Rock author Jimmy Barnes spins Rosie The Rhinoceros children’s book inspired by his granddaughter

Jimmy Barnes reveals the inspiration behind his new children’s book, which is a far cry from his day job as an Aussie rock star.

Even chart-slaying rockers have to contend with warring grandchildren in the back seat of the car on a trip to the shops.

Jimmy Barnes has turned one of those days into his second children’s book, Rosie The Rhinoceros, inspired by one of his granddaughter’s desire to be a unicorn.

It took two years for the best-selling author to finish the sweet book dedicated to Rosie Rodgers, the daughter of recent Masked Singer star Mahalia Barnes and her musician husband Ben Rodgers.

Jimmy Barnes reads his new kids' storybook Rosie The Rhinoceros with granddaughter Rosie. Picture: Supplied

Its genesis was sparked by an imaginary game concocted by Barnes’ youngest daughter Elly May Barnes in an attempt to stop the back seat shenanigans of her son Dylan and his cousins Ruby and Rosie.

They would be animals – Elly the Elephant, Dylan the Dog, Ruby the Rabbit and Rosie the Rhinoceros.

But Rosie was not having it. Barnes does a fine imitation of a truculent toddler as he recounts that day.

“Rosie sat there looking out the window for about 30 seconds and then said ‘I’m not a rhinoceros, I’m a unicorn!’ She waited another minute and then yelled ‘Unicorn!’,” Barnes recalled in hysterics.

Barnes is the doting grandfather whenever the family are at home in Berrima. Picture: Instagram

“I knew there was a story there. At that point Rosie was three, really clever and a bit of a tomboy who crashed into things. She wanted to be a unicorn and do ballet but she would be tackling kids in the classes and the ballet school very sweetly asked if ballet was really her thing.

“It got me thinking about the other kids who weren’t great at ballet but wanted to do it and how kids should be free to be whatever they want, a ballerina or a unicorn, and we have to encourage that and support it.”

That became the underlying message of the book, illustrated by Matt Shanks, which follows Barnes’ 2017 debut children’s release Och Aye The G’nu and started as a poem written for Dylan.

Rosie insists she’s a unicorn. Picture: Supplied

That first kids book was written somewhere in the middle of penning his best-selling memoir trilogy – Working Class Boy, Working Class Man and Killing Time.

And this one got its finishing touches during the pandemic when Barnes wasn’t rehearsing the song he would perform with wife Jane that night.

Barnes probably loves unicorns as much as Rosie.

The magical unicorn has always been a much-loved character in the rocker’s life because it is Scotland’s national “animal”.

Books about mythology currently top the reading list he shares with his grandkids.

Rosie is the youngest daughter of Mahalia Barnes and Ben Rodgers. Picture: Alan Benson

But a delightful surprise for parents who will be reading Rosie The Rhinoceros to their little ones is the sprinkling of delicious descriptive words – stupendous, sleek and exquisite – and the absence of social media speak.

“I didn’t write any LOLs or any of that stuff because I think language is such an important part of learning how to express themselves,” he said.

“One of the things I love most about reading to the kids and now the grandkids is that it gives them the vocabulary to communicate with other people, express their feelings and helps them with problem solving and their relationships. Reading can help with all of that.”

Another bigger children’s book set around the family estate by the Wingecarribee River in the NSW Southern Highlands is now on his to-do list — following the release later this year of his cookbook with wife Jane, Where The River Bends — so he can incorporate all 15 of his grandchildren and two great grandkids as characters.

“The kids inspire books every day; I could write all year about the things they do but the one I’ve started is about living down by the river bend, in the vein of a Wind In The Willows story which will incorporate them all down here on holidays,” he said.

Rosie The Rhinoceros is out on September 29 via HarperCollins. Jimmy Barnes will host a reading for fans on October 3 from 10am via Jimmy Barnes Official.