Kelly Clarkson to Publish Children’s Book in October

Kelly Clarkson has a new creative project on the horizon: she’s written her first picture book, River Rose and the Magical Lullaby.

The Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter announced the news in a video on Twitter featuring her young daughter, the real-life River Rose. Explaining that she often takes her daughter along on international trips, Clarkson said they’ve seen “all these amazing places that she was too little to remember, basically, so I started writing down these little fun stories” about their adventures. “The little stories ended up turning into a book,” she said. The story follows a little girl who’s too excited about the next day’s zoo visit to fall asleep, until her mom sings her a lullaby that gives her dreams about playing with hippos, penguins and other zoo creatures.

Clarkson joins the growing ranks of rockers-turned-children’s book authors, including Madonna, Keith Richards and Bruce Springsteen.

“My hope,” says Clarkson, “is for little kids to read River Rose and the Magical Lullaby and, you know, be inspired by it and know they can achieve anything.”

The picture book, with illustrations by Laura Hughes, will be published by HarperCollins on Oct. 4.