It was only a matter of time before Dar Williams' penchant for songwriting would spill over onto the pages of a novel. In fact, she's written two young adult books centered on the charismatic, sensitive and imaginative 12-year-old girl named Amalee.

The most recent one is "Lights, Camera, Amalee" (Scholastic), an enchanting tale of an inspiring young soul with a deep concern for the delicate balance of life.

Amalee's foray into documentary filmmaking, which is funded through a strange inheritance, helps to unravel some of the mystery around the mother she never knew, the meaning of friendship and family, along with the complexities of teenage life.

Williams does this with a colorful supporting cast of charming characters, and a knack for capturing the essence of what it's like to be a 12-year-old girl, complete with crushes, challenges, and plenty of snacks. Suffice to say, I loved this book and although I'm well past the age of 12, I found myself devouring the pages enthusiastically.

Meanwhile, back in the world of music, Dar Williams continues to be one of the most consistently intelligent and striking voices from both a songwriting and vocals perspective. Last year's "My Better Self" (Razor & Tie), her fifth studio recording, is no exception. In signature Williams' fashion, she manages to touch on a wide range of emotions, politics, nature and the symbolically purifying waters of New York's Hudson River, not to mention a duet with Ani DiFranco on Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb."

She makes it onto two different Top 10 lists of mine. First off, "When I Was a Boy" from her debut record, 1995's "The Honesty Room," is among my all-time favorite songs, and secondly, "Whispering Pines" from 2003's "The Beauty of the Rain," is one of my favorite cover songs (courtesy of the Band).

We talked about the books, her music and a few things in between. Since I started a Top 10 theme, I'll continue with it and share the Top 10 highlights from a chat with Dar Williams.

1. On being an author, the latest Amalee book:

"I don't really know how it is as a book. I'm pretty sure-footed about my music and who likes it and where it goes, so I was sort of shy about getting myself into schools."

2. On visiting schools and meeting with kids:

"I've gone into four or five schools at this point, and it's just been a lovely experience. I talk to them about all sorts of stuff and they talk to me about all sorts of stuff."

3. On writing from the perspective of a 12-year-old girl:

"I fell in love with going back that far in my life. It was a joy to do it, and I think there's a really strong impulse among today's women to go back and make a bread-crumb path for kids, and definitely girls, to give them a little oomph."

4. On her goal in creating Amalee:

"I just wanted to write about a kid who's not extraordinary in any way. She's just a good kid, and she's got a good heart, and she trusts adults to help her, and adults want to help her. The book really was great for me in so many ways. It opened up my mind and it brought me back in history."

5. On the book-writing and record-making process:

"If life is a giant trust exercise, then having editors and producers can teach you how to trust, and I think I needed that. The books and studios have both taught me how to not feel like I have to be so self-sufficient to the point of isolating myself or not trusting anybody."

6. On the phrase "relax and speak," which an adult character said to a nervous Amalee to give her the confidence she needed:

"That's the kind of thing you want to sprinkle in front of kids, your little tips. To be honest, that's blatantly a tip."

7. On defining the word "empire" in a song of the same name from "My Better Self" Ð "And the empire grows with the news that we're winning. With more fear to conquer, more gold thread for spinning, til it's bright as the sun, shining on everyone."

"All empire is, is expansion. It's basically expanding your boundaries, and you risk your very civilization to expand them. You deplete the good will, you deplete the coffers, and you deplete the rhetoric to make that expansion happen. The other thing that all empires have in common is that they're doomed; at some point it just becomes arrogance and playing god."

8. On the state of the United States in terms of the song "Empire":

"I thought, this really isn't a song about the United States necessarily except that I sprinkled in references to things that are very like that in our country. So it really was more a cautionary tale than a flat-out indictment. It was a statement of the direction that we're going in." This is a commentary on all empires; it says these are the attributes of empire. We have some of them."

9. On the brighter side:

"The United States is so much to me about its incredible natural beauty and its hammer dulcimers and its Ralph Stanleys and Pete Seegers and Motown, and it's so amazing on that level."

10. On the role of an artist:

"Journalists come out with these talking points, saying, 'What do you say to people who say that really your music should be about entertainment?' I say that's the first thing that we learned in history class; the first domino of fascism. The artists and the intellectuals were the first to be mocked and scorned, killed, exiled. You should be worried if that's what's really going on. I think it's an artist's responsibility to think and feel their interior life and their exterior world and to talk about it. I think just speaking the truth is a very stark thing these days and "Empire" basically juxtaposes some of our ingredients with historical ingredients."

You can hear Dar Williams perform Saturday night at the Chocolate Church Arts Center in Bath (chocolatechurcharts.org).

Aimsel Ponti is a Portland freelance writer. She can be contacted at:

aimselponti@yahoo.com