My first children’s picture book, Acoustic Rooster, and I wrote this in Tuscany on a writing fellowship. Yeah. It brings back memories. Acoustic Rooster sat outside strumming his bass guitar. He practiced jazz all summer long so he could be a star.
Now every year about this time farmer announced his plan to hold a barnyard talent show and find the farm’s best band. You know, in the original illustrations there was a farmer here and I told him — I said we should take it out. This is a book of animals. I want no humans in the book. Acoustic Rooster asked to join Thelonius Monkey’s crew, but farmer’s rules prevented that because they lived at the zoo.
I still get a big kick out of this book. This is like six years old. Mules Davis led an orchestra that featured three cool cats. Ella Fitzgerald had a trio, but Rooster couldn’t scat. Rooster was feeling kind of blue, then he heard a baby grand. I have a great idea he said. I’ll state my own jazz band. And so here’s the idea of saying yes to yourself or trying to figure out how to sort of live your passion. I guess this book is sort of a metaphor on my life. Yeah. And you’ll have to read the rest of it to find out what happens in the talent show.
