Oregon’s A Kids Company About Is Teaming Up With the Jim Henson Company for a New TV Series

The show is designed to help families have conversations about difficult subjects.

Jelani Memory. iMAGE: Courtesy of A Kids Book About.
By Bennett Campbell Ferguson

A Kids Company About, the Portland media startup behind books like A Kids Book About Systemic Racism, is teaming up with the Jim Henson Company for a new television series designed to help parents and children have conversations about difficult subjects.

Based on A Kids Company About’s 80-book series (which includes A Kids Book About School Shootings, a book the company says was downloaded more than 30,000 times after the May 24 mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas), the show will feature 22-minute episodes, including live-action segments, animation and puppet vignettes. Specific topics for the episodes have yet to be announced.

Founded by Jelani Memory, A Kids Company About has raised its profile significantly in the recent years. Not only did the company get into podcasting, but it enticed none other than LeVar Burton (of Reading Rainbow and Star Trek: The Next Generation fame) to write a book of his own, titled A Kids Book About Imagination.

Speaking to WW, Memory (who wrote A Kids Book About Racism) expressed optimism that the partnership between A Kids Company About and the Jim Henson Company could combine the different appeals of their respective brands.

“The goal is borrow from the incredible legacy The Jim Henson Company has in creating enduring children’s media, while leaning into our brand ethos as a disruptor and an authentic voice for both kids and grownups, to create the next great kids show that can stand alongside Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, and The Mister Rogers Show,” Memory says.

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.