With all the discussion of ebooks and social networking and iThis and iThat, are you worried that the children of the future won’t recognize a book when they see it? Fear not. Author and illustrator Lane Smith’s new picture book, It’s a Book, explores the merits of a good old-fashioned paper book. It provides a valuable and tongue-in-cheek lesson for kids of the future and Kids These Days.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Smith discusses the genesis of the book and why he’s actually not anti-technology:
What do you think of the concept of e-books or reading books on an iPad?
I’m still of the old school where I love having a book — a real book. i don’t know if the iPad experience replaces that. But I would love to design something for the iPad, that’s not a book and not an animation, but a combination of both, which I find exciting. I’m always makes notes on what would work. Years ago, Jon Scieszka and i got involved with designing a CD-ROM, and it was torturous. I hated it and in the end, just scrapped it. But the future really is in some sort of interactivity, somehow. But my preferred reading choice is still the book, because I have thousands of them.
And yes, because this is the 21st century and we love our technology, here is a trailer of It’s a Book.
