Subway Baby Inspires Book on Finding a Home
Peter Mercurio ’90 recently published his debut children’s book, Our Subway Baby, but it’s a story that he’s been living and writing for more than 20 years.
In August 2000, Mercurio’s partner Danny Stewart found and helped rescue an abandoned newborn infant in the Union Square subway station in New York City. The remarkable tale of their journey to adopting that baby, whom they named Kevin, is detailed in Our Subway Baby.
Published in 2020 by Penguin Random House, the book is a selection on the ALA Rainbow Book List for Young Readers and has gained the attention of major media, including the BBC, NBC’s Nightly News and Today.
When thrust into parenthood, Mercurio was 10 years out from Montclair State, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Speech and Theater with a concentration in Communications. Says Mercurio, “The skills I learned in those Communication Studies classes and from the teachers that I had, I still use today.”
When Kevin, who is now in college, came along, Mercurio says, the couple’s network of friends and colleagues stepped up to help raise him so that Mercurio and Stewart could continue to follow their dreams. “When we say, ‘It takes a village,’ we lived it, and we credit our village with helping us raise our son, without a doubt. We couldn’t have done it without them.” For more, visit petermercurio.com.