Jamie Lee Curtis returns to Anderson's Bookshop
To her youngest readers, Jamie Lee Curtis is "the book lady" who also sells yogurt on TV.
And that suits the 51-year-old actress just fine.
Her ninth children's book, "My Mommy Hung the Moon" (HarperCollins, $16.99), hit bookstores Tuesday. Curtis will be at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville at 7 p.m. Sept. 17 to sign copies.
"Anderson's Bookshop is one of my favorite bookstores in the country because it's filled with people who love books and readers, real readers," she said. "It's just a great bookstore."
Curtis dedicated her book to her own "beautiful mama," the late actress Janet Leigh.
"This book is about mother love," she said. "The older I get, the more I understand that (being a mother) is the single greatest thing a woman can do, and that the single most important relationship a child has is with their mother."
Curtis cut back on her acting career in recent years to focus on her family, including her son, 14. She also has a 23-year-old daughter.
But she does have a new movie, "You Again", opening in theaters Sept. 24. It's a comedy about a young woman (Kristen Bell) who's horrified to learn her older brother is marrying her arch-nemesis from high school. Curtis plays the groom's mother, who discovers the bride-to-be's aunt (Sigourney Weaver) is her high school enemy. Betty White co-stars.
Working with all these women was "exactly what you would hope, laughing all day long," Curtis said.
When she's not writing her best-selling children's books, Curtis keeps busy talking about digestive health as spokeswoman for Activia yogurt. She blogs on the Huffington Post, plays tennis and works on behalf of several women's and children's charities, including Women in Recovery and the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation.
The former "Scream Queen" turned AARP cover girl is a role model for healthy, graceful aging.
"I walk the walk because the walk works for me really well," she said. "I've never felt prettier, and my hair is gray."
Her website, jamieleecurtisbooks.com, features activities for children and parents based on her books, which include "Today I Feel Silly," "Where Do Balloons Go? An Uplifting Mystery" and "It's Hard to Be Five." There's also a Just Ask Jamie button, and she says she responds online to the questions herself.
"My Mommy Hung the Moon," with its sweet story and hilarious illustrations, is for ages 4 to 8. Curtis says her favorite thing about book tours is meeting her littlest fans.
"That's almost the entire reason that I do it," she said.