Stephen Colbert fans were happy to see the snarkmeister return to his Comedy Central show Monday, after a brief absence to care for his ninety-one-year-old mother, Lorna. Colbert Nation received more good news today, when it was announced that, on May 8, Grand Central Publishing would be releasing Colbert's new children's book, I Am a Pole (And So Can You!).
You may recall Colbert's two-part interview with legendary children's author Maurice Sendak last month, during which Colbert pitched the idea for a kids' book about a flag pole's quest to find its purpose in life. Seeking to "cash in" on the popular trend of celebrities writing children's books, a la Madonna, John Lithgow, Ray Romano, Gloria Estefan, Sting, Whoopi Goldberg, Jeff Foxworthy, and everyone else, Colbert smartly secured Sendak's permission to use one of his comments as a blurb for the book. Sendak had said the book was "terribly ordinary," but "the sad thing is I like it."
So the man who recently ran a failed campaign to become president of South Carolina will, thanks to a push by fans, turn a joke into an actual book, to the vexation of aspiring Sendaks and Dahls who would gladly choke their own kids for a book contract. Grand Central previously published Colbert's bestseller I Am America (And So Can You!) in 2007, and will also be bringing out his next book, the confusingly-titled America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't in October. Said Colbert, "I hope the minutes you and your loved ones spend reading it are as fulfilling as the minutes I spent writing it."
