“Hello, friends! There you are!” The Wise Owl and the Little Book Bird heard the Author’s voice. “You haven’t flown over to visit me for quite a while. What are you doing here?”
“Oh, Author! I’m so happy to see you! How wonderful that you’ve come to visit us!” chirped the Little Book Bird. “Isn’t that right, Wise Owl?”
“Of course!” replied the Wise Owl. “It is lovely to see you in our forest!”
“I was looking for you when I heard you talking about where ideas go and how to keep them from getting lost. I think that is a very important subject – how to keep ideas from getting lost. Interesting ideas really can arrive when we least expect them and disappear just as suddenly if we do not manage to write them down or draw them.
“And I also liked what you said, the Wise Owl: ‘Sometimes an idea can become the beginning of a new journey.’ That sounds just like us! Or, more precisely, like the two of you.”
“What does that have to do with us?” asked the Little Book Bird in surprise.
“It’s very simple. Do you remember that our LittleBookBirdAndWiseOwl world of books and games invites children to send in drawings showing you and the Wise Owl on your next adventures?” the Author asked the Little Book Bird.
“Yes, I remember. But I don’t understand why they are ideas. They’re just drawings!” chirped the Little Book Bird in surprise.
“Oh no, they aren’t just drawings. They are ideas! Children’s ideas about your future adventures!” the Author replied cheerfully. “Imagine that a child has an idea about where you might travel next, what places you might visit, what you might see, whom you might meet or what new things you might discover. And to keep that idea from getting lost, the child can… draw it – show the two of you in the middle of that adventure. And perhaps one day, that drawn idea will suggest where you might go, whom you might meet or what new story about you could appear in one of the books to come.”
“Now that is an idea!” chirped the Little Book Bird happily.
“And a child’s drawing can become the beginning of the next story,” added the Wise Owl.
“Exactly. The first book, The Book About Birds, Part 1, began with one child’s idea – the idea of a nine-year-old boy who created the drawings, imagined the two of you and invented all the stories in which you travel and meet different birds. And now children from all over the world can draw their own ideas for your adventures!” said the Author.
“Will every child’s drawing become a new story?” asked the Little Book Bird.
“We cannot know that in advance,” replied the Author. “One drawing might suggest a place for a new journey. Another might inspire an unusual encounter. And another might contain just one tiny detail from which an entire story could eventually grow.”
“So a drawing is… not the whole, whole story?” the Little Book Bird asked again.
“No. Sometimes it is enough to draw only its beginning – the idea itself.”
“Then… every drawing might be hiding a journey that has never happened before!” chirped the Little Book Bird with delight.
“Exactly!” exclaimed the Wise Owl and the Author together.
“And once those ideas have been drawn, they will never run away again,” added the Wise Owl.