Chris Pine is now a children's book author

CNN
—

Actor Chris Pine is telling a different kind of story these days.

The Star Trek star has a new children's book out called When Digz the Dog Met Zurl the Squirrel: A Short Tale About a Short Tail.

“A great impetus to write, the joy of writing, came from thinking of parents reading it, because I remember when I was a child and fell in love with a book, I would let my father read it over and over again read. Pine told People magazine.

“Even though I'm not a parent, I can't tell you how many parents I've talked to and for some reason they're just tired of reading book X for the umpteenth time, so I thought, 'Well, it would be.' “It's great to write something that hopefully feels so delicious in your mouth and so fun to say…that they keep wanting to come back and explore it,” Pine said. “The story behind it is actually quite simple, but I don't think that means it's any less important to emphasize the importance of compassion and perspective, without judging a book by its cover, so to speak.”

The focus is on a dog named Digz, who believes he is the ruler of a garden, and a squirrel Zurl, who thinks otherwise.

The couple soon discovers that they have some things in common.

“It was during the first part of the (COVID) quarantine, I was walking with a friend and my dog ​​was chasing a squirrel,” Pine said. “My friend said, 'I don't think I know about the story about a dog chasing a squirrel.' It seems so universal. Doesn't every dog ​​chase a squirrel? And I said, 'Yeah, that sounds about right.'”

The star is a dog owner himself and said he “really wanted the book to have that timeless feel, but also the musicality of the language that you see in Dr. Seuss finds.”

“I wanted to write and create something that felt like it had been around for 50 years,” he said. “It's a book that will be relevant now, it could have been relevant 50 years ago, it will be relevant in 50 years… and it's a story that is very simple, easy to digest and easy to articulate for young children, and so on. “Hopefully this will make reading fun for parents.”

When Digz the Dog Met Zurl the Squirrel: A Short Tale About a Short Tail is available now.