Abstract
The tradition of children’s literature has evolved side by side with the market of children’s entertainment, games, and toys. The selection of contemporary print products includes a wide variety of materially or technologically enhanced picture books. This background is rarely considered in the examination of children’s book applications that have attracted scholarly interest after the arrival of smartphones and tablets during the early 2010s.The relationship between picture book apps, mobile games, and digital playthings requires further examination that considers the specific affordances of the mobile platform. Leaning on five case studies, this article examines how picture book apps afford opportunities for a reading experience that contains features characteristic for children’s digital play. For this purpose, I adapt a specific model of close reading that focuses on the visual, auditory, tactile, and performative elements of children’s video games.On the basis of the case studies, it seems that navigating a picture book app requires balancing between different modes of action: reading, playing, and exploring. Engagement with picture book apps has different forms that resemble the features of both traditional print reading and digital play. However, further examination of children’s playful reading practices and intergenerational play is necessary from a premise that recognizes playing with a book as a valuable research topic.
Highlights
Digital children’s literature has been subject to growing scholarly interest ever since Apple introduced its first iPad in 2010 (Prieto 2015; Schwebs 2014; Turrión 2014)
Schwebs compares the use of a picture book app with playing hide-and-seek: The touchscreen allows the reader to trigger animations, manipulate objects and give life to people and animals
Most of the interactive features of picture book apps are not heavily gamified; none of the apps discussed in this study included, for instance, credit counts or rewards
Summary
The tradition of children’s literature is historically connected with children’s entertainment and play culture. Market-related influences have shaped contemporary children’s literature, as the market of children’s books is closely tied with the entertainment industry: emergent brands, topics, and cultural phenomena are often quickly adapted to book form (Sekeres 2009) This is apparent in the case of the mobile book apps that gained popularity after the arrival of smartphones and tablets (Turrión 2014). Interactivity seems to stand as a characteristic, yet potentially problematic element of the book application Against this background, Schwebs compares the use of a picture book app with playing hide-and-seek: The touchscreen allows the reader to trigger animations, manipulate objects and give life to people and animals. Picture book studies seem to emphasize the novelty value of the interactive, tactile, or auditory features of contemporary book apps, disregarding the interactive tradition of children’s print literature (Koskimaa and Lahdenperä 2017). I describe children’s engagement with digital playthings, games, and books more closely
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