Amerie will make her picture book debut next year.
The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter will publish You Will Do Great Things with Macmillan imprint Roaring Brook Press, she announced on Instagram. The publisher describes the book, illustrated by Raissa Figueroa, as “a lyrical, magical picture book about the great possibilities that lie ahead for our little ones.”
Amerie, known for hit singles including “Why Don’t We Fall in Love” and “1 Thing,” is the editor of Because You Love To Hate Me, a 2017 YA story anthology published by Bloomsbury. She’s also the founder of Amerie’s Book Club, which focuses on “diverse and unique perspectives and voices.”
You Will Do Great Things follows a young boy who’s inspired to go on an imaginative journey while looking at family photos. Roaring Brook calls it “a celebration of everything our little ones have yet to do: the great, the amazing, the strange, and the new.”
In her Instagram post, Amerie praised illustrator Figueroa for her “breathtakingly rich, poignant works of art.”
“You Will Do Great Things is about the hopes and dreams we hold for our children, about the love and power they carry within them that is passed through generations, as well as the idea that, whether they be on large or small scales, children can and will accomplish great things,” she wrote.
You Will Do Great Things is scheduled for publication on March 28, 2023.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
