“I love KU first,” he told the young crowd. “I love K-State second. But I don’t like any folks over there (in Missouri). They have a big, mean tiger.”

Fambrough, whose contempt for the Tigers is legendary, read his book “The Three Little Jayhawks” to a restless group of young children at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vt.

The reading helped launch the Week of the Young Child, an event sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children to benefit young children.

“The brain is just developing so rapidly during those early years that learning is everything they do,” said Anna Jenny, executive director of the Douglas County Child Development Association, which helped organize the event.

Monday’s kickoff event also featured best-selling author and Lawrence resident Harriet Lerner, who co-authored with her sister Susan Goldhor the children’s books “Franny B. Kranny, There’s a Bird in Your Hair” and “What’s So Terrible About Swallowing an Apple Seed?”

The children received free books provided by the Friends of the Lawrence Public Library.

The week will continue with a mayor’s proclamation, an informational display at the library and displays of children’s artwork in downtown businesses.

On Monday the children listened as Fambrough kicked off the event by telling his tale of a Jayhawk victory over the Mizzou Tiger, adapted from “The Three Little Pigs.”

In his tale, Jayhawks rather than pigs are pursued by a tiger instead of a wolf. And the Jayhawks are the ones smiling at the end when the tiger tries to sneak down the chimney of the Jayhawk home, made of Rock Chalk limestone. The tiger falls in a boiling caldron and turns into a striped stew that the triumphant Jayhawks can eat for weeks.

“They had tiger soup,” Fambrough told the kids. “A big ol’ pot of tiger soup.”

The twist on the traditional tale suited Ben Witte, 9, who listened intently until the end.

“It was pretty good,” he said. “I liked the tiger. It was better than the wolf.”