Her parents being who they are—writers and avid readers, among other things—it’s no surprise that my two-year-old loves the library.
We go twice a month at least—our local library hosts Toddler Story Time on the second and fourth Saturdays—and Nola gets to play, listen to stories and interact with other book-loving toddlers.
On our most recent trip, the children’s librarian recommended we check out a book/CD combo by Sandra Boynton. For those of you who haven’t heard of her (mainly by way of not reading to a small person in the past decade or so), she writes wonderful, fun kids’ stories about animals doing everything from putting on their pajamas to singing.
This book/CD combo features songs composed by Boynton and a collaborator and sung but a variety of folks, including Scott Bakula.
Now, you might be thinking: Wait a second. Did you say Scott Bakula? As in Quantum Leap Scott Bakula? Star Trek: Enterprise Scott Bakula? Men of a Certain Age and Desperate Housewives Scott Bakula? (OK, I threw in that last for the non-sci-fi readers among you.)
Yup, that Scott Bakula. Singing a wonderful little ditty called Pig Island. If you know anything about Bakula’s background, you’ll know that he performed on Broadway and was nominated for a Tony before he landed that acclaimed Quantum Leap role.
Which got me to thinking about versatility. And branching out. Which is one of the many things WMG’s authors are so good at.
It’s no secret that our authors write under several pen names. And they are critically acclaimed and award-winning under some of those pen names. Which takes some doing. It’s no easy feat writing well in multiple genres.
Which is one of the reasons pen names came about in the first place. But that’s a blog for another day.
In the meantime, thanks for the earworm, Scott. If I’m going to have a children’s song stuck in my head, it might as well remind me of Star Trek.
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Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer.