Ellen Harper’s first book, Always a Song is a compelling memoir about her life as a musician, activist, business owner (she owns the venerable Folk Music Center which has singed copies of her first book available) and stalwart of independent thought and action who walks the walk.

Her latest book, All That I’m Allowed captures Harper’s idiosyncratic voice as clear and purely as her music does, as she chooses not to be relegated by genres or perceived rules in both areas of her work. This is not a children’s book, though it may look and play with the idea of being one. In All That I’m Allowed Harper takes a wild eyed dig into the relationship between a dog and it’s human roommate, a roommate whose reportage is colored by a perspective that takes the reader a spell to get the temperature of. Marguerite Millard’s one line drawings further define and lift this book to another plane. All That I’m Allowed is out everywhere now.