Ziggy Marley stopped by the Today show to discuss his new children’s book.
The reggae musician’s Pajammin’, illustrated by Letícia Moreno, was published last week by Clarion/HarperCollins. The book, about a family’s pajama party, is partially based on “Jamming,” the 1977 song by Marley’s father, reggae legend Bob Marley. A critic for Kirkus praised the book as “a sweet and joyful family tale.”
Asked how Bob Marley inspired the book, Ziggy Marley said, “The spirit, the energy, the love…the togetherness in the book, that’s coming from him.”
He said the book was also inspired by his own experiences as a father. “With my kids, I communicate with them through music, and a lot of my books are based on music. So Pajammin’ is like, Let’s go pajammin’, guys! I try to encourage them to do things that they wouldn’t normally do if I just tell them, Hey, let’s do this, let’s do this! I try to make it fun and musical and creative.”
Asked if his parents read to him as a child, Marley said, “Music. Music was our books. My grand-aunt, she was a storyteller, and that’s where the storytelling part comes from, is that she used to sit us down and tell us a lot of folk tales, old Jamaican stories, a lot of ghost stories. That was fun.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
