LeVar Burton’s first children’s book coming this fall

Coming soon to a bookstore near you: The first children’s book by “Reading Rainbow’s” LeVar Burton.

Burton, of course, is also an actor, known for “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and the award-winning miniseries “Roots.” Yet for a generation or more of readers, he’s the beloved host of the reading television program, “Reading Rainbow.”

“Reading Rainbow” will publish Burton’s book, titled “The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm,” on Oct. 7. The book, which contains prose and rhyme, was written with Susan Schaefer Bernardo and is illustrated by Courtenay Fletcher.

According to a release from distributor IPG, the 32-page book “is a story designed for parents and kids to read together when facing stressful or difficult situations, and emphasizes the helpers and positives in a child’s world and the value in having friends and family work together to get through tough times.”

Burton hosted “Reading Rainbow” on PBS television stations for 26 years. After regaining rights to the project, he re-created it as an iPad app.

Early this summer, Burton launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $1 million to bring “Reading Rainbow” to disadvantaged schools. When the campaign closed on July 2, donors had chipped in more than $5.4 million.

For book news and more, follow me @paperhaus on Twitter.