Issue 28 Spring 2000 Children's Literature: The New Synergies or 'Sneaking past the Sligs with Alec' Mel Gibson, Lecturer, Universities of Northumbria and Sunderland. >>>>>>>>>> Next Conference Item	Collections under which this       article appears:       Reading       Y L G Related Articles or Resources

To begin with the obvious question, what is a synergy anyway? Synergy is a term that means combined or co-ordinated action and the way that two or more substances, objects or ideas, can, when combined, have increased effect. It is also term that has been used in relation to film to describe a kind of 'horizontal integration' in the industry whereby licensing a character or text means it is reproduced in a range of different media, often by many different companies (Sandler, 1998, p.172). The opposite, 'vertically integrated', was epitomised by the Hollywood studios who owned the means of production, distribution and exhibition of films (Cook, 1985, p.10). I feel that all of these definitions are useful in considering children's literature and related merchandising. I am using the term synergy here to describe the inter-relationship of different types of media, the activities that surround them and the impact that they have on children's lives. Basically, what I am proposing here is that children's literature, whilst we can think of it in isolation, should also be thought of more in relation to other media and in particular in the way other media approach the production of narrative for children.

This is not a new consideration, but it has been given impetus by the recent burgeoning of other media. There have been persistent reports of the imminent death of the book, concern expressed that children read less or not at all and, ironically, reporting in the media that other media are to blame. Yet David Buckingham et al in the book Children's Television in Britain (1999) report that although households with children have a higher take-up of satellite and cable television the amount of television viewing is declining. This suggests that young people prefer the involvement and activity that computer games and the Internet offer, rather than the comparative passivity of television. Judgements about newer media are being made here by the viewer or reader, which may result in some being discarded. Media are favoured when they offer cultural kudos within a community, as the basis of social interaction, and when they are seen as a good use of time. I feel that it is time, rather than the primacy of one media over another that determines the amount of reading or viewing or gaming that this very pressurised generation engages in.

Where does this leave reading? In a strong position I feel, given that books are energy efficient, engage the reader and are portable. They remain one of the most effective means of delivering narrative and will continue to thrive. That they thrive in the face of 'sexy' technology suggests that they continue to have time and status value, although which titles have the latter will vary. I would further argue that they benefit from being seen alongside other media focusing on the same characters or stories, from being seen as part of a synergy. The combination, as one of the definitions above states, enhances the impact that any text has whilst also leaving space for the distinctive approaches we are familiar with from books, films and games. Martin Coles, in the Books are Magic supplement published by The Guardian to link in with Children's Book Week 1999, confirms this. In an article based on his research with Christine Hall, published as 'Children's Reading Choices', he states "One in every seven of the books children listed as having read in the previous month had a high media profile-usually either a cinema or television adaptation-immediately prior to the survey." (Coles, 1999, p.20-21) The newer media, then, can contribute additional ways of telling stories both old and new, enhancing our understanding and enjoyment of texts we come across in printed form. They could, perhaps, be seen not as leading the way for books to follow, but as adjuncts. As Coles suggests, "This suggests that TV/cinema and reading are not necessarily in competition with one another, but that interest in one may well stimulate an interest in the other" (Coles, 1999, p.20-21).

These new media which have had an impact on children's literature actually include some innovations we now think of as 'old hat', but which, I would suggest, have had more impact on how children get their stories than the computer has had as yet. This includes television, obviously, but I feel that the tape recorder and the video machine have also been instrumental in transforming our relationship with the media. They have enabled us, no matter how young we are, to choose what we watch, or listen to, at times which suit us in much the same way that the book allows, although in the case of video without the portability as yet. This older technology is also joined by the various tools offered by the computer, both through the Internet and through software, including the computer game with it's potential for working through a number of stories and endings within a specific world. These are potentially terrific tools for exploring what story is and how it is made. They are also aimed at a primary audience of children, and then adults, an approach on the part of producers that has had the result of making children's new media seem both a secret and incomprehensible world to many adults. This has an obvious appeal to the young, and serves to divide off child culture, but as we shall see there are also forces from amongst the new media that serve to draw the adult and child audience together.

'Sneaking past the sligs', for instance, emerged from my sad attempts to learn how to play one of the Oddworld games, Abe's Exodus, I think. Whilst this game has both adult and child enthusiasts, this aspect of computer culture is still, overall, one that appeals predominantly to younger people. I had only used a Playstation once before and Alec showed great patience in trying to get me to understand the controls. After some time we both realized that the technology was beyond me (although I have kept trying since!) Alec decided, instead, to show me his imitation of the central character Abe, and I decided that I could manage to do that, even if I couldn't get to grips with the game. This took off into a game played by human beings, which was based on the one on the computer. Far from stopping interaction, the game encouraged it.

However, my initial confusion in trying to understand how to play and what the texts were about were not untypical for adults in relation to newer media. This reflects the confusion and concern expressed by adults in general in response to the changes in media. What this tends to do, unfortunately, is undermine the threads of continuity, which link this generation with previous generations. In animation for instance, there has been a huge shift since programmes like Bagpuss, which were considered innovative when they first appeared. Buckingham suggests that the certainties of texts like Bagpuss have been replaced by a model that emphasises "rapid pace, their allusiveness and intertextuality, their complex play with reality and fantasy, their irony and self-referentiality" (Buckingham, 1999, p.6). Yet, if one were to look beyond animation at the broader world of children's television there were clear precedents for the later shift in animation in live-action programmes of the same era. The model of animation Buckingham suggests is now prevalent relates to the magazine shows of the 1970s, such as Tiswas, which similarly emphasised pace and intertextuality.

The challenge for us as adults and for the children we work with is to share our understanding, and share the young person's understanding of different types of text. Awareness of the different ways that media can tell the same story is an important end in itself, developing critical skills in the reader or viewer. Alternatively such a synergy may involve a number of linked but different stories in a number of media, which are understood as related through visual style, or characters, or creators but are seen as a coherent body of work. A further question must be whether this is a new idea? Not really, but like many aspects of our culture, good and bad, we are much more aware now of the way media merge and weave. Perhaps it is this way of thinking about how texts inter-relate which is new for most of us, rather than the fact that they do it and the way it can be an important part of merchandising.

So how might children's literature be part of media synergies? Predominantly, through the role of the book as a media spin-off, or material in other medias as spin-offs from a book. If characters appear in a range of media, then it is usually the case that at least one of those forms is printed. We know that texts may be known in many different forms and adaptations, but this is not new; rather it is a tendency that the new media have reminded us of in challenging the primacy of the book. We can, in fact go back to some very ancient ways of sharing stories to find similar models of synergy. In straddling the shift from oral, to print, to visual culture, for instance, fairy stories and folk tales exist in many spoken, written, drawn and performed forms. They do not all tell the same story either, ranging from, for instance, the interactivity of the pantomime Cinderella, to the much-loved Disney film as well as the various written versions. Recently a comic book, The Big Book of Grimm tried to return to earlier, less sanitised, versions of this and other tales, much as the Virago collections of fairy stories try to explore the links between feminism and folk and fairy tale. Each variant of the story comes from a different era, reflecting the concerns and events that shaped it. Each variant also tells the story differently, depending on the medium in which it takes place, and thus the relationship between text and audience and author and audience also varies.

Synergy is not limited to stories emerging from oral cultures either. There are examples amongst the classics of children's literature. Peter Pan for instance was part of a book for adults before it became a play. It features in J.M. Barrie's The Little White Bird, as a story told to a little boy that the narrator is trying to steal. Further, Barrie persistently refused to write a narrative version of the play and when he did it was a failure, unlike many of the other 'novelisations' of the play he authorised. In fact this is not unlike the phenomena of 'the book of the film', hence my use of the word 'novelisations', but these versions of Peter Pan are seen as classic children's literature, yet we generally resist the notion that 'media spin-offs' could be any good. In addition, the Disney film influences most people's understanding of this text. Thus a play that becomes various novels becomes 'fixed' in terms of meaning through another medium altogether. It could also be argued that the meaning is further revised by another film, Hook.

There are many other examples of synergy in addition to the notion of 'the book of the film'. Most common are the film of the book as in Matilda, and the shifts in meaning, medium and audience shown in the example of The Mask. The latter moved from being an underground comic spoofing the superhero comic in general and aimed at adults to a film, to a sanitised version of the comic for children, to the animated series for children. The relationship between the original source and the later versions can also become blurred. In all these examples, a synergy around a specific set of characters develops over time, involving a set of related texts in a number of media and with varied interpretations. Such a scenario is replicated and exacerbated when you take comics, CD-ROM, film, and the possibilities of the web into consideration as well. Marsha Kinder described this in her 1991 book Playing with Power in Movies, Television and Video Games, as "trans-media intertextuality", and I am using the term synergy here to describe this phenomena.

Marketing does tend, for efficiency in the delivery of advertising, to create synergies, and the book has become part of such an approach. Pokemon, a Japanese animation aimed at children, comics, books, computer game and game in card format, amongst other things, draws together a number of disparate products. In this case, rather than development over a period as described above, the launch of the majority of products was simultaneous, with the animated series acting as both a marketing and information campaign for the rest. The initial audience was amongst young males, who have now generally moved on from it, but the key audience that the manufacturers intend the products for is the 6-9 age range, and given that there are collecting aspects to the enterprise, probably boys. There are over 150 Pokemon - a term created from abbreviating 'Pocket Monsters', suggestive of both size and theme - and the aim of the games and the programme is to collect them all. Many of the related products and texts not related to the main text, although it can be questioned what the main text is. This is something that I think is apparent in wider discussions about changes in our culture and has resulted in the perception that the book is under threat, or rather that it is no longer the central means of delivering narrative. In the case of Pokemon it may be the related game, or the cartoon, that is the main text, although there are all manner of other items.

But does that mean that books could be lost in the mix? We must recall that marketing does not exist to downplay products, but to sell all that exist in a specific range. Whilst marketing within a specific medium continues, in that books sell books, through, for instance, plot descriptions of other books in the back, and videos sell videos, by use of trailers, I keep coming across web sites, for instance, that review whole swathes of different material. These have been joined by an increasing number of CD-ROMs that promote games, music, books, films and spoken word on related theme, irrespective of medium. In addition our work as librarians is in part an additional marketing force, although one that exists outside of the demands of specific firms. Perhaps the book does need extra promotion and I would argue that a book promoted with the assiduity that many other products are given does stand a strong chance of being successful. The recognition that children's books can be marketed direct to the general public has only recently resulted in the use of poster advertising. This brings the book more into line with other media products. More importantly, if you think of all the products within a synergy as adverts for all the other products in that synergy, though a range of other media, the book stands to benefit. The Goosebumps books sell the series and the comic book, which in turn, efficiently, also sell the books. This suggests that it is important that the source of a programme, if a book, needs to be acknowledged in a way that has impact on young people. For instance, when I do talks about comics many young men are familiar with Japanese animation, but have not necessarily realised that this relates to an extensive set of written and drawn texts as well. When they know that such texts exist they want to read them.

The new synergies, as suggested, enable us to chart the ways in which different media approach narrative. It is clear that books can co-exist with other media without loosing their distinctiveness or becoming redundant. The distinctive ways in which media tell stories also applies to a range of print media. The medium of the comic, for instance, may generate a number of different kinds of story. As with children's literature the comic may throw up works that are one-offs that stand alone or collections of short stories, or even sequences that are part of the same story, like triple-decker novels. However, in their monthly and serialised form, they may also, like soap operas, offer ongoing multiple narratives that are hard for someone who does not read comics/watch soaps to get into. There may be elements of the story that end but the overall story, potentially, is without end. As a result some comics may be more like television programmes than books, although the comic shares many of the book's qualities, for instance in being portable. Thus, whilst both are paper based they are different formats that may generate different types of story and that is without taking into account the pictorial aspect of comics.

This suggests how writing for different media requires different skills and disciplines and that the individuals who write across media are themselves creating synergies. Obviously that sense of writing differently applies to film and television and web sites as well, yet all are linked through the writer who may well be operating across a number of media. In a computer game, for instance, you may be offered a range of possible actions and thus a range of stories, although there is usually one preferred ending. This again offers a different discipline to the creator. Clearly, such concerns and challenges are also the lot of the illustrator, as there are huge differences between, for instance, the political cartoon, the illustrated book, the picture book and the comic, never mind animation. In the latter case, animation is something that many comic book writers are experimenting with, leading to debates about when a net comic stops being a comic and becomes a cartoon.

Other links across media are possible as well, embodied in the text as well as the creator. For instance, when I write about comics I am aware that there are many resources on the net and I often include Web addresses. I know, however, that if this writing appears in electronic form the reader will be able to go straight to my source via the Web address. The reader, then, reads the text I created in a different way or simply moves on from it to do his or her own research. The way that the reader relates to such a text may be very different to their reaction to a book or magazine article. Although the bibliography has a similar function to the web address in this context, rather than having to look up details elsewhere in the book at hand and then try to find it, you have the immediacy of being able to go directly to another text. Thus you create a text that is read in a rather different way. Further, web books acknowledge and work with this different form of reading. I'd recommend Ju Gosling's book Virtual Worlds for Girls for a visit, and an idea of how a web book may differ, or not from other texts.

There are other ways, some more direct than others, in which texts in electronic formats may relate to literature as well as being literature themselves. For instance, The Jolly Post Office CD-ROM whilst not further developing storylines uses the visual style and tone of the story to create a set of complementary texts. It encourages the user to print out artwork from the author, create his or her own and play with the notion of story. It incorporates matching games etc, which work without added knowledge from the book, but if you know the book, or the fairytale or myths that are used then the pleasures of this other text are enhanced. This is further increased in that, like so many CD-ROMs, this one has links into the net, in this case to swap stamps. Much like my text described above it leads directly into others. The relationship between net and literature is also one that has immense potential. Not only can it be used as part of a marketing campaign, generating an interest in the books, but it provides information and itself generates reading, still being largely in print form. That it is seen as attractive to young people makes it almost a Trojan horse, attracting people in and redirecting them to a range of media, including the book. It also allows different relationships between the audience and author to develop; a point I'll return to.

Sharing information about children's books is another way in which the new synergies may actually serve to increase the status and presence of the children's book. As we know, such books are still not hugely covered by newspapers, and instead lie within the purview of specialist magazines. Now that I am working in a different field I find it difficult to find out what is coming up, and I'm aware that the magazines, whilst very good, are not the same as having first hand knowledge of what is published each week. Whilst I spend a lot of time hanging around in bookshops I find that I need to use a large number of sources now that I do not get to see an approvals CD or collection. To the publishers' information, magazine and press coverage I add visits to excellent sites like Achuka, but also discussion lists and newsgroups.

What the Internet sites in particular serve to do is open up the world of books for children in different ways and to several audiences. Given the instant accessibility of the website the designers of such sites need to be able to address the needs of multiple audiences, parent, child, librarian and teacher. After all, these are sites that children with access can also get into and the best address needs of a number of audiences, often by producing a number of different linked areas that can be accessed separately. With print-based media this is much more problematic. Whilst we may subscribe to periodicals about children's literature, are they made available for child audience? Further, are they all as appropriate for a child audience as Boox or Teen Titles? Thus changes in technology generate new relationships between texts, mediums and audiences. What the above comments also suggest is the way that there are shifts in the nature of the children's book community. Virtual communities of both readers and writers exist. Getting books or information on books, talking to others about books (like reading groups, but over a distance) and networking are all possible, but with a few significant differences.

Key amongst these is the interaction between author and audience. Whilst most books do not suggest writing to the author or illustrator and telling them what you think, they might include a web site address, and these sites often do precisely that. E-mail is both more intimate that fan mail, and also more distant. The e-mail is not like a formal letter, but more like a postcard and open to being read by a number of people the same way. However, if the possible 'publication' of what is written is not a problem then it allows the child or adult reader to have a very immediate sense of contact with a creator. The best authors, or indeed publisher sites, are not just adverts but include a high degree of interactivity such as Shoo Rayner's site. This is another way in which children may talk about their reactions to literature, alongside the direct access that festivals like the Northern Children's Book Festival allows, although it also produces a site, and that which fan mail generates.

Reviewing is also a central activity on the Internet, of material in all media. Even Amazon invites both author comments and readers' reviews, putting them side-by-side. This also makes this resource a good one for author addresses. As well as publishing young peoples' reviews of books, as at http://www.okukbooks.com/, it is also possible to encourage them to review sites. In addition, knowing authors may monitor discussion lists means that comments are often addressed to them directly or indirectly via that medium as well. In these forums there is the scope for everyone with access to air their views. This applies to both the child and adult contributor equally. These shifts do, as the cliché puts it, make the world smaller and enables access to book cultures that we might not otherwise see. This interaction related to contact with creators and reviewing in a very public arena all form part of the new synergies.

Alongside reviewing are a range of writing and rewriting projects. TrAce Online writing community children's Special Things section, for instance, leads to a number of ongoing literature projects in various schools . Some of the sites on my list start from established works, encourage children to re-work them and send the results to the author. Writers online, one of the National Year of Reading projects shows a range of approaches. This flags up how the child reader becomes the child as author, another element of the synergy around children's literature. There a number of places that children's work can be published on the web, from Stone Soup, Stories from the Web, onwards, always remembering that these sites too are of enormously varied quality as well as the author sites. This notion of re-writing has also applied in music with FSOL, for instance, releasing over the Internet and requesting re-edits which were then further commented on creating very real feedback loops of both interaction and shared text.

However, whilst these synergies offer possibilities they also have limits. Cinema and television can clearly work in conjunction with the written text, but, as mentioned, spelling out the relationships between film, book and programme more clearly might promote literature. In the case of the Internet, whilst the possibilities offered are immense, as only 10 % of the world are on the World Wide Web, this suggests that as yet this tool has not been as liberating as the West, who dominate its use, believes. There is also a fear sometimes expressed that the supposed variety of online culture is illusory, given that material largely originates in one country, America, thus amounting to a form of cultural imperialism. Access, then, is still a limiting factor, both internationally, and nationally. Although dropping in price, these other technologies cost more money than books and this can be as problematic for institutions to afford as for individuals, as all who work in schools colleges and libraries know. Yet, contradictorily, the cost is often seen to imply that these technologies are valuable in other ways.

What the emphasis on other media, despite their limits, suggests is that care is needed in maintaining the status of the book, if not as superior then certainly as amongst equals. Otherwise there is the possibility that the comparative cheapness and accessibility of the book could result in it being seen as less valuable. It could potentially become the thing you use if you are not otherwise information rich, seen as a second-class medium in a world that relishes facts delivered immediately in a shiny new format above all. In such a scenario, where the book is seen as dealing 'only' with 'old' facts and fiction, it could also be sidelined by the perception that narrative is primarily gained from television. These concerns return us to the 'death of the book' as mentioned at the beginning of this article, but looks more closely at what form that death might take. Betamax, let us recall, was seen as the better quality form of video, but was outmanoeuvred and out-marketed by VHS and in some ways this reflects one negative possibility for the book and in turn for literature.

Commentators have also tied these concerns about the possible implications of media synergy in with shifts within society. David Buckingham, in Children's Television in Britain talks about new divides in childhood that might cut across traditional class boundaries, but set up others in their place. He suggests that two sets of dividing lines are emerging, the first between those who are technology rich and technology poor and the second between those experiencing technological and traditional childhood. In this case the book would be seen as part of the technology poor and traditional childhoods. The position of the book would then depend on what role technology was seen as having in society. If it was central then the book may become a second-class medium for those citizens who are sidelined and dismissed by their 'failure' to engage with the 'valued' media, be that for financial or ideological reasons. So whilst the new technologies can be democratising, it is always important to consider how far and at what cost. Such debates exist in addition, of course, to those about 'dumbing down' in television and other media. In relation to this issue David Buckingham suggests that things are much better then we are led to believe, although he feels that this is no reason to be complacent.

We must seize the opportunities that the links between books and other media offer, but be aware of the need to focus also on the unique selling points of the book and reading the book. It is also worthwhile to consider that the computer, the video and the television are all, we are told, sites of pleasure as well as having practical uses. Too often, the book and reading is depicted as hard work, and useful in a practical sense rather than an activity that can bring great pleasure. What we see in the notion of the synergy is also, potentially, a positive acknowledgement of the many different tools and different ways of telling stories and the differing pleasures they offer. In this context, it becomes possible to think not in terms of either/or, but rather what is the best tool to get over certain ideas. We are surrounded by narrative in many forms and whilst we may feel that one form stands above all, in understanding how it relates to others we come close to the child's experience of media and thus become aware of how we might offer the book to new generations.

What is clear above all however, is that the synergies around children's literature have had a great deal of impact on the child reader. As mentioned earlier, the most recent forms of technology encourage all those who have access to participate in sharing ideas and enthusiasms. Whilst this can be a double-edged sword, what it can serve to do is offer young people a voice that is equal to that of the adult. Here we can identify reading as both something personal and private and as part of a shared wider world. For example, a recent e-mail to a discussion list from an American twelve year old said 'I love all of Philip Pullman's books, does anyone out there want to talk to me about them?' This immediately generated a response. Those who responded were both adults and children and all had the space to speak. The discussion that followed blurred the boundaries between adult and child in the shared enthusiasm for an author. In doing so, it can be suggested, as Jon Katz does in his book Virtuous Reality that the true role of the media synergy, of the new media in combination with the old, is to bring about a "Children's revolution."

References
Barrie, J.M. (1902) The Little White Bird. London: Hodder & Stroughton Back to text
Boox McKearney, Miranda (Co-ordinator). Well Worth Reading. Back to text
Buckingham, David et. al. (1999) Children's Television in Britain. London: BFI Back to text
Carter, Angela (Editor) (1991) The Virago Book of Fairy Tales. London: Virago Press Back to text
Coles, Martin, 'Junior Choice', Books are Magic supplement, The Guardian, Children's Book Week 1999, p.20-21. Back to text
Coles, Martin and Hall, Christine (1999) Children's Reading Choices. London: Routledge Back to text
Cook, Pam, (1985), The Cinema Book. London: BFI Back to text
Dahl, Roald. Matilda. Puffin Books Back to text
Hook (1991) Columbia, USA: TriStar/Amblin Back to text
Katz, Jon (1997) Virtuous Reality. New York: Random House Back to text
Kinder, Marsha (1991) Playing with Power in Movies, Television and Video Games. Berkeley: University of California Back to text
The Mask (1994) USA, Entertainment/New Line/Dark Horse Back to text
Peter Pan (1952) USA: Walt Disney Back to text
Sandler, Kevin S, (1998), Reading the Rabbit. Piscataway: Rutgers University Press Back to text
Teen Titles. Jackie Henrie, City of Edinburgh School Library Service. Back to text
Vankin, Jonathan (17 February, 2000) The Big Book of Grimm. Paradox Press Back to text