Wherever You Go, I Want You to Know (Board Book)

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

An artist. A pet store owner. A guitarist in a band. A tattoo artist. That is how I would have answered that question at different times throughout my childhood. I love hearing how my daughters answer it now: Phoebe told me yesterday that she wants to be an artist, so she’s going to paint everyday when she’s a kid and also when she’s a grownup and I said, yes, nice follow-through. You should totally do that.

But sometimes grownups mean one thing when we ask, and kids mean something else when they answer. They tell us what they want to do—they want to paint every day and watch other people smile at their paintings the way we smile at them. They want to have lots of art supplies, the really nice kind, and to play with them every day. But we wanted to know what they plan to get paid for. We try to condense a vocation into a career.