Film writer/director and children's book author M. Night Shyamalan talks with Kid Reporters Nathan Kahn and Nia Mariso. (Photo: Genet Berhane)

Saturday, April 29—Where can you find the man who was behind an alien invasion, a modern-day superhero, and a bunch of ghosts reading a bedtime story? The Tribeca Film Festival, of course!

On this sunny Saturday morning, M. Night Shyamalan (director of such films as Signs, The Sixth Sense, and Unbreakable) was getting ready to read his new children's book, Lady in the Water, to an audience of kids. The event was sponsored by the Tribeca Film Festival and its founding sponsor, American Express.

Shyamalan took a seat on a fluffy bed set up at the front of the room. Kids looked up at him from beanbags and pillows spread across the floor. Before he started reading, though, Shyamalan had something to say.

Lady in the Water, he explained, began as a bedtime story for his two daughters, who always beg him for stories that are a little bit scary. Each time he makes up a story, he asks them, "What level of 'scary' do you want?"

According to Shyamalan, there are five levels. Level one is when somebody trips (which isn't that scary at all). Level two is when someone jumps out and goes "Boo!"

"This, I think, is a level-two [story]," Shyamalan said.

Lady in the Water tells the tale of a beautiful creature called a "narf" (the "lady" in the title). Narfs make their home below the bottom of swimming pools. They swim and swim, until somebody sees them. The person who sees a narf is called a "vessel," and once the vessel catches sight of the narf, a magical (and sometimes dangerous) journey unfolds.

The book's final word to the reader is unique. Instead of the traditional "The End," the book ends with just a single word—"Begin." This hints at the fact that the book is just the start of a bigger story.

"Was it too scary?" Shyamalan asked his audience.

"No!" the kids cried, shaking their heads.

After the reading, Shyamalan sat down to talk with us about his new book and about his life as a filmmaker. We began by asking how it felt to know that children around the world might read his story.

"It's such an awesome feeling," he said.

Shyamalan has made a name for himself by making movies that are a little scary. We were curious about what made him work on projects like Stuart Little (he wrote the script) and the bedtime story Lady in the Water.

"Stuart Little I wrote for my first child when she was born," Shyamalan said. "This is for both of them now."

Shyamalan went on to talk about the message behind Lady in the Water. One of the main themes of the book, he explained, is that every person can do something special.

As its ending says, this book is just the beginning. Shyamalan told us about the upcoming movie that he wrote and directed, Lady in the Water. (When he told his kids that he was turning their bedtime story into a movie, they were very excited.) The film tells the story of a narf (the Lady) and a man (Cleveland Heep) who finds her. Heep, with the help of several neighbors, works to solve the mystery surrounding the lady and to get her back to her home.