Oh Boss! Bruce Springsteen writes a book for children

Outlaw Pete, based on an eight-minute ballad from Springsteen's 2009 Working on a Dream album, will be published by Simon & Schuster in November.

Rocker

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Bruce Springsteen

is all set to publish an illustrated cowboy story for youngsters about a bank-robber trying to outrun his sins.

Outlaw Pete, based on an eight-minute ballad from Springsteen's 2009 Working on a Dream album, will be published by Simon & Schuster in November, reported Rolling Stone magazine.

Frank Caruso, a cartoonist and writer, who had the idea of turning the song into a book, and persuaded Springsteen to write the text, provides the illustrations.

Springsteen, 64, joins Madonna, Sting and Paul McCartney in the pantheon of music stars-turned-children's authors.

The New Jersey rocker's tale was inspired by memories of Brave Cowboy Bill, a 1950s children's book which his mother read to him as a child.

But Springsteen, whose songs have provoked comparisons to John Steinbeck's dustbowl narratives, promises a grittier children's offering than Madonna's best-selling tome, The English Roses.