It’s a growing trend when it comes to children’s books. The story of the book is interactive but not in the way that parent’s would expect. These children’s stories require that a child have to connect to the Internet in order to play certain games, gain information or even sometimes finish the story.
This combination of having stories and the Internet combine has just recently started. It used to be if a child wanted to read a book, they read the book. If they wanted to play video games they played video games. There was no mixing the two items together. That is not the case anymore.
Publishers in what they hope was a way to reach out to a generation of children who are very connected to the Internet and active games hopes that by having these types of books they can encourage children to read.
However, critics of books have many issues with this type of reading material. First is that it requires the use of the Internet and therefore a child isn’t really enjoying a story but really just reading to play along online. Another issue that is brought up is what if a child and their family cannot afford to keep up with the rising costs of the combination of these two items. At times it is required that children had to own the book to go online and play. This puts children who use the library or do not have an Internet connection at a disadvantage. They do not get to play along or interact with other readers.
What is a way to encourage children from a young age to read might not be working out. It is still too early to tell how children will react to this type of combination. It will be interesting to see if this combo will work, prevent reading or just become another fading fad in a child’s life.
