Russell Brand Wants to Influence Your Kids with New Children’s Books

Comedian and Aveda Salon "before" model Russell Brand warns parents that he'll soon be releasing stories for their children to read. Did we say warn? We meant told. Why would loving parents of innocent, unsuspecting children need to be warned about these books? Should they worry about the wistful look that appears on Brand's face when he intones, "Once we start to change the way children see the world, we can do all sorts of stuff." Parents might wonder what Brand means when he says he writes these stories "believing them to be the code to unlock our consciousness..."

Brand posted the above video to YouTube late Tuesday night, announcing details about the forthcoming series of books, titled 'Russell Brand's Trickster Tales,' and showing off some of the artwork. He also read some excerpts from the first book to be released, 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin.'

His version of this classic tale starts off with a sentence long enough to make Thomas Pynchon cry foul (sorry for the literature reference): "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."

The artwork, created by award-winning artist Chris Riddell, actually looks very cool. The book is illustrated with simple, iconic, yet detailed black and white drawings. One of the characters, The Rat King, looked especially menacing.

According to the video, the first of 'Russell Brand's Trickster Tales' will become available this autumn.