Why a Wordless Book?

A message from the author:

Ask anyone who knows me, and they’ll tell you:

I like words. A LOT. I’ve always loved to write, and one of the first compliments I ever got as a little kid was for having a big vocabulary.

But one day, I realized that maybe I liked words a little too much.

Maybe I was talking too much and not doing enough listening. Maybe my love of words was actually getting in my way….

I realized that some of the best things in life are really hard to describe.

And I realized that sometimes, just by describing something, you limit it.

Also, I realized: it’s easy to get in the habit of describing something as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’

When we do this, we miss out on a lot of the finer things in life; and we miss out on getting to know people who might wear a different label than we do.

Even when you describe something as carefully and completely as you can, the words you use are YOUR words and the perspective you are coming from is YOUR OWN PERSPECTIVE. Someone else might see the exact same thing and describe it completely differently. There are always different points of view of the same experience.

So….. That’s why I decided to make The Cat Flap into a wordless picture book. This story belongs to everyone, to be read by each person in his or her own unique way.

I designed The Cat Flap to be read from both sides. First you read one cat’s point of view, and then the other cat’s. It’s up to you to decide which side of the story to read first.

There are a lot of different messages you might ‘read’ into this book. It’s meant to work on many levels. It’s meant to be read over and over, many, many times.

It’s meant to tell a slightly different story each time you read it. It’s meant to help you grow, and to grow along with you.

I look forward to hearing from you, and hearing/seeing your stories.