Michael Sheen hopes that the new book will make children talk about homelessness
Hollywood actor Michael Sheen said he hoped that his new children’s book would get the next generation to talk about homelessness.
Sheen launches a house for Spark The Dragon, who tells the story of a dragon who loses his house, then sets out to find a new one.
He said he hoped it would help children start thinking about ways of making a difference in the future.
“I always thought that telling stories is an important way to change the world – and in the long term, stories for children can make the most of everyone,” said Sheen.
Sheen co-wrote the book with Jess Webb and with illustrations by Sarah Massini.
The book will help collect funds for charity for homeless, Shelter, when it was released on June 5.
Sheen, 56, said: “I feel very lucky that I can grow up in a safe and happy house, but knowing that for many people, it is not the case, made me want to do what I can to help.”
He said he hoped that children would like to read on Spark the Dragon and his animal friends who live in “a world of magic woods” while they were launching into “a quest to find a new place to call at home”.
“I hope that Spark’s adventure is fun to read and at the same time, that its story gives a way for young readers to talk about what it is to be homeless-and start to think about the means of making a difference,” he added.
The Welsh actor said he was proud to publish the book in partnership with Shelter, “supporting the important work they do to combat the urgency of housing”.
The publisher Puffin and Sheen will give £ 1 from the sale of each rigid copy and 50p of the sale of each pocket copy of the book in the United Kingdom and Ireland in the shelter.
The charitable organization said that the latest statutory statistics have shown that more than 164,000 children were currently homeless and lived in temporary housing in England.
The charity said that the figure had increased by 21,650 (15%) in just one year.
Sheen has played historical figures such as the former director of Nottingham Forest and the Derby County Director, Brian Cloud, in Damned United, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in three films, including the Queen, and the comic actor Kenneth Williamsa! On BBC oven.
The actor has more recently been seen on Giveaway of Secret Million Pound by Michael Sheen on Canal 4.
In this documentary, he used £ 100,000 on his own money to destroy a debt for 900 people in the south of Wales.
In January, Sheen announced that he would finance a new theater company to fill the void left by the folding of the National Theater of the Pays de Wales.
He will be the artistic director of the Welsh National Theater, who will aim to tell “major stories on the main stages of the general public”.
