There’s nothing quite as entertaining as getting someone to read to you, if—and only if—they do the voices, of course, and now America’s favorite First Lady Michelle Obama is going to treat us all to a little story time every Monday morning. Well, she’s specifically doing it for kids, but we’re not going to judge anyone for trying to find some calm and comfort in this. She’s calling this Mondays With Michelle Obama, and starting on April 20, she’ll read through a “classic children’s book” every Monday at noon on the PBS Kids Facebook page and YouTube channel as well as Penguin Random House’s Facebook page. Videos will also be archived for later viewings after the initial stream, in case your kids (or you) miss out.
This comes from Variety, which says the four books she’s planning to read are Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s The Gruffalo, Tom Fletcher and Greg Abbot’s There’s A Dragon In Your Book, Eliza Wheeler’s Miss Maple’s Seeds, and (saving the best for last) Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Penguin Random House will also be putting out “a collection of activities and resources for each of the books” so families can have additional stuff to do together. Also, because we’re not thrilled at the idea of this being used to sell copies of these books, we’d just like to remind everyone that watching Michelle Obama read The Very Hungry Caterpillar for free is much better than giving money to the publisher so you can buy your own copy. Unless you buy a copy from a local independent bookstore, which would be good… actually, just do whatever you wanna do, as long as you’re not endangering other people. It’s not our job to manage the pandemic.