Make room on the shelf for Russell Brand's fractured fairy tales.
Actually, make that your kid's bookshelf.
The British comedian announced today that he's working on a series of illustrated children's books, to be called Russell Brand's Trickster Tales.
Brand announced his new project in a video message he posted today, in which he even gives a sneak peak at the first story in the series, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin."
Wait...
"I know you've already heard of that," he admits. "And you might think, 'Well, that isn't your story.' Yeah, I know, I've done a different version of it."
Sure enough, Brand's version begins: "Once upon a time, long ago, in a time that seemed to those present, exactly like now, except their teeth weren't so clean and more things were wooden, there was a town called Hamelin."
Sounds as though these are meant to be enjoyed by both little ones and their parents. And considering he called his first memoir My Booky Wook, this really doesn't seem that far of a stretch.
"It's coming out soon. Do you want it? You can have it if you want," Brand promised. His Trickster Tales are intended to be, he said, "where I do interpretations of fairy stories and folk tales, believing them to be the code to unlock aspects of our consciousness and to affect and impact the way we see the world."
Kind of like his standup routines, really.
"Once we start changing the way children see the world," he continued, "well, we can do all sorts of stuff."
Keep watching for more of Brand reading from his version of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin,' due out this fall. Chris Riddell ("he does those satirical things" in the Guardian and Observer, Brand explained) is doing the illustrations, some of which the author showed off in his video, suggesting that this is not an April Fools' Day prank.
"The Pied Piper of Hamelin went from pest control to child abduction on the basis of unpaid fees," Brand tweeted along with a link to his video earlier today.
Then again, LeBron James also used today to "announce" that he had an all-star mix tape in the works featuring Jay Z, Drake, Rick Ross, Kendrick Lamar and more.
"April fools! HAHAHA," he tweeted an hour later.
So we'll just have to wait and see how Brand's story ultimately turns out.