Keith Richards’ latest riff: A book for kids

Kindergartners of the world, prepare to rock: Keith Richards is going to publish a children’s book.

“Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar,” will be published in September, by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in the United States.

Richards recently became a grandfather for the fifth time. His own grandfather, Theodore Augustus Dupree, known as “Gus,” was in a jazz big band and is the namesake of Richards’ daughter, Theodora Dupree Richards, the Bookseller writes.

Theodora Richards’ pen-and-ink collages will illustrate the book. The story, which Richards co-wrote with Barnaby Harris and Bill Shapiro, was inspired by a childhood experience Richards relates in his bestselling memoir “Life.”

“He showed me the first licks and chords, the major chord shapes, D and G and E,” Richards writes in “Life,” recounting his first guitar less from Gus. “He said ‘Play Malagueña, you can play anything. By the time he said, ‘I think you’re getting the hang of it,’ I was pretty happy.”

“ ‘Gus & Me’ invites readers to be in the room at the electrifying moment that Keith holds a guitar in his hands for the first time,” Megan Tingley of Little, Brown said in a statement. “We are excited to be bringing this vivid and moving story to children and families and proud to be publishing the debut of talented artist Theodora Richards.”

The hardcover edition of “Gus & Me” will also include an audio CD, and photographs from the Richards family collection.

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hector.tobar@latimes.com