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NEW ULM - Melessa Henderson was in town Saturday, touting her first children's book, "A Granny's Heart," which is published by her own recently formed book publishing firm.

"I wrote this book in about two hours, but it has taken me two years to create the publishing house," she said, laughing. "I get a lot of credit for writing it but that's very little fun."

In a way, she is attempting to ride the crest of a national reawakening to the important role grandmothers play in families throughout society today, she noted.

"This front-cover lady reminds me very much of my grandmother. Grandmothers are strong; they're the backbone of the family. They take on more roles today than ever before," she explained.

"Often times [they are] coming in and raising children when the families split up, and our book is one of the only books where there is diversity within the family."

She also believes there is a re-awakening, if you will, of the important role a grandmother plays in diverse families.

"A lot of different books have Asian families or African-American families or white families, but they don't have diversity within the family. So, we have a niche market there because children always look for themselves in different books, and they want to see themselves," she explained.

The diverse path Henderson took in getting to this point of being her own book publisher indicates that Henderson brings a number of strengths to the table.

She grew up on a farm outside of Lafayette, and her parents are Dennis and Deanna Sjogren who still live on the farm. She graduated from the Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop school district in 1993, and then went on to University of Minnesota-Morris.

"I studied English and secondary education, and I married my husband from Fairfax. We moved to the cities, and we've been there [ever since]. I went to law school at William Mitchell, and I have taught college writing and literature and ethics at Crown College [which is] in between St. Bonifacius and Waconia [since then]. It's a brand new college, but it's a wonderful college. I run my own publishing house out of my home," she explained.

She has two children. Her son is 4 years old, and her daughter is almost 2. "My son helps me with my books. My son opens the packages and helps me gift wrap."

Illustrator Paul Reetz rounds out the staff, so to speak, and Henderson has started lining up authors for more book-publishing ventures.

"I went to his art show, and he has developed these Grannies for 10 years. So, I told him that he and I need to do a book together because grandmas are real special," she said.

"So, we did a book. So, this book has been a great seller because we sell a ton of these books [to] people and children buying for grandma. Right now we're in 75 independent bookstores across the country in just six months."

Ron Larsen can be reached at rlarsen@nujournal.com.