One morning, with his songwriting hat on, Joe woke up with a song idea in his head. Since the platypus is an odd animal, which doesn't fit nicely into the animal kingdom, why not use him to write a children's song about not fitting in? The song wrote itself, and lent itself to being made into a children's book. Thus, Parker The Platypus was born!
Since then, Parker The Platypus has sold many copies (for a self-published book), and received many accolades from children and parents alike.
The book is illustrated by Joe's niece, Sami Melillo, who was nine years old when she first started out illustrating the book. She is a very gifted artist whose skill for telling stories through picture is well beyond her years.
Joe has written many sequels to the song, all of which he hopes are made into books. The first sequel, Parker Helps Hubert The Hippopotamus is scheduled for release in 2011.
Parker can't be contained in Joe's Web site, so he has a page all his own. Complete with games and merchandise stores, go check out the Parker The Platypus Web page!!
Parker also has his own Fan page on Facebook. You can find it by clicking here.