Simon Cowell, the British music executive who rose to fame by crushing the dreams of young people on American Idol, is now taking the logical next step in his career by writing children’s books.
Cowell, who has made more teenagers cry than every John Green book combined, signed a deal with Hachette Children’s Group for a book series aimed at kids, Deadline reports.
The tight-shirted talent show host’s seven-book series is called Wishfits, and he’s collaborating on it with Eric, his six-year-old son. The books deal with mythical animals like the “Dat,” a dog/cat hybrid, and the “Peep,” which is part pig and part sheep.
“To be able to write a series of books with my son Eric has been magical,” Cowell said, in an unusual moment of sweetness. “I really do believe it’s important to encourage kids’ creativity and imagination. I also believe kids have better ideas than most adults. I hope these books will be fun for kids to read, and we will encourage them to come up with new animals for the books.”
Ruth Alltimes, senior publisher of Hachette Children’s Group, told Variety that the company was “extremely excited” to work with Cowell.
“Children are fascinated by the idea of mixing up two different things to create something new—it plays to their creativity and inventiveness,” Alltimes said.
Cowell, who always means to be rude, is the author of a previous book, I Don’t Mean to Be Rude, But…
The first three Wishfitsbooks will be released in the spring of 2021.
Michael Schaub is an Austin, Texas–based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
