Mary Amato recording the dulcimer

In The Naked Mole-Rat Letters, the main character, Frankie Wallop, sings and plays dulcimer in a folk band with her dad called The Red Beet Ramblers. Johnny Nye, another important character in the novel, also sings and plays guitar. After writing the book, I teamed up with my musical partner, Pete Looney. Together we wrote and recorded three songs from the book. You can hear the songs at http://www.myspace.com/thenakedmoleratletters

Pete Looney recording vocals

Teachers: you can make the connection between poetry and song writing. Encourage your students to write songs in addition to poems.