April 2016 • Upper Bucks Free Press •
17
Paper Meets the Digital Age in Multiplatform Books The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that American children, on average, spend as many as seven hours in front of some sort of video screen every day. With today’s kids picking to play something using an electronic device over just about anything else, book publishers have found a neat way to still capture a kid’s interest in reading with multiplatform books. Multiplatform books combine paper books with web-based games on interactive websites. It is a way of story-telling over a variety of methods. Some of the multiplatform series even include videos that the reader must watch to learn about important parts of the plot. The books have kids jumping back and forth from the written words on a page and an electronic interface. The digital content is easy to use and very kid friendly. It is a way for kids to take what they read to another level, making it an exciting experience. The first successful multiplatform series to launch, was Scholastic’s 39 Clues series. The story follows siblings Amy and Dan Cahill. The kids find out they are part of the world’s most powerful family and must travel around the globe finding the 39 clues to unlock the secrets of the family. The physical books are
written to get both the reluctant and avid readers involved. The story is exciting, well written and there are clues buried within the pages of the books too. The reader must go online to unlock additional clues and content. It is a perfect mix of text on the page and screen. The series, written for kids ages 8-12, had eleven books but now has two branch off series and multiple bonus material publications. The popularity of the 39 Clues made other publishers and authors take notice. Other multiplatform series started popping up. Skeleton Creek, Spirit Animals, Voyagers, TombQuest are a few multiplatform titles available. All of these series combine traditional books with online components. Even some traditional series, like Erin Hunter’s Warrior Cats, started to create online content in response to the demand for the multiplatform titles. As an avid reader, I have read many books from these series and I have also enjoyed the online parts to the story. I can see why this is a great way to get kids interested in reading: you get to play video games or watch movie clips as part of it. If you are looking for a reading option for a kid who is more into his or her computer than books, you may want to consider one of these series. For more on books and reading, please visit my website ThisKidReviewsBooks.com.
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