Hot Men of Children's Literature: Part 32 In a Series

Sometimes a person can come up with a HMOCL entirely on their own, and sometimes it takes the nominee's publisher to give me a nudge in the right direction. Today's hottie isn't unfamiliar with being objectified. After all, he was already mentioned in Paper Magazine’s Beautiful People 2006. Right now I think he's in Prague, so he may not know about this for some time. You see, I met this particular HMOCL in the midst of the Narnia movie madness when my library branch at the time (the Jefferson Market should-really-have-been-in-Kiki-Strike branch) hosted costumes and props from the film. He does not, sadly, remember me, which is unsurprising given the circumstances. It was a busy time for him and I was wearing my patent pending library shelf camouflage, thus blending in with my surroundings.

I assure you that this fellow is a huge children's literature advocate and (perhaps more importantly) a lover of libraries as well.

So here, without further ado, is the delightful, the charming, the rather young...

PERRY MOORE

ATTENTION FUTURE HOT MEN OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE: You would do very well to have a picture of yourself like this somewhere in your possession so as to pass it along to me. It makes my job just that much easier.

Here is what Paper Magazine wrote of him back in April. I'm a little sad that it took me this long to hear about it.

The 34-year-old executive producer is responsible -- along with director Andrew Adamson and producer Mark Johnson -- for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The movie did so well at the box office that Disney green-lit Prince Caspian, the second film in the series based on the C.S. Lewis books. That film should land in theaters in 2007, the same year that Moore's first novel hits bookstores -- Hero (Hyperion). "It's your regular, ordinary coming-of-age story about the world's first gay superhero," Moore says. Like Narnia, it's also the first in a series. Moore has had previous publishing success: His The Official Illustrated Movie Companion to the first Narnia film is a New York Times bestseller. What else? "I'm dying to work with [producer] Brian Grazer," he says. That's understandable: Hero sounds ripe for adaptation.

The unbelievably affable New York transplant came to Manhattan by way of Virginia Beach, Virginia (and the White House, where he interned during the good old Clinton administration). No matter how busy he is, he never fails to glow with Southern charm. And busy he is. Besides the Narnia films and his superhero cycle, Moore's working on Lake City (a film he co-wrote and will co-direct with PAPER's Hunter Hill, starring Sissy Spacek) and a documentary about Where the Wild Things Are author Maurice Sendak (co-directed by Moore, Hill and Spike Jonze).

If he can survive being called "unbelievably affable" he can survive anything. Perry, m'dear, my hat's off to you.