Regardless of your place on the political spectrum, yesterday was stressful for a whole lot of people, and today we’re all still coming down from that. With that in mind, this may be the perfect time to relax and let John Cena read you a storybook. Specifically, his own new children’s book, Elbow Grease, which came out in October.
Elbow Grease is illustrated by Howard McWilliam and tells the story of an electric truck who tries his hardest to succeed in the demolition derby even though he’s small and inexperienced. It may not surprise you to learn that the strongly conveyed theme of the book is “Never give up.”
In the video you get to hear Cena do voices for all the different anthropomorphic trucks. Not just the plucky title character, but energetic Flash, nerdy Pinball, slow-witted Tank, and wild Crash, as well as the champion truck Big Wheels McGee, who has a southern accent because of course he does.
It’s easy to see how a demolition derby full of talking cars is analogous to professional wrestling. In fact there was a point when I wondered if Cena had based the diminutive but determined Elbow Grease on his friend Daniel Bryan, but I realized that wasn’t the case when Elbow Grease was specifically called out for lacking technique.
The whole thing is a bit silly, and very much the kind of children’s book a celebrity writes, but Cena seems so sincere that it’s pretty fun and uplifting to watch him read it. Plus, if you have kids, he can read it to them too.
