Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the publisher of my book The
Mighty Mars Rovers: The incredible adventures of Spirit and Opportunity
just released enhanced e-book versions of my book and three other Scientists in
the Field titles. And I have to say, they are pretty dang cool.
If you have trouble viewing the video click here.
I’m a pretty low-tech person (lucky to be married to a
high-tech hubby and raising a high-tech tweener) and I still read books the old
fashioned way – printed on paper and bound with a cover. But iPads and the like can do something that
print books cannot. They can show video.
When I was researching and writing The Mighty Mars Rovers,
I discovered a treasure trove of cool videos and animations produced by NASA
and the Jet Propulsion Lab, available for free to the public. They showed
Spirit and Opportunity’s launches (impressive billowing smoke at take-off), the
sequence of their landings (parachutes deploying, retrorockets shooting,
air-bag-wrapped landers bouncing to a stop), and how their robotic arms move. Several
videos strung together photos taken by the rovers so you could watch their
journeys across the red planet as if you were rolling in their tracks. And update
videos showed scientists and engineers talking about their work on the mission
– their hopes and dreams, their disappointments and triumphs. I loved watching the videos while researching
and I remember wishing my readers could watch them, too. But how would kids ever find them and would
they take the time to wade through the archives to find the best ones? I linked to a few of my favorites on my
website, but I really wished readers could see
the robotic arm in action while reading about the robotic arm.
And now there they are (among other enhancements). As you
flip through the pages, small video icons show where to click to view a short
video on the topic discussed. My daughter, who has read the book, spent several
hours watching all the videos – some of them multiple times. And I think she
got more from the book as a result.
But what if kids simply flip through and only watch the
videos? Would that undermine the purpose of the book? From viewing the videos, kids
would learn a lot about rovers, about Mars and about the scientific process. Some
might be inspired to consider a vocation in science. Others might be inspired
to work a little harder to overcome obstacles to follow their dreams. But I
wonder: Will some kids be inspired to read a book they might otherwise have passed
up? That’s something I’d really like to know. Will the enhancements become a substitute
for the written word or a way to pull kids in or lead them to a deeper
understanding?
What do you think about interactive enhancements in ebooks?
What are the possibilities? What might be the drawbacks? Writers: What have
been your experiences with enhanced versions of your ebooks? Teacher, librarians,
parents and kids: Have you had any interesting encounters with enhanced
ebooks? What was it like? Did it change
the way you approached the book? We are entering a brave new world full of pitfalls
and possibilities. I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.
Elizabeth Rusch
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