ABC/Randy Holmes(NEW YORK) — Jimmy Kimmel, host of ABC’s late night show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, is targeting a much younger audience with his first children’s book, The Serious Goose. The late night show host also revealed proceeds will all go to children’s hospitals.
In an interview with People magazine, Kimmel, 52, says that the inspiration for the book came from his now-five-year-old daughter Jane, who he nicknamed “Goose.”
“When she was little, when she was in a bad mood, I’d say, ‘Are you a serious goose or a silly goose?’ And I’d try to break her out of her bad mood by going that route,” he explains. “So she would either say, ‘I’m a serious goose’ or ‘I’m a silly goose’ and it became her nickname.”
Jane, and her two-and-a-half-year-old brother Billy, both of whom he shares with his wife Molly McNearney, love reading the book with their dad — especially Jane, who Kimmel jokes, “really goes for it trying to make the goose laugh, even though, if she had any common sense, you’d know that the goose is going to laugh at the end, no matter what.”
The book is not only good fun, but for a good cause.
“I wanted to do something to make a big donation to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles…[and]…other children’s hospitals. This will be a hefty sum…And it seemed like the least I could do after they saved my son’s life two different times,” says Kimmel.
Billy, who is “doing great,” underwent two heart surgeries — one when he was just three days old, and another when he was seven months old — after he was born with a congenital heart condition.
The Serious Goose is on sale now at Amazon.com.
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