s not necessarily on the cover or showcased in a lot of children\u2019s books. People in the area have just loved the specific things that resonate with them on the cover.\u201d<\/p>\n

The author hopes children learn two life lessons after they read the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt teaches children about their environment,\u201d she explained. \u201cIf they live in Brooklyn, it teaches them about their city, and it\u2019s geared toward ages three to eight so they can certainly be educated about it. My knowledge as a child was fairly limited with the festivals going on within a 10-block radius. I was not aware that the Mid-Autumn Festival was taking place in Sunset Park, so my children are aware of that. It\u2019s good to inform kids who don\u2019t live in Brooklyn just how rich in culture this place is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Children<\/a>Children enjoy Gibilaro\u2019s book event at the BookMark Shoppe and The Ridge Kids in Bay Ridge. Photo: Connie Gibilaro<\/p>\n

The other lesson is the importance of friendship.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the main gripes of the main character of the butterfly, whose name is Delilah, is that she\u2019s never met another butterfly, so she\u2019s really motivated to fly off the wall. She\u2019s in search of another butterfly friend,\u201d said Gibilaro. \u201cThroughout the whole book, she\u2019s disappointed because she can\u2019t find that butterfly friend, and then toward the end of the book, she realizes she\u2019s been putting this butterfly friend on a pedestal when she\u2019s had two true friends by her side all along.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also complimented the book\u2019s illustrator, Haley Moss.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is so talented, and she brought Brooklyn to life,\u201d she said. \u201cIt took us well over a year. It took a long time, but it was worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gibilaro wanted to be thorough about adding the Bay Ridge flavor to the story. \u201cI think there\u2019s a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[4276,2571,2572,98,20291,100,99,4207,70825,18444,9,24,63,2578,2579],"class_list":["post-177702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-author","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-bklyn-live","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-bookbeat","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-children","tag-has-teaser","tag-jaime-dejesus","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-premium","tag-premium-content"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}