resh from writing a thriller with Bill Clinton (The President Is Missing), James Patterson has found an even more unlikely collaborator: the band Guns N’ Roses. Out this September, the children’s picture book Sweet Child O’Mine “celebrates love and music, and how they bring us together in the sweetest ways”. Patterson, who described himself as “a longtime fan of Guns N’ Roses”, is teaming up with illustrator Jennifer Zivoin to produce the book, which will “follow a child’s wondrous discovery that music is everywhere around us – from the gentle wind blowing through the bluest skies, to the fearful crash of the thunder and the rain”. It sounds rather charming, and will almost definitely leave many a parent humming away after bedtime stories. Who knows where it may lead? Will Patterson and Slash move on to a jungle-set adventure series (“Welcome to the jungle / we’ve got fun and games”) or perhaps an urban fantasy based on Paradise City? While this is an unexpected collaboration, Patterson is a seasoned co-author, having worked with tens of other writers on his bestselling adventure thrillers. And collaborations have a fine literary history, whether it’s the then little-known Neil Gaiman teaming up with Terry Pratchett for Good Omens, Stephen King and Peter Straub creating something strange and compelling in The Talisman, or William Gibson and Bruce Sterling writing The Difference Engine. It’s not as if Guns N’ Roses are the first musicians to turn one of their songs into a children’s book. Paul McCartney’s already been there, with last year’s Hey Grandude! Then there’s Ringo Starr’s Octopus’s Garden, Keith Richards’s Gus & Me, and Pharrell Williams’s Happy! Sweet Child O’ Mine was probably the right Guns N’ Roses song to turn into a children’s book. Steering clear of One in a Million was a wise choice for sure.