Books are great.

There’s not a single better way to ensure that your children will grow up as artist, writers, and creative types, than forcing them on long vacations with no other friends but their storybooks.

Cruel, but effective. Trust me.

My summer vacations meant spending days in car rides, reading tales from Narnia, to Dragonlance, to eventually reading Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy and many others as years went past. It meant that I did nothing but imagine places, people and worlds that didn’t exist but in pages for days after days, for atleast one month every year. There’s a lot of hours in a month. And then when I ran out of things to read, I started drawing them.

Most of my creative collegues and friends have a borderline identical story from their childhood. Even the Chinese goverment is on to it.

When Kaija was little, and waiting for the next Harry Potter to be released, she began to draw and design her own Hogwarts stories and characters. Cute right? Today she’s a professional concept artist. I see some connection there.

Today, instead of books, children are given iPhones and iPads to keep them quiet. And while I appreciate the design and manhours behind Angry Birds, I’m truly scared there’s going to be far less creatives in the growing generation.

Love,
Silver