As both a writer of picture books in print and ebook formats
(“Nathan Saves Summer,” “Nathan and
the Really Big Bully”) as well as interactive storybook apps (“Brave Rooney”
and the soon to be released, “Brave Rooney and the Supersized Superheroes”) the ever-changing world of digital
books is a constant topic of conversation.
Rarely a day goes by when new tablet computers or new mobile
technologies are not advertised or editorialized. I’m not a child psychologist or educational
expert, but I do have the benefit of insight gained through reading my print
books and playing my interactive book in front of kids at various elementary
schools, summer camps, etc.
Ever since I started writing for children’s television and
books, I’ve always considered a strong story and relatable characters to be crucial,
just as I consider them to be in any form of storied entertainment. Having a child reader experience the travails
of a story, the perseverance of its hero(es) and the satisfaction of achieving
a goal has to be helpful in increasing the worldliness of the child, building social
skills along with a sense of self-identify. When I read my books or play my app for a
group of kids, I always look to their faces to see how anticipatory they are as
to what action they think (or hope) will follow with the reading of each page. When I’m finished, I open the event up to
questions, and I’m especially pleased when the children clearly were taken in
by the story and even make up their own subsequent stories or expand on character
traits they see in their favorite character. What I’ve noticed, though, is that
children seem to appreciate the story and characters much better in an
interactive book, but only when the interactive parts are organic to the
storytelling and not interactivity that is added in for interactivity’s sake.
My storybook app, ”Brave Rooney” is about an elementary school of
superheroes where one kid, Rooney, happens to be a normal kid, but he ends up
showing the superhero kids what it takes to be really brave. To quickly demonstrate the unfamiliar concept
to kids, in the opening of the app all the superheroes fly into school when the
reader touches them whereas Rooney walks to school on his first day. When the superheroes are frightened to read a
poem in front of their classmates, they shiver in fear when the child touches each
hero. Expressing this obvious wish fulfillment
and over-dramatized fear could never be achieved in a print or ebook. However, had these interactions not been
strongly relatable to the age group or integral parts of the story, they would
have had less meaning. I believe if my
software developer, Bacciz LLC, had chosen to
add in an interactive element like a game that was only peripherally related to
the story, the game would have taken the reader’s focus off character and story
– the very elements I see as being so crucial.
There’s no question that interactive books are the wave of
both the present and future through increasingly exciting devices like the iPad
Mini, the new Android tablets and devices we can’t even envision. Children will
be exposed to more digital books and more sophisticated interactivity. My hope is that publishers, app developers,
authors and artists will not get so taken away with the newest software
capabilities that the basics of children’s literature, so important to
childhood development, will become secondary to the technology.
By Gerry Renert
January 12, 2013
©2013 Gerry Renert
Sale! Brave Rooney will be on sale for 99c for today (Jan 24) only! Click on this link.
About Gerry Renert:
I’ve been a writer/TV producer for over twenty years. I began my
writing career when I was eleven years old (under protest) on the blackboard of
Miss Peterson’s sixth grade class. Once out in the real world, I wrote
television commercials, which lead to my meeting a TV star who gave me a shot
at writing TV sitcoms. Luckily, I ended up writing episodes for two of
the highest rated TV series in the history of CBS Television. In 2002, I
co-created the animated preschool TV series, ToddWorld, which aired in most
countries around the world. The series has won three “Parents Choice” awards,
an “iParenting” Award and has been EMMY nominated three times for “Outstanding
Animated Children’s Program.” My two picture books in the “Nathan Series” have
won “Mom’s Choice” Gold Awards. I’ve
been a long-standing member of the Writers Guild of America and am currently
president of my own company SupperTime Entertainment.
My son is almost 4yrs old and used to love going to the library and then coming back and reading everything straight away. My throat would get a little hoarse by book 12 but I loved this time together. Unfortunately, in the last year, unless its bed time he's not interested. He doesn't like to just sit and be read to, he needs more involvement. Even with his bedtime stories he asks questions on almost every page. Interactive e-books have been a way round this during the day because they are holding his attention and giving him something to do himself. I also agree that the interaction has to be relevant to the story and if it isn't he gets very bored with it very quickly.
ReplyDeleteAnything that will get my son interested in reading and invested in a story is a good thing in my book, but bedtime should definitely be reserved for the physical copy rather than the digital. I see it as an important bonding experience.
I will definitely be checking out your books, they sound great.