He is the leader of the free world, with two wars to run, a collapsing economy to revive and a disintegrating political base, but somehow Barack Obama has found the time to write a new book.
Long before he was a winning presidential candidate, Obama's award-winning memoir, Dreams From My Father, helped catapult him into the political spotlight, selling an estimated 1.5m copies worldwide.
This time, though, Obama's book is aimed at readers aged three. Called Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters, it is described as a tribute to American pioneers, including the likes of George Washington, artist Georgia O'Keeffe and baseballer Jackie Robinson, the first black man to break professional baseball's colour bar.
Publishers Alfred A Knopf Books for Young Readers, a division of Random House, said the president's daughters, Sasha and Malia, inspired him to write the book, which it bills as "a moving tribute to 13 groundbreaking Americans and the ideals that have shaped our nation". It will retail for $17.99, with the proceeds going to a scholarship fund for the children of fallen and disabled soldiers.
So with opinion polls sagging and the US economy still refusing to bounce back, how has Obama had the time to write a Facebook update, let alone a 40-page book? The answer is that this is one Obama prepared earlier.
Back in 2004, just as Obama was elected as a US senator, he signed a $1.9m three-book deal with Random House, including a children's book. The publisher says he completed Of Thee I Sing before becoming president in January 2009, and that the illustrator has been working for two years on the book's images. In a surprising twist, Obama's book comes out on 16 November, just a week after his predecessor George Bush's episodic memoir, Decision Points, which may or may not be aimed at a similar reading level.
Obama will not be the first president to publish a work for children. Teddy Roosevelt co-authored Hero Tales from American History, also written before he became president. Jimmy Carter waited 15 years after leaving the White House to publish The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer, which was wise.
Other administrations have seen similar efforts, although Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, probably doesn't want to be reminded of her 1998 opus, Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets.
