Lithgow enchants audiences by being young at heart

NEW YORK -- The only qualification John Lithgow has for being a children's book author and entertainer is that he was a kid before growing up to be a successful actor. Still, he's made a second career enchanting young audiences. It comes naturally, he says.

When his now-adult children were growing up, it was Lithgow who'd build a medieval castle made of boxes for a birthday party, leaving it to the party guests to paint it and play in it. Lithgow would take his turn inside the fortress, too.

Fun ideas -- good for parents and children -- still come. On this day, he's pondering an "inefficiency day," a day when no one would use elevators or cars and just take their time doing everything.

For his children's books, the 60-year-old Lithgow, who starred in TV's "3rd Rock From the Sun" and in films "The World According to Garp," "Terms of Endearment" and "Shrek" (as the voice of Lord Farquaad), has created a family of lovable yet imperfect creatures.

In the most recent, "Marsupial Sue Presents 'The Runaway Pancake,"' Sue the kangaroo and her friends put on a stage version of a familiar tale for the rest of the neighborhood.

"I'm a Manatee" features a boy whose desire to be a manatee is so strong, he is swept away by his own dream. "Micawber" is about a squirrel who tries to copy some of the art world's most famous paintings.

"My parents always had books around. My dad read a chapter a night of Kipling's 'Jungle Book' to us, and, of course, I loved comics. And I'm a habitual reader now and I track that back to childhood," Lithgow says.

From his books grew accompanying CDs, tapping into some of Lithgow's other talents. "I listened to jazz, novelty, Danny Kaye and Broadway. I knew every word to 'Music Man' a month after the album came out. It was good for endless hours of creative play. Add to that art supplies -- and then I wanted to be an artist," he says.

He taught himself to play the guitar to serenade his own children and that led to kiddie concerts and a 1990 video.

He wanted to give a concert for children at New York's Carnegie Hall, but he was pushed to come up with some sort of educational value to it beyond entertainment. "So I wrote the child's guide to the orchestra suite, which became 'The Remarkable Farkle McBride,"' he explains.

It was written entirely in verse, which, Lithgow says, made it a ready-made children's book.

He contacted Simon & Schuster and got an immediate green light. He didn't know the publishing house had already sent him a