Chasten Buttigieg Announces Debut Picture Book: ‘I Wanted My Kids to See Themselves’ (Exclusive)

‘Papa’s Coming Home’ is inspired by the author’s husband Pete Buttigieg and their twins Penelope and Gus

Chasten Buttigieg is already a bestselling author of the 2020 memoir I Have Something to Tell You and its young reader counterpoint, but now the writer and former teacher is taking his talents to a new genre — children’s books.

PEOPLE can exclusively reveal the cover for Chasten’s debut picture book, Papa’s Coming Home, forthcoming from Philomel, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers next year.

The book, featuring illustrations by Dan Taylor, follows siblings JoJo and Rosie, who are anxiously waiting for their father to return home. With the help of Daddy, they bake Papa a cake, make him signs and pick flowers to prepare for his arrival — only to realize that once they get to the airport, there’s no room for Papa to sit in the car.

Papa’s Coming Home is inspired by Chasten’s own family — husband Pete Buttigieg, the United States secretary of transportation, and their 3-year-old twins, Penelope and Gus. Chasten spoke with PEOPLE about the book’s meaning, his family’s reading habits and more.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Where did the idea for Papa’s Coming Home first come from?
The impetus was asking around for books like this after our kids [Penelope and Gus] were born … we love books and we love having a big library for them, but none of them looked like our family … I just wanted a story, a day in the life of a family like ours, and I wanted my kids to see themselves in one of these stories.

Eventually a friend said, "I think you just need to write one." So I did and I started noodling on these characters that were floating around in my head. I was working on this particular story on an airplane and thinking about how excited I was to get home to my kids, and that shared experience of excitement for someone to come home, especially a parent who you've been missing and that unconditional love for your kid that's the best thing in the world to come home to.

You’re also the author of the memoir I Have Something to Tell You and its young adult adaptation. What was it like to switch over to writing a children’s picture book?
Figuring out a story that squeezes into 20-30 pages was difficult for me, but getting in the mind of a toddler was easier because I was right in it with the books that we're reading right now. We read a ton of books every single day, and so I was kind of immersed in all of these worlds, and the language, and was thinking about the book that I wish was in my hands that I was reading to them.

Related: Chasten Buttigieg Opens Up About Book Bans, Memoir and Life as a Dad: 'Gets Me Really Emotional' (Exclusive)

What kinds of books does your family like to read together?
I actually just came home from a work trip the other day and grabbed How Airports Work. [The kids] love airplanes, they love airports. We're beginning with Pete the Cat right now … We have a book called 13 Buildings Children Should Know, and we just look at Notre Dame and the Parthenon. They like to look at all these details in the book.

I'm really grateful for Ada Twist, Scientist, so we try to keep those ones front-of-shelf … especially [so] Penelope can see herself in some of these roles. I think it's really important, especially from a young age, that they're seeing themselves and their possibilities on the page.

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You previously told PEOPLE that with your first book, you would send passages to Pete before they were published. Was that the case for Papa’s Coming Home? Have you shared the book with your kids too?
Oh yeah, we do story time every night … [which] definitely for me, as the improv theater kid, is very fun. It's also very fun to watch Pete have to do this, but this is where I would test out some of these characters. We would tell stories about a family and what they did, and you can kind of see [the kids’] faces rise and fall and see what works and what doesn't work.

Related: Pete and Chasten Buttigieg 'Beyond Blessed' for Christmas with 1-Year-Old Twins: 'My Heart Was Unprepared'

The most powerful thing that has happened so far is getting the art back from the book and looking at the art. My kids came into the kitchen and saw me working on my laptop, and I was going through the art and Penelope just went, "That's me. And that's Gus and that's Daddy." It's just really, really special that she saw herself immediately.

Did you learn anything about yourself as an author or as a parent while working on the book?
A lot of parenting is hard. It's nonstop, and especially when you have twins, and sometimes when you're solo parenting and the other one's on the road. I think one of the universal lessons that's come out of parenting, also writing a book, is to slow down and appreciate it … It's something that I'm very conscious of when I'm on the road. That time is so valuable and it's so short, and there are things that you miss.

Does your family have a favorite way to stay connected when you or Pete are traveling?
We have printed pictures here at the house, so we can at least always talk about [one another]. We try to FaceTime at breakfast time and we try to FaceTime at dinner time and before bed. Right now, the current thing is that everyone gets to push the red button to hang up the phone call, so when it's time to say goodbye one twin pushes the red button, then the parent has to call back, [so] the other twin gets to push the red button, and then the parent has to call back, and then I get to push the red button.

Sometimes we just put the phone or the iPad on a stand and we try to have dinner together. Or the other parent can observe the breakfast chaos while the other one is trying to serve breakfast and pack the lunch boxes at the same time. It's very busy, very chaotic, but it's the best.

Related: Pete Buttigieg Calls Parenting Twins 'Most Demanding Thing': 'Yet I Catch Myself Grinning Half the Time'

Penelope and Gus just celebrated their third birthday. Were there any other special memories or milestones for your family this summer? Is there anything you’re looking forward to?
They've been tackling swimming, which has been incredible to watch … They thrive off of one another. And then, at other times, they're so independent ... I just love watching how brave they are. They want to pet every animal, even if it's a big horse or a cow. They want to jump into the water. We go for hikes in the woods, and they're not afraid to run ahead on the trail and see what they can find. It makes me really proud of how brave they are and how curious they are … I'm really, really proud of us for cultivating that.

Is there a message that you hope readers will take away from Papa’s Coming Home?
[After] I came off book tour for my young adult book [I] spent a lot of time talking to parents about how I wish my parents had told me they would love me unconditionally when I was younger. I have a fantastic relationship with my parents now, but that all came from growing up in rural conservative, northern Michigan where we didn't talk about LGBTQ+ people.

I spent a lot of time on that book tour talking about unconditional love and how if we tell our kids we will love them unconditionally no matter who they are, then that can save us a lot of grief and time in the future.

Related: Pete Buttigieg's Husband Chasten Talks Revealing New Memoir & Post-Campaign Life: 'I Took a Lot of Deep Breaths'

I just wanted this book to show unconditional love … that's the thing that we tell our kids when we go to bed every night, when we tuck them in and kiss them good night — that they're so loved and they're so wanted. We ask them questions before we go to bed every night. We always say, "Are we safe? Are we loved?"

There's so many things in my life that I appreciate, but that kind of love you have for your kid is so strong. That's the only thing I want to come home to.

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Papa’s Coming Home will be published on May 13, 2025 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.

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