Sean Spicer's stab at 'rightwing story hour' was a massive dud: author

In a column for Salon, author and George Mason University MFA instructor Timothy Denevi reported on former White House press secretary Sean Spicer's appearance at "right-wing story hour" held at the Cleveland Park public library in Washington, D.C.

According to Denevi, it did not go well for the former White House official who recently lost his job as a host on Newsmax after a three-year run.

Spicer was on hand to read from his children's book "The Parrots Go Bananas" as part of a tour sponsored by his publisher which also includes other conservatives who have also jumped into the children's books business -- and, according to Denevi, Spicer seemed to have trouble relating to children as his reading progressed.

With Spicer promising the kids, "I'll try and keep this quick. I'm the last thing between you and lunch," the columnist noted that the former Donald Trump spokesperson felt compelled to explain what the book was about instead of letting the text speak for itself.

"For the event at the Cleveland Park public library, Spicer read for just over 15 minutes. The plot of his children's book centered on a game of 'smash ball'; it featured a large cast of anthropomorphic animals, a minority of whom, through their shameless use of social media, drove the action forward by misrepresenting the game's key play," Denevi wrote before reporting, "...his material refused to snap easily into place. 'It's not like it's mean-spirited," he'd said during a recent appearance. "It doesn't call out the media or try to make anyone seem like a bad guy. It teaches a very valuable lesson.'"

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As for the kids in attendance, Denevi recalled, "That morning there were perhaps a dozen children in the audience. Together they fidgeted and called out, interrupting things repeatedly with their questions and responses. Their parents, seated in chairs toward the back, gazed down at their phones. Even Spicer's fellow presenters seemed restless. At one point, [fellow author Jack] Posobiec, in response to a clarification of the book's setting, shouted acidly, 'Gee, thanks, Mr. Spicer.'"

Explaining that he was sitting next to freelancer Amanda Moore who was also covering the event, he claimed she told him, "It's like the book-report scene in 'Mean Girls, -- We should totally just stab Caesar!"

As for Spicer's fellow conservative authors who are part of the tour, he reported, "They were watching Spicer closely. To them, I realized, the emotion in his voice must be like blood in the water. For an instant I saw him as they surely did, fatally exposed, the vital contents of his innermost self spilling out now for everyone to see. All he could do was gaze back at them, uncomprehending."

You can read more here.