So the impact of the digital world on our profession is a huge question mark to us. I have no idea. I would like to know.
I feel from talking to parents and teachers, you know, at first it was like oh my goodness, what’s going to happen to picture books, but with picture books there’s just something about holding a child on your lap and opening a book and reading this story. I mean we have adults who have grown up on our books and they’ll come in — there’s this one guy who always comes to mind. He was six foot tall and he was standing there holding a — clutching a book and he said would you sign my book and all of a sudden he became like a seven year old, you know?
I said it’s your book? He says yeah, I’ve had this book since I was a kid, you know? And so then I go wow, well certainly what’s your name. Johnny. Okay, Johnny, I’ll sign — Johnny was probably 40 years old, you know? And so I think that that makes a huge difference.
Well of course. The book is tangible. You can smell it. You can feel it. It’s, as I mentioned once before, a cinemascopic experience. However, you have to access it. Librarians become very important now that there’s so many fewer bookstores. We all have to adapt to that but the book is irreplaceable and it will always be around especially for children.
I think there’s room for both digital but there has been a balancing act on that and some of the parents that are coming up now are starting to realize that and that’s one of the reasons personally I wanted to go on tour was to inspire not only children but parents to the idea that, you know, that don’t lose out on this because we’ve had children that have grown up come back to us as adults and say I can remember the motes when my dad was reading to me.
I can remember the motes, the dust motes that were drifting around in the room. I mean they can — it just puts a stamp on people’s memories to share that warm bond with another human being.
It was my best time with our child to be able to settle down and read, so it’s always going to be around.