Tori Amos Releases First Kids Book — And a Surprise Accompanying Soundtrack! (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Tori Amos (left); The cover of ‘Tori and the Muses’ (right).Photo:Kavita Kaul; Penguin Random House

Tori Amos (left); The cover of ‘Tori and the Muses’ (right)

Kavita Kaul; Penguin Random House

Tori Amosis hoping her debut children’s book,Tori and the Musesout March 4, will help readers everywhere find their muses — a concept that she “firmly believe[s]” in.

Amos has been in tune with her own muses since she was a small child, but the author, who has also penned the 2020New York TimesbestsellerResistance: A Songwriter’s Story of Hope, Change, and Courage,admits to PEOPLE that she has “seen through my life and the letters that I’ve received when I’m touring that not everyone knows how to find them.”

That inspired theGrammy-nominated musician, 61, to put pen to paper and ensure that younger readers have the tools to identify with and establish these creative forces early on.

Tori Amos.Kavita Kaul

Kavita Kaul

“Unhappy when her father forces her to rehearse for music recitals, the Muses remind Tori that inspiration is everywhere, and perhaps in helping others find their own Muses, she may better understand herself,” explains an official synopsis of the book.

For Amos, muses have “always been in my life since I can remember.” She hopes the book can help both young readers and adults learn how to identify their own.

The cover of ‘Tori and the Muses’ by Tori Amos

Penguin Random House

She’s realized over time that while “people have been looking for muses,” they show up differently for everyone. “[People are] not thinking about possibly that they might come in the form of form of the plant world,” she explains. “Or they might come in the form of animal medicine, or they might come in the form of ingredients … or insects, bugs.”

The range of muses presented inTori and the Musesis “how I’ve been visualizing” their existence.

“Even mine can be elusive,” Amos says of identifying her own muses. “Even though they’ve been there since I can remember, since I was tiny. I don’t know life without them … I don’t. And yet, you know, it’s not as if I run into them necessarily.”

Their presence directly influences her creativity, something Amos is firmly tapped into and hopes her new book can help readers find, too. “Sometimes, I’m guided to go somewhere, and then an idea pops in my head and a piece of music comes to me, and I know it’s them at work, and I know that I needed to go to this place. Whether it’s a deserted beach and there’s something happening with the sky and the tide, and all of a sudden I hear music that I hadn’t heard until that moment.”

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Amos hopes readers of all ages can tap into the power of creative play withTori and the Muses,especially adults who have lost touch with their whimsical sides.

“It’s allowing ourselves to have faith and trust that these magical forces are out there to play with us. To create with us. And it’s not just for the children, it’s for the grownups who have their inner child as well,” she explains. “Suspend some of the monotony of getting through the day of what’s expected of me as a responsible grownup and engage in play, engage in just making a story with crayons. Get our little pens out, get our pencils out, get our musical instrument out.”

And writing the book and the accompanying album has inspired Amos to do just that. “This project has given me a lot of freedom because children allow us and encourage us, I think, and inspire us to dive into a world that sometimes I feel as grownups, we feel we need to separate ourselves from,” she adds. “So the project has really given me a lot of freedom as a creator to suspend the rules of what a grownup record should sound like, what it should be talking about, and step into the land of fairies.

Tori and the Musesis now available, wherever books are sold.

source: people.com