Children\'s Book Coming from Jessica Lange

September 11, 2012, 2:37 pm

By DAVE ITZKOFF

If you knew Jessica Lange only from her Emmy-nominated role as the mother from hell on “American Horror Story” you might think twice before sharing her handiwork with offspring of your own. But performers are not their characters - nor has Ms. Lange ever worked on a soap opera with a co-star who turned out to be Dustin Hoffman in drag - and now this Oscar- and Emmy-winning actress is about to become the author of a picture book for young readers.

The Jabberwocky imprint of Sourcebooks said on Tuesday that it had acquired a book by Ms. Lange called “It Is About a Little Bird,” which is based on a book that the actress created for her own grandchildren and which will use photographs that she took a nd illustrated by hand.

Steve Geck, the Sourcebooks editorial manager, said in a telephone interview that the book tells the story of two young girls who visit their grandmother on “a ramshackle farm.” There, Mr. Geck said, “They come upon an old birdcage, and when they ask her about it, she tells them the story how she grew up in France and had this bird as a pet and what it meant to her.” He added that the book “captures that moment in childhood where children realize there's a world that exists beyond themselves, and there's a history beyond themselves.”

Mr. Geck said that the sensibility of “It Is About a Little Bird,” which is tentatively planned for a fall 2013 publication, was less Ryan Murphy and “more Frank Capra.”