Bryan Cranston Read My Book to a Million Kids

It finally crossed a million.

Bryan Cranston read Professor Nincompoop out loud for Storyline Online back in February. The video has now passed one million views, and Storyline Online has given the book its Kids' Top Pick Seal of Approval, which only goes to books that pass a million.

And a million views is not a million kids. It's more than that. These videos get played to a whole class at once, so a single view is often an entire carpet full of five-year-olds.

What Cranston did with it

Professor Nincompoop is a self-declared world-renowned scholar who has discovered a brand new species. He claims he speaks more than 740 animal languages. He claims he captured the creature using tae kwon do and carried it home in a bicycle basket.

Cranston read the whole thing in an over-the-top German accent.

Here's what he said about the book:

"The story is full of absurdity and fun, but it's also a reminder that it's important to understand the difference between what's real and what's make-believe. Stories like this show kids that it's okay to be silly, to dream big and to let your imagination run wild, all while learning to think critically."

That is the book in one paragraph, and he nailed it.

On the surface it's a silly story about a ridiculous man and a creature that lives in his closet. Underneath it, it's about not believing something just because the person saying it sounds certain. My own kids are growing up with a screen in their hand. That felt worth a book.

Courtney B. Vance, President and Chairman of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, put it this way:

"Professor Nincompoop is a perfect example of how storytelling can spark laughter, imagination and a genuine love of reading."

Ben Askew drew it

The professor's face does most of the comedic work in this book, and that's Ben. When a kid laughs at page four, before anybody has read a word out loud, that's the illustration doing it.

What Storyline Online is

It's the children's literacy program of the nonprofit SAG-AFTRA Foundation. Actors read picture books aloud, the art gets animated, and the whole library is free, 24 hours a day, anywhere in the world. It's Emmy-winning, it's endorsed by the American Federation of Teachers and the American Library Association, and the American Association of School Librarians named it one of the best websites there is.

Professor Nincompoop was the 99th read-aloud in that library. It sits alongside Meryl Streep, Oprah Winfrey, Viola Davis, Kathy Bates and Michelle Yeoh, which is still a strange sentence for me to type.

In September 2026 they added a second one of mine: Adam Brody reading Petey Perfectpants and the Silly Sock Puppet Problem.

For teachers and librarians

The video ships with a free activity guide aligned to Common Core Standards. Use it. You don't need the book and you don't need to ask me.

If you want the hardcover on the shelf, it's here and I'll sign it. I also do school visits, and this is one of the books I read from.

Go watch it

It runs about seven minutes. Fair warning: your kid will start saying "nincompoop" and will not stop.

Watch Bryan Cranston read Professor Nincompoop

Then come back and get the copy I sign by hand.

Magically,
Jimmy