Dolly Parton’s Billy the Kid Gets Festive in New Christmas Book

The latest entry into the singer’s ‘Billy the Kid’ series explores Billy’s decision whether to perform on Christmas or celebrate with family

Dolly Parton and ‘Dolly Parton’s Billy the Kid Comes Home For Christmas’. Photo: Courtesy of Dolly Parton; Penguin Young Readers

Dolly Parton is making sure her god-dog Billy the Kid has a happy ending this holiday season in her latest children’s book!

The “9 to 5” singer, 78, shares that in her new book, Dolly Parton’s Billy the Kid Comes Home for Christmas, her main character will grapple with the tough decision many stars like herself have to face during the holiday season: to perform at “Barkafeller Center” or head home to celebrate with the family.

“Performers have the dilemma of whether we go on the road or whether we take shows for money … because so many people, many artists, get so much money offered to actually perform at certain things during [the] holiday season,” she tells PEOPLE. “But to love your family, and for that to be a family tradition, you always want to be home for Christmas.”

Dolly Parton’s Billy the Kid Comes Home For Christmas.Penguin Young Readers

While the star says she’s personally “never not been home for Christmas,” she’s hoping to take readers along for the ride across the country as Billy figures it out.

“Billy gets a big offer to work [at] the Barcafeller Center, [but] he’s already promised that he’d be home for Christmas,” she explains, adding that there’s “a lot of fun story” that details his adventures “in between” making his decision.

“In this one, you get to see a lot of the scenery out on the road and that sort of thing,” she says. “So it’s fun. And so it’s just opened up a whole new little world for me.”

Like her previous books, the 11-time Grammy winner is also integrating her music into Dolly Parton’s Billy the Kid Comes Home for Christmas, which was inspired by her song “Comin’ Home for Christmas.”

Dolly Parton and her god-dog, Billy the Kid.Courtesy of Dolly Parton

“All the books are going to be based on songs, most of them children’s songs. But this one was a song for grown-ups,” Parton shares. “But kids love these books, and so do the grown-ups. So it’s perfect.”

Parton, who loves to read herself, long been a champion of literacy for children. She founded Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in 1995, which sends free books each month to children from birth to age 5, no matter their household income.

The singer and author’s “love for books and a love for reading” is infused in each Billy the Kid entry.

“These are little books [the kids] can hold in their lap and look at the pictures and feel like it’s their own because they get it in the mail with their own little name,” Parton shares. “So it’s just important that I do things to make children happy, and that all of these little books have some messages as well.”

Dolly Parton’s Billy the Kid Comes Home for Christmas by Dolly Parton and Erica S. Perl, illustrated by MacKenzie Haley, is available now, wherever books are sold.