By Tom Kane
Bay Ridge Eagle

Joseph Melillo, a former Vice President of Morgan Stanley and a life-long Brooklyn resident, has written a children’s book called Parker the Platypus, based on a song he wrote in 2008.

“This song must have existed since the dawn of time, and chose me to give it form,� said Melillo. He and his vocal instructor, Janie Barnett, finished writing the piece and recorded it immediately.

Melillo can be seen in any Bay Ridge venue that performs ‘live’ music. His home bar, The Wicked Monk, is where his song was first heard by his fellow music lovers, who then encouraged him to make the song into a children’s story. So the song became the book.

That was the easy part, though. The tough part was finding a literary agent to release Parker as a children’s book. After a few months, Melillo learned of a self-publishing company called AuthorHouse, and decided to go with them. His 10-year-old niece, Sami Melillo, became his illustrator, and off they went.

His first book signing will be at The Wicked Monk, 8415 Fifth Ave., on July 10 at 8 p.m. This aspiring singer-songwriter-actor has a catalog of over 60 songs and a few movie and television appearances to his credit. Melillo claims the inspiration for Parker (both song and book) was self-propelled — that they basically wrote themselves.

Parker is geared for the younger set and is about a platypus named Parker with no friends. I won’t give away the plot, only to say that the book winds up with a ‘happily ever after’ ending.

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