TitleTales

Interview: Eliza Dresang

Dr. Eliza T. Dresang is a Professor in Children and Youth Services at the University of Washington Information School. Her Radical Change theory, which explains youth information behavior and resources in a digital age, has been extensively applied by scholars and professionals across disciplines.

BWI: Are books still radically changing as they were ten years ago? Have they begun to change in new or different ways?

ED: Radical Change is a theory or concept based on the digital age principles of interactivity, connectivity and access. When these principles are applied to books for youth, they have consistently turned up three types of changes: Changing Forms and Formats, Changing Perspectives and Changing Boundaries. These types of changes started to show up in quantity as these digital age principles permeated society in the early 1990s. A decade and a half later these principles hold as true as ever, and the types of changes (categories) have remained the same. But as I explain in my book Radical Change: Books for Youth in a Digital Age, these principles and types are a foundation from which a great variety of sorts of books will emerge—but the principles behind their popularity and proliferation remain the same. You can find more of my thoughts on this topic in an online (open access) article I wrote last fall “Radical Change Revisited: Dynamic Digital Age Books for Youth” In Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education.

BWI: What sort of trends do you currently see in the children’s publishing industry?

ED: First, let me explain that I never refer to the fundamental changes in form and format, perspective, and boundaries that can be explained by the Radical Change principles as trends. Trends are much more likely to be evident for a while and then may be replaced by something else or become accepted as the norm develop no further, while the fundamental changes of Radical Change are here to stay at least for the foreseeable future.

There are always several observable trends. At the moment, one of those is the publication of rather complex fantasy quests in multiple volumes, most often trilogies; these have proliferated in the wake of the Harry Potter books. Another is the publication of many excellent biographies in picture book format, often of historical figures little known to many children, e.g… two each in 2008 about Wangari Maathi, Kenyan environmentalist who won the Nobel Peace Prize, or Robert Small, a slave who engineered an escape for himself and numerous others slaves as the trusted pilot of a steamboat.

BWI: What trends excite you most?

ED: Well, one I hope is actually here to stay is the inclusion of more author, illustrator, and source notes in books for youth. Perhaps one catalyst for this was Betsy Hearne’s article “Cite the Source”, originally published in SLJ in 1993… Gradually folktales, then nonfiction, and now historical fiction or contemporary fiction based in realistic events or people have notes that give the reader information about what is fact and what is fiction, what the source of any “borrowed” ideas is, etc. This shows a respect for children that often did not occur in the past.

BWI: With the advent of Kindle and Sony Reader, some publishing experts speculate that we are on the last leg of our journey toward the paperless society. What trends are emerging due to the widespread availability of eBooks?

ED: Eventually, if not now for many children, eBooks will likely make books more accessible, more readily available as they are for a select few on the Kindle, etc. The International Children’s Digital Library brings digitized picture books and some novels to children from many countries in the world, many of which would not be available in print form in any but the country of origin. So accessibility — ease of access — is what I see happening with eBooks as has happened with audiobooks.

BWI: Do you think eBooks will ever replace the tactile version?

ED:I think books will always be portable and handheld. But the handheld version may be something like a Kindle that emulates the paper we have now. Picture books I would predict will be the last genre to be completely digitized, if it ever is, because of how picture books are used by very young children and adults with children.

However, a more important question that the packaging of the book is whether the process of created books for youth (that is agents, editors, publishers, etc) will change. I am not as ready to say that this will change as dramatically in the future as this is an essential part of the quality control and what makes literature for youth literature and not just books.

BWI: Since technologies are ever-evolving, do you thinks books become more quickly outdated in the digital age?

ED: Those that are produced to take advantage of a gimmick, yes… But those that are thoughtfully written, illustrated, and edited as mentioned above, no. There will be as many of those that survive to become classics as there were in the past—at least as many.

BWI: Because we live in a digital age, and we can connect with others the world over via blogs, Skype, social networks, wikis, etc., the world has become a much smaller place. Can you talk about how that has impacted the need for multicultural books?

ED: Multicultural is a word that has various meanings in various contexts. Here I would interpret you to mean books that reflect a wide variety of ethnicities in a wide variety of geographic environments. I don’t necessarily think that the need is greater, as for at least a century children’s books have been seen as a vehicle for spreading international understanding, particularly during and after the World Wars with the founding of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (1915) and its subsequent sponsorship of the Jane Addams Childrens’ Book Awards (1953); the founding of the International Youth Library (1949), and the establishment of the Mildred Batchelder Award (1966). But I do think the connectivity of the current world makes it both more likely that authors/illustrators from a wider variety of countries and cultures will have the opportunity to have their voices heard. And that is good.

BWI: Do you think the widespread popularity of graphic novels in the twenty-first century was due to the digital age? Do you think graphic novels are here to stay?

ED: Yes to both of these questions. Graphic novels were one of the most revolutionary changes in “form and format” that came with the digital age. The digital age principles of interactivity and connectivity offer a solid explanation for their popularity… They will continue to grow in various ways, some of which we cannot even visualize at the moment.

BWI: One current trend in public libraries is video gaming. How have video games impacted children’s books? There is connectivity among and between all types of media for youth. Sometimes books start as a game, sometimes games start as a book — the underlying connection is story, story presented in a form that engages and more actively involves the “reader.” For example, Codemasters announced a licensing agreement to create video games for the Wii and Nintendo DS based on Dragonology, Wizardology.

We are seeing more and more books with interactive elements. (39 Clues, Cathy’s Book and Candlewick’s “ology” series come to mind). How does such interaction enhance and/or detract from the overall reading experience?

ED: It engages the reader and keeps his/her attention. Some brain research is suggesting that the interactivity may develop certain specialized critical thinking parts of the brain. All this remains to be seen. Critics say that youth have lost the ability to focus attention at length on a reading experience. It possibly seems this way (it does with adults also) because we have become accustomed to skimming sound bites of information. But both adults and children delve in deep when they come upon the sound bite that quickens their interest. I do not think it detracts from reading to be able to skim a large amount of material in order to select that which engages one the most. No conclusive research on this topic yet.

BWI: If books are being created and designed to appeal to new ways of thinking in the digital age, why aren’t children reading more?

ED: I don’t know that there is any proof that they are not, do you? Library circulation is up? What about publishing? Are there not record numbers of children’s books? The national surveys that show a decline in reading—even reading of books—have a very narrow definition of what that means.

BWI: What more, if anything, can librarians do to promote the joy of reading?

ED: Provide all the media tie-ins. Every statistic ever gathered show an increase in reading comes with media in other formats. Capitalize on this. Purchase and display the “digital age,” highly interactive books and market them to the net generation. And provide old favorites, too.

BWI: Is there a downside to books in the digital age? Are any elements, such as plot and character development, being sacrificed for more graphic and interactive storylines?

ED: I make clear in Radical Change and I will again here—there are more than 200,000 books in print for children. There are more than 5000 published each year. A majority of these books have few “digital age characteristics”—a majority of books in libraries have few digital age characteristics. So that is one answer. All Radical Change books are not good books; all good books are not Radical Change books.

But over and above that, the answer is that neither plot nor character has to be sacrificed because of digital age reading. One of the hallmarks of contemporary literature for youth is its sophistication. For example, a character may be developed through the eyes of several other characters, adding much more depth and interest than a simple linear description. Breaking the boundaries of types of characters, e.g., Laurie Haul Anderson’s new book, Wintergirls, leaves much more creative space for character development. As for plots! If 39 Clues can keep the attention of young readers for 10 volumes, most likely it will have a captivating and rather complex plot.

BWI: As we change the ways we process information and the books we read, will Goodnight Moon, Because of Winn-Dixie, The Chocolate War, etc., continue to have a place in our libraries? Can children’s classics withstand the radical change?

ED: Well, first of all Goodnight Moon (in my opinion) is an “early radical” book—I think the reason it has survived so many generations is that a very very young child can “interact” with the pictures and create his or her own story — what is more radical than “goodnight nothing”? But underlying all books, even entertaining nonfiction books, radical or more traditional is the appeal of story. Story is there and will continue to be there, however creatively authors and illustrators portray it. Story was oral, then written, then printed, the digitized, but story and its appeal to humans has never ceased. And ultimately it never will. It is just important for digital age parents and librarians not to set up a dichotomy between “the classics” and the “contemporary” but rather to rejoice at the good stories in all and share the traditional story forms while appreciating and understanding the digital age appeal of new forms.

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