A kids' book from 'Orchid Thief' author Susan Orlean

Susan Orlean, the veteran New Yorker writer who penned the best-selling nonfiction book The Orchid Thief (and was played by Meryl Streep in Spike Jonze’s very loose 2002 adaptation, Adaptation), has written her first children’s book. Abrams Books for Young Readers is planning an October 2008 release for Orlean’s Lazy Little Loafers, in which a disgruntled older sibling recounts how she feels about babies — basically, they’re a bunch of little shirkers who won’t do chores and are more trouble than they’re worth. The book is illustrated by G. Brian Karas. Incidentally, Orlean has also been working on a nonfiction book for grown-ups, a long-gestating biography of the heroic pooch Rin Tin Tin, which she sold to Little, Brown back in 2004 for a reported $1.2 million.