Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar

Yes, it's a celebrity book%E2%80%94a very good one. Writing in an intimate, easygoing voice that blends the boyish with the avuncular, rock legend Richards pays tribute to his grandfather and role model, Theodore Augustus Dupree, a veteran musician who lived in a house "filled with instruments and cake." Gus is a mite footloose%E2%80%94he evades chores and once took young Keith on a ramble that ended so far from home that they had to spend the night under a tree. But he also introduces his grandson to the magic of a musical instrument workshop ("Men tested the guitar strings dinka-plink dinka plink.... And right then, right there, I fell in love with instruments"), bestows his prize guitar on Keith, and sets a high bar for musicianship (hearing Keith playing the complex instrumental "Malague%C3%B1a," Gus remarks, "I think you're getting the hang of it"). Theodora Richards, Keith's daughter of Richards, contributes fluid, inked sketches and other freestyle graphic elements that exude love and spontaneity. The accompanying CD proves Richards is as adept at telling bedtime stories as he is performing on stage. Ages 3%E2%80%936. (Sept.)