To think about the future, I would like to reflect on the past, my past. Growing up in a house with a school librarian meant that I was always surrounded by the written word. Moreover, it was constantly being read, either by myself or my parents who ensured that I got to know classics as well as literature of my time. I poured over the Book Club catalogues which would come home from school, the series of the time piquing my interest in children and babysitting. Now time has come full circle and I see that same series of books coming in for a new generation – however, with one difference, this next generation comes with some of them as graphic novels.
One of the ways in which multimodal texts was presented to me! The cars trips with this strapped in to the seat so everyone in the car could hear it. Pixabay – https://pixabay.com/illustrations/boombox-boom-box-radio-cassette-5467421/
My initial thoughts on this are that I grew up in an era where the internet was not yet invented, so spare time for me was spent reading books and listening to audio recordings of stories. As a family we used to travel interstate and there was many an audiobook listened to in that time. In contrast to my own teen stepdaughters today, they have never been without information just a click away, and while as a family we still make the interstate road trips, every person has access to moving images should they desire. Where my childhood came with my imagination alone coming up with the manifestation of characters and places, the visual world of today has very much affected the ideas of children of today.
In this there is still a place for children’s literature, however, in an expanded form from the previous decades. The explosion of graphic novels on bookstore shelves and requests within my school library shows that this style of illustration with text, like the comic books of former eras, is a current need in children’s lives, perhaps showing the visual nature of society in which we live (Australian Writers’ Centre Team, 2020). The increase in different multimodal texts reflects the world around becoming more multimodal (Victoria State Government Education and Training, 2018, August 29). I have found it interesting to note that in the midst of pandemic times that people are wishing to spend less time on devices and more with physical books, which I have seen both in articles (CopyrightAgency, 2017) and in real life.
As the Australian Writers’ Centre (2020) states, other trends in children’s literature which I too have seen occurring around me are non-fiction and real-world issues, natural disasters (including COVID19) interwoven with fictional stories, and a complexity in the topics of young adult fiction which has not been seen before. This showcases where I believe the future of children’s literature lies, as a reflection of the current state of affairs in the world, along with opportunities for escapism.
I the believe that the future of children’s literature will be in it being responsive to the generation which it services. Something which I think it is doing.
References
Australian Writers’ Centre Team. (2020, July 17). 7 trends in children’s and YA publishing. AWC: Australian Writers’ Centre. https://www.writerscentre.com.au/blog/7-trends-in-childrens-and-ya-publishing/
CopyrightAgency. (2017, February 28). Most teens prefer print books. copyright.com.au. https://www.copyright.com.au/2017/02/teens-prefer-print-books/
Victoria State Government Education and Training. (2018, August 29). Multimodal literacy. Department of Education and Training. https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/english/literacy/readingviewing/Pages/litfocusmultimodal.aspx