It's been my experience that things published soon after an author's death have been works almost ready for publication, and works published longer after the author's death are collections of "previously unpublished" or "previously uncollected" material, or are things the author had decided, after the fact, were not worth publishing or needed more work.

Most of the time, the publisher's intention is to ride the sentimental postmortem public opinion wave.

In the case of previously uncollected work, iow, essays, short stories, etc. that were only published in magazines, newspapers or (now) online, this is usually very good. The other types are not often as good, and are sometimes downright miserable.

Runny Babbit may be, as you say, a good book, even though Shel died in 1999 and ample time has elapsed if it was basically ready for publication and had just been the victim of bad timing. I haven't followed the settlement of his estate; sometimes, it's true, legal issues prevent business from being transacted. Based on my past experiences with very-postmortem publication, I'm not going to hold my breath expecting outstanding quality, having been bitterly disappointed numerous times before, but make no mistake, I'll read it.

Thank you for advertizing the website. Many children's authors have their own websites. We regularly rotate them through the WOW list (Website Of the Week). They're a lot of fun to visit. Shel's is on the webliography for parents, too.

I will never judge a book based on its animation, nor a cartoon based on its book. As artforms they are very different. Some splendid cartoons have been spun off as books whose primary virtue is the fact that they encourage the kids' eyes to track properly for reading. This in itself is a worthy, though not a lofty, outcome, but it doesn't do a thing for the cartoon.

Whose voice is in the animation? It sounds sort-of like Shel, but without the gravel that usually lurks in the background when he reads, and there's no voice credit as there is with the other recorded performances. Is it him?