Think technology if you want to engage young readers

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Blogger CJ Montague says today's children's authors have to find a new way to interact with an increasingly sophisticated audience

Children’s books are big business. Where previous generations may have missed the mark in capitalising on your child’s interest in something, it has been a long time since that sort of irresponsibility in business was tolerated.

Now for every successful children’s book there are several channels to look to and build popularity through: from plush toys to TV tie-ins, online games to interactive apps or, in the case of one artist turned illustrator, a BAFTA award winning short film. Oliver Jeffers - successful artist, author, designer & illustrator - has enjoyed distinct success in many fields. Next year sees Oliver celebrate a decade of publishing picture books with HarperCollins and in that time the landscape of his readership has changed dramatically. The touch screen phone is about as old as most of the kids that children’s books are aimed at, and yet more children use phones to access content than they do books, judging by the latest statistics from BookTrust, indicating that last year one in 3 children had never owned a book, up from one in 10 children in 2005. Oliver’s books lend themselves well to digital transformation: simple, strong stories which perform the magic we have come to expect from children’s books; to encourage thinking. More than keen on embracing interactive elements in his books, an app was created for his 2010 title, Heart And The Bottle, and was number 1 in the app store within a week of release. Major social networks are not impenetrable; ‘like’ the Facebook page and you can design your own Huey character. Oliver is not only engaging with parents and his young readers through new technology, he is also very much the cool kid in the classroom, with Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker voicing the read-along enhanced ebook edition of his latest book, The Hueys. Traditional author tours focus on school visits and competitions but for Oliver Jeffers, his next trick will see him reinvent the author tour. More than reclining behind a table in Waterstone’s, churning out signatures, after launching the tour for The Hueys at Hay Festival he embarks on two major Scottish events. Firstly hosting an illustration masterclass at the National Gallery of Scotland in association with the Scottish Book Trust on June 13, Oliver will be discussing technology in illustration, his processes and his success. In Glasgow on June 14 he will be streamed live to up to 20,000 school pupils across Scotland whose teachers have signed up to be involved in the interactive broadcast. Engaging creativity across the full age spectrum, from young readers to design student and older artists, creative events such as this showcase more ways to enthuse our young – and not quite so young – people on the value of art, the importance of digital and the eternal value of the knowledge instilled in us through reading children’s books. Some may call it saturation, creating so many forms from one product, but as literacy is down and awareness of technology is up, learning is taking on a refreshing slant; it can be fun. The rising prevalence of children using technology at a younger and younger age is not news and when you consider the important lessons which are inherent in children’s picture books and young fiction, technology might be the only way to reach these non traditional readers. So where as in the 1990s a successful book could become a successful film - look at Mrs Doubtfire - in the new millennium books, and the brands behind them, are moving to make books more accessible to enable them to become whatever you need.

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Think technology if you want to engage young readers

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