Goldie Hawn stopped by the Today show to discuss her new children’s book.
The After-School Kindness Crew: Pooch on the Loose, written by Hawn and Lin Oliver with illustrations by Breanna Chambers, is scheduled for publication Tuesday by Penguin Workshop. The book tells the story of three fourth graders celebrating their school’s “Surprise Us Day” who are brought together by an energetic dog looking for its forever home. A critic for Kirkus called the book, the first in a planned series, “earnest, lighthearted, and fun.”
Today show co-host Craig Melvin asked Hawn why she decided to write a children’s book.
“I have 23 years of creating MindUP, my program, and that is to help children self-regulate their emotions and hopefully have a happier time in the classroom, to understand a little bit more about themselves,” the actor replied. “The reason I wanted to do this is because it’s fun, and I’ve always wanted to write a children’s book, so this one was great because I was able to look at things we do in MindUP to help children get happier, to know what resilience is, to have grit, to have creativity, and not live in the world of tablets and so forth.”
Melvin mentioned that one of the characters in the book is Ms. Gold, who teaches the children meditation.
“Lin Oliver…is incredible, and we collaborated, [and] she’s an amazing writer,” Hawn said. “She did mention that, and I thought, That might be fun.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
