Book News
Austin's favorite son Matthew McConaughey pens his first children's book
Will this be the third NYT bestseller for the McConaughey family?
Austin's patron saint and Minister of Culture Matthew McConaughey is engaging a new audience. The Academy Award-winning actor, philanthropist, gun reform advocate, and UT Austin professor already became a New York Times best-selling author in 2020 with his autobiography, Greenlights.
Now, he returns to the page with a new illustrated book for children.
Titled Just Because (Viking Books for Young Reader, 32 pp., $19.99), the book is written by McConaughey, illustrated by Renée Kurilla, and recommended for children 4-8 years old.
Its website describes it as “a soulful and irreverent collection of life lessons that empowers readers, big and small, to celebrate how we are all full of possibility.”
McConaughey announced the new endeavor on his Instagram page, speaking in the simultaneously poetic and cryptic manner we all know and love:
"... This is a collection of life lessons that I hope's going to empower young readers, big and small," he says. "[I] hope it's going to help them celebrate the poetry of human relations and interactions, mine and yours; hope it reminds them that one person's appetite may just be another's indigestion. True that. Hope it lets them know that they are not alone in this world and this wild adventure that we call life. And I hope it helps them realize just how full of possibilities that we truly each and all are. Why? Just because."
The actor will promote the book with appearances at select bookstores around the country, starting at Book People in Austin on September 9. The Austin event is the only stop in Texas so far, and tickets are available here. Attending guests who purchase Eventbrite tickets will receive one signed copy of the book, plus a photo-op with the author for up to four people.
The book may be the actor's second literary venture, but it is the third from the McConaughey family as a whole. The actor's wife, Camila McConaughey, released a children's book in 2021 titled Just One Bite, which landed almost instantly on the New York Times bestseller list. (CultureMap interviewed the Brazilian-born model, entrepreneur, and healthy eating advocate about the inspiration behind her book shortly after its release.)
Will this third McConaughey installment share the same bestselling status? Only time will tell.
Copies of the Just Because are available to pre-order here.
