Sam Amico
No need to call Saul, but Bob Odenkirk might like it if you checked out his new children’s book.
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It’s true. The Better Call Saul star and major player on Breaking Bad has released a book based on poems he wrote with children when they were younger. Instead of reading bedtime stories, Bob and his kids would write.
“I really wanted them to be a part of it. So I would write a line, they would write a line, then we’d finish it together,’ he told People. “Or I’d let them start the poem, and then we’d try to find a way through it.
“They’re pretty silly and a lot of them are kind of crazy. But I kept them because some of them weren’t just gibberish. Some of them had ideas and I thought, there’s a great little book of poems in this.”
Odenkirk, 60, was asked about the poems by his children, Erin and Nate, now grown. Odenkirk revealed he had kept them and decided that it would make a good kids’ book — with Erin as the illustrator.
Zilot & Other Important Rhymes
“He pulled out this book, and he was like, ‘Let’s try to actually write this and why don’t you draw some drawings for it,” Erin, 22, told People.
So that’s precisely what they did, and Zilot & Other Important Rhymes was born. For the record, “zilot” was the word Nate used to call a blanket.
“I wanted to keep some of the pure silliness that the kids had written,” Odenkirk said. “Otherwise, we would lose that ‘wrote it with a kid’ feel.”
Erin appeared to appreciate her involvement in the project.
“His faith in me was really important to the project,” she said. “And also letting me kind of take the reins for a bit, or me seceding to him because he’s had so much experience, and he has the voice for this book.”
“It started as him mostly writing the poems, and it ended up being us workshopping them fully together. And I really feel like we’re a good team for that.”
Odenkirk will next star in the AMC production Lucky Hank, set to debut on March 19. He also serves as executive producer.
