Kent schoolteacher writes book to help children with a parent in prison

Mari Borrero and her husband, Aaron, are trying to make the best of a difficult situation while helping others in similar circumstances.

Aaron Borrero is serving a 23-year prison sentence at Cedar Creek Corrections Facility, southwest of Olympia, in connection with a 1997 kidnapping and attempted murder.

Mari Borrero, a bilingual kindergarten teacher at Carriage Crest Elementary School, recently wrote a book to help children who have a parent in prison.

“After encountering a situation where a student’s parent was incarcerated and she didn’t understand why, I shared that with my husband and I expressed the lack of books on this topic in order to help her. He told me, ‘Well, do something about it,’… and it was there in that moment I knew we could do this together,” Mari Borrero said.

The book, “Daddy Has a New Home, not a New Heart” (Tate Publishing & Enterprises, LLC), chronicles a young boy named Alex who does not understand why his father is not ready for his Saturday baseball game. Because his dad’s absence is unusual, Alex sets out to find out where he is. As he looks for his dad, he finds his grandma instead. What follows is an intense conversation with his grandmother about his father, the choices and actions his father has made, and their family’s situation.

Borrero said the book does not say that Alex’s father is in prison. She said she wanted to leave it vague so that the book could be applied to other situations where one parent is not in the picture, such as separation or divorce.

“Parents make choices every day that affect the family team,” Borrero said. “Sometimes those are bad choices but you are not defined by that. … I didn’t want (the book) to be just about prison. The lesson is that we need to teach kids that every choice they make, the smallest ones and the biggest ones, all have consequences.”

Borrero is working on a second book, which is about Alex preparing to visit his father in prison. She also hopes to write a third book to address reintegration and reconciliation after the parent is released from prison.

As a parent with an incarcerated spouse, Borrero saw firsthand the lack of resources available to help school-age children and preteens in this situation. She said Sesame Street has created material for younger children with a parent in prison. Borrero and her husband have six children between them. Her youngest children are 7 and 8.

Borrero’s children played a big role in shaping the book.

“It is predominately what he (Borrero’s 8-year-old son) has gone through and what we are still teaching him,” she said.

Borrero said she is working with the Department of Corrections to get the books in the visiting areas of corrections facilities.

The book can be purchased from Borrero’s website, www.aaronandmari.com, and buyers have the option to donate a copy of the book to a corrections facility. Borrero has set up an account, www.gofundme.com/borrero, to raise money to translate the book to Spanish and other languages.

Mari Borrero, who served in the U.S. Marines and Army, began writing Aaron Borrero in prison while she was living in Texas. She visited him in prison, and the couple was married in 2012. Mari Borrero moved to Kent last June to be closer to her husband and to work to get him released from prison.

Aaron Borrero, a Kentridge High School graduate, has been in prison more than 17 years and is set to be released in June 2017, although Mari Borrero said she hopes he will get out sooner. In 2009, Aaron Borrero was given a unanimous recommendation for clemency but was later denied by then-Gov. Christine Gregoire. He was granted a second unanimous recommendation for clemency in 2014, but Gov. Jay Inslee has not ruled on the recommendation.

“Our family is passionate and fun loving, not perfect in any way, and not (in a) situation many would jump into but I believe in Aaron’s transformation and, more so, I believe that God has orchestrated the most amazing journey,” Mari Borrero said. “It hasn’t been an easy one but it has been the most rewarding.”