Actor shares manatee dreams with Citrus County children

HOMOSASSA SPRINGS - He has played an alien on the television show 3rd Rock From the Sun, a transsexual in the film The World According to Garp and will soon star on Broadway in The Retreat From Moscow.

In Citrus County on Saturday, John Lithgow added the role of manatee advocate to his credits.

Lithgow spent the afternoon at Homosassa Springs State Wildlife Park reading and singing his children's books to hundreds of kids, parents and fans. He was visiting to promote his fourth and newest children's book, I'm a Manatee.

Years ago, Lithgow said, he was giving a concert for kids at an Ohio zoo when it started to rain. He and about 100 others huddled in the manatee house for cover.

"I thought, "What a marvelous animal! What a marvelous name!"'

He started rhyming - "a chubby, brown banana-tee," "as wrinkled as my grann-atee," "No difference between my face and fann-atee" - and created a song.

He sang it for an editor at Simon & Schuster.

And eventually, I'm a Manatee, the book with accompanying CD, was born. In I'm a Manatee, a boy dreams he's a manatee.

While Lithgow hopes children fall in love with the story and song, he said the book also includes a message: "Love the manatee and save the manatee."

He wants children to know the manatee and to help raise their awareness of animals, especially those that need protecting, he said.

With the book in the works, publisher Simon & Schuster partnered with the Save the Manatee Club and planned the trip to Citrus County.

"In a way, this is the beginning of things," said Lithgow, who has won an Emmy, a Tony and a Golden Globe and been nominated for an Oscar.

Lithgow said he has a wonderful time entertaining children and that he will continue writing for them.

He has another book due out next year, and two more in the works.

In addition, he will work on a book for parents on "crazy and fun things" to do with their kids - some of which Lithgow did with his children, now grown - such as having a scavenger hunt in an art museum.

Saturday, the Save the Manatee Club made Lithgow an adoptive parent of Rosie, the biggest manatee in the park.

Then Lithgow settled into a rocking chair on the porch of a cabin facade surrounded by families where he read and sang.

After the performance, a hearty group waited in a long line through heavy rain to get their books signed by Lithgow.

"You are so lucky because you live on the west coast of Florida," Lithgow told the children, "where there are lots and lots of manatees."

"Most of the kids in the country don't know about manatees," he said, "and how wonderful they are."

- Suzannah Gonzales can be reached at 352 860-7312 or sgonzales@sptimes.com

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