The design, publication, and
features of contemporary narrative picturebooks have been impacted by the
digital revolution and the emerging popularity of digital reading devices.
Digitally produced texts may resemble, in some basic ways their print-based predecessors;
however digitally produced picturebook apps provide access to additional
features, information, and types of interactivity that print-based texts may
not support (Schwebs, 2014). Picturebook apps are sometimes thought of as enhanced
versions of print-based picturebooks in that they offer additional content,
features, and navigational options not available in printed texts.
Readers of digital
picturebooks must work through the presentation of a fictional narrative using
physical, cognitive, visual, emotional, and embodied capabilities, among
others. As picturebook narratives in digital formats evolve and become part of
the reading curriculum in more classrooms, picturebook scholars, literacy
educators, and classroom teachers will need new lenses or frameworks for
analyzing these texts and developing pedagogical approaches that support
classroom instruction and readers’ transactions across digital and print-based
platforms. In this article, we will consider the features and designs of
picturebook apps and some challenges and possibilities these digital texts
offer elementary grade teachers and students.
Interactive
Features
Every act of
reading, whether in print-based texts or on digital platforms, can be
considered to some degree interactive.
Readers must evoke the text through their transactions with written language
(Rosenblatt), attend to the visual images and design elements (Hassett), and
work across modalities to make sense of the multimodal resources (Serafini) that
are part of every picturebook regardless of their materials and/or platform. It
has been suggested that picturebook apps vary according to their level of
interactivity, ranging from basic electronic formats to sophisticated hybrid
and cyber ensembles (Turrion). Hyperlinks, embedded video clips and animations,
sound effects, background music, open-ended storylines, and voice over
narrations all add to the types of interactivity these texts present the
reader.
A further distinction needs to be made between enhanced texts that have predetermined
paths and outcomes included in the digital file that limit readers’
interactivity, and picturebook apps that require the reader to actively
co-construct the narrative based on their choices and responses to hyperlinked
and open-ended selections and options (Aarseth).
