You’re a green one, Mr. Grinch. (Sample page from the upcoming How the Grinch Lost Christmas!

Last week, Random House Children’s Books announced its plan to release a new Grinch story later this year. Titled How the Grinch Lost Christmas!, it tells the touching story of a desperate industry’s attempt to squeeze a few more dollars out of a beloved cultural touchstone. Explained Executive Editor Alice Avarice: “How the Grinch Stole Christmas has sold nearly 10 million copies in North America alone. It has been made into the only TV special that can compete with A Charlie Brown Christmas for enduring appeal. The Grinch survived the live-action Jim Carrey adaptation, and he survived being voiced by Smaug. Not making a sequel would be a small-hearted, Grinchy disservice to our stockholders. You can’t think about what Dr. Seuss made as the concrete expression of an artistic vision. You have to think of it — the rhyme-scheme, the madcap action, the trippy imagery — as a sandbox, or a set of tools. A set of tools that we can use to make something beautiful: stacks and stacks of money. The book comes out September 5, and let me tell you, we expect our profit margin to grow three sizes that day!”