I can’t say that I have a vision of the future of Children’s literature, at the moment I am just trying to keep up with my daughters reading ability, last night I had her reading an Atlas becasue I didn’t have any other book to extend her reading available.
Do you have a vision for the future of children’s literature?
With some thought I believe that diversity of literature will continue to expand. The modes in which literature has expanded into allows for access by all learners. The development of stories over the generations and inparticular the last 200 years as allowed for literature to become accessible in many households. Fairytales and traditional stories/accounts have gone from being passed on orally to being mass produced and shared across many cultures in many countries. I remember being a traditional land owner speaking to our class (whilst I was in Kindegarten) and telling us about Tidalic (excuse the spelling) the frog, borrowing books was possible a the time and by the time my younger sisters were 4 or 5 years old the story was on television, a regular on ABC. This cross-over and change to the way literature can be accessed, used and created.
Who will be the drivers of change?
The muli-modal presentation and the consumers of literature drive changes in children’s literature. In the past books were taken and adapted to the screen (film and tv). Today screen is adapted to literature, e.g. Playschool, Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol and Pokemon all are now adpted from the screen to books with an educational focus (sight-words, reading skills, colours and rhymes etc).