" Dinotopia began as the favorite book of a little boy fascinated by dinosaurs. In fact, I was deeply touched yesterday to receive a letter from a young filmmaker who has carried the book along with him overseas as he has grown from child to adult. I don't see why a book can't have meaning for a person at different stages of their lives. The few "children's" books that I did like when I was young, such as the Winnie the Pooh books or The Little Prince, had layers of meaning that fed me as I got older. At that age I didn't really like very many children's books, but instead loved the old illustrated adventure books by Twain and Stevenson and Verne.Ī book should be like a swimming pool, with a shallow end and a deep end. And I was thinking of making the kind of book that I would have enjoyed when I was 10 or 12. I was also a new dad when the idea came to me, so I was aware of the magic that picture books have for young kids.
I wrote Dinotopia fundamentally to amuse myself as a 30-year-old adult who was rediscovering dinosaurs and utopias. I don't buy into the "target age range" mindset of contemporary publishing. I was just wondering, when you created the world and artwork and subsequently the story of the Dinotopia series, did you have a specific age range in mind for the series? I personally discovered the books in the 4th grade and have loved them ever sense, but I was wondering if they were meant for a slightly older audience."
Painting a Texas Townscape in Watercolor.