Christina Perri Reveals the Cover of Her New Children's Book, “A Thousand Years” (Exclusive)

Christina Perri tells PEOPLE what it's like to bring "A Thousand Years" to young readers and their families

Christina Perri is making her biggest hit into something little ones can enjoy.T

The "A Thousand Years" singer is introducing her children's book of the same name, with illustrations by Joy Hwang Ruiz, PEOPLE can exclusively share.

"What's kind of amazing about the whole situation is when I wrote this song, I was only 24. As I grew up, it was like all the listeners and the fans of this song grew up, and then they all started getting married. And then, all of a sudden, it went from a movie song to the biggest wedding song for a few years there, which was so cool. I thought that was like the end of the gift, you know?" the singer recalls.

"Now everybody started having babies and everyone is playing this song for their babies. And then I myself started having babies, so it's all been like organic timeline like in my actual life," she continues. "I decided to make lullaby albums because that's what I'm singing to my girls, and so I make a lullaby version of "A Thousand Years," and now everybody's playing that on TikTok."

Perri adds that, "It just happened so naturally, and everybody feels so grateful that this song has been a thread in the story of so many people's lives. So it kind of felt like the most natural thing to do to make it a kid's book."

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Related: Christina Perri Says 'Healing' Happened When Daughter Carmella First Held Baby Sister Pixie

Mom to daughters Pixie Rose, 22 months, and Carmella, 6½ years old, Perri says that she's "constantly reading books with my kids."

"We've been working on this for a while and when the whole idea of it came to about, it was just like yes! I had to rearrange some of the lyrics to make it more children's book-friendly and shift it more toward a mother and child's love," she continues. "I feel like it already was, in a sense. People played the original to their kids long before I decided to sing it to my own kids. It feels very full circle and very exciting."

Working with Hwang Ruiz has also been thrilling for Perri, who is "obsessed with her illustrations."

"What's so cool is that she was a fan of my music. She followed me on social media, knew about my daughters, Carmella and Pixie, and knew that Carmella has a little bunny. So she drew these images based off my girls before we even got to talk to each other," Perri shares.

"When she sent in her pitch, my girls were there. It was so meant to be that she became the illustrator. She made it so that Carmella's bunny is on every page, so you can look for the bunny, which my daughters loved when we open the book. Joy did such an amazing job. I'm just in love with her work."

Perri also liked that the characters feature little nods to her own family.

"I wanted the mom to look more like a modern, millennial mom. I was like, 'Can she have tattoos and be kind of cool?' I wanted it to feel like me and my girls. So Joy did a great job with that," Perri says. "They know that's me and the little girl in the book looks like a mix between Carmella and Pixie. I can show either one of them and they'll feel connected to it," she shares.

Her girls also feel connected to the book's original inspiration.

"They know the song, too. I sing it to them all the time. It's a pretty cool thing to show my girls and to be proud of all the work I've done. This feels like such a genuinely sweet part of my career right now, and I love including them in everything I can. Wherever it makes sense, I have the girls there, like how they're singing on my lullaby records. It just feels super cool for them to know that now, Mommy has a book."

Perri hopes that her fans will appreciation the song's new life in the book, especially the Twilight fans who helped make the song so central to the singer's career.

"It was so genuine because I loved the books and I love the story and I love the characters," she says of Twilight.

"The fans, they took the song and ran with it. They said, 'This is our song,' and it just changed my life. The experience around "Jar of Hearts" was awesome, but "A Thousand Years" let me go tour the whole world," Perri says. "I'm forever lucky to get to sing it, or turn it into a children's book. It just feels so cool."

A Thousand Years goes on sale April 1, 2025 and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.

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