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John Lithgow
Writing a children's book was not something that I pursued. It pursued me. It started when I was asked to write a narration for a symphony for kids. I realized that it had the text for a book. From that text "The Remarkable Farkle McBride" was born. And once the first book was successful, others... show more



Writing a children's book was not something that I pursued. It pursued me. It started when I was asked to write a narration for a symphony for kids. I realized that it had the text for a book. From that text "The Remarkable Farkle McBride" was born. And once the first book was successful, others followed.My sixth (!) children's book, "Marsupial Sue Presents the Runaway Pancake," was just published this fall. This is a sequel to "Marsupial Sue," one of my most popular storybook characters.This story was inspired in part by two different things: The "Runaway Pancake" song is a guaranteed show stopper whenever I sing it in one of my Paloozicals Concert for Kids , and my performing on Broadway this year in "Dirty Rotton Scoundrels" made me think that Sue might like to put on a show of her own with all of her animal friends.I credit my parents for fostering my love of literature and books. I have fond memories of my father reading chapters aloud from great thick books like "The Jungle Book" and "A Teller of Tales".I have carried on my father's tradition by reading aloud to my own kids when they were little. I have also started a few traditions of my own, like singing to them and playing really mediocre guitar, building castles with them out of refrigerator boxes and treasure hunts across museums. Once I even created a very elaborate paper chase across the entire campus of UCLA for my daughter Phoebe's 16th Birthday. Some of these games were inspiration for all of the Lithgow Palooza books and books with kits that have been published by both Simon and Schuster and Running Press.Although writing is an arduous process for me, there is nothing better than seeing a child falling in love with one of my stories.

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Birth date: October 19, 1945
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Community Reviews
Jasmyn's Reviews
Jasmyn's Reviews rated it 9 years ago
Micawber is a great squirrel - he travels from his home in the park to the art museum every day to see the wonderful painting. But once he realizes that he can paint! Well, then off he goes and creates many works of art. The story was very cute - and the fold out of his studio/museum was really grea...
Books Less Travelled
Books Less Travelled rated it 10 years ago
A fun book for early readers
Kaethe
Kaethe rated it 11 years ago
Another "meh". I get it, and it might be wonderfully effective on stage, but as a picture book, I wasn't wowed. In fact, I'm kind of creeped out by the elephant on the cover. Lithgow appeals to me enormously as an actor, not so much as a writer.Library copy
If These Books Could Talk
If These Books Could Talk rated it 12 years ago
Superb. Would highly recommend this as an audio book:as you can imagine, Lithgow's tone and delivery is exemplary and his unflinching honesty about his life is a joy to behold in a modern autobiography.The only thing I would have like more of is his time in Hollywood over the last 20 years as this i...
thomcat
thomcat rated it 12 years ago
I enjoyed the author's description of story, the root of acting and entertainment. Scenes and lessons learned as a young man were done with humor and wisdom, and the ending was quite a nice summation of a life well lived and the full effects of choices made. Some of the middle bits wandered from the...
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