Mark Prensky calls 21st century children digital natives because they learned to crawl alongside a PC. Digital natives are adept at playing video games, surfing the internet, and texting their friends. Classroom teachers are considered digital immigrants because they were not born during the digital age and are learning the computer language. All of the books discussed below by members of the International Reading Association Children's Literature and Reading Special Interest Group (CL/R SIG) will appeal to digital natives and digital immigrants since they infuse technology.
GRADES K-3
Dyckman, Ame. (2012). Boy + Bot. Illus. by Dan Yaccarino. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Ame Dyckman’s debut into the picture book world begins with this BFR (Big Friendly Robot). One day Boy meets Robot in the woods and they are instant friends. When Robot goes home with Boy to play, his on/off button gets pushed and he powers down. Boy thinks there is something wrong and uses traditional home remedies to nurse him back to life: applesauce and reading aloud. When Boy falls asleep Bot’s button is pushed back ON and thinks something is wrong with Boy. With only technological know-how, Robot tries to bring Boy to life with oil and reading the instruction manual. When Bot tries to think how a battery might help, Inventor arrives to yell, “Stop!” and is able to remedy the situation. Told in simple language, the friendship developed between Boy and Bot is as real as the wordless double-page spreads at the end of the book warmly depict. For more information and reviews, visit the author’s website and blog.
- Karen Hildebrand, Ohio Library and Reading Consultant
Milgrim, David. (2011). Goodnight iPad: A parody for the next generation. New York: Blue Rider Press/Penguin Group.
“In the bright buzzing room / There was an iPad / And a kid playing Doom / And a screensaver of—“ (unpaginated). In the accompanying illustrations, reminiscent of the original Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, there are six young rabbits playing gadgets such as an iPod, laptop, or radio. Later, father rabbit is lounging in a chair with empty bookshelves behind him. The text says, “There were three little Nooks / With ten thousand books” (unpaginated). A full page spread depicts a huge LCD television with Wi-Fi and HDTV. All of the taps, beeps, dings and plinks of emails and tweets are keeping the old woman awake. She finally can’t take it anymore and grabs a gadget, “Goodnight iPad” (unpaginated). The boy rabbit holds on tightly screaming, “Noooooooooooo” (unpaginated). Soon other technology instruments—remotes, MP3s, and a BlackBerry—are thrown out the window. The rabbits scream and cry in dismay, yet grandma rounds them up and puts them to bed. Slowly the illustrations dim to dark with snoring rabbits. On the closing page a young rabbit holds a flashlight and reads the original picture book that this parody is based off of.
- Deanna Day, Washington State University, Vancouver
Smith, Lane. (2010). It’s a book. New York: Roaring Brook Press.
A curious donkey watches as his monkey friend reads a book, a novelty item for the donkey. Wondering what it can do and how to scroll through its pages or blog with it, skills with which he is familiar from his online reading experiences, he is also curious about how such a passive creation can keep his friend entertained. After all, it doesn’t tweet, twitter, text, or make its characters fight like the donkey’s computer programs can. For fans of the digital world, this picture book is a deliciously satiric poke at all the things books actually can do, and as the monkey says on the next to last page, there’s no need even to charge it up once you’ve finished with it. As bibliophiles know, once a book has been completed, it’s ready for the next reader or even a reread by the same reader without any fussy downloads or technical considerations. A book, after all, is a book, no batteries needed. The simple illustrations add to this tribute to reading the old fashion way with a mouse hiding beneath the monkey’s hat and popping out to make sly observations rather than to help navigate through the book’s pages.
- Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University Pullman
GRADES 5-8
Gifford, Clive. (2012). Cool Tech. New York: Scholastic Reference.
Coming this spring as the companion to the author’s Cool Tech (DK, 2011), this new volume gives kids a look at the technology behind their favorite video games, cell phones, GPS systems, and more. These gadgets we have gotten used to operating everyday are taken apart and given explanations as to how they actually work. In addition to everyday tech forms, enter the world of cyborgs, spy gadgets and air and land vehicles. Looking at the science behind these favorite and fun technologies, will give readers the why and how things work.
- Karen Hildebrand, Ohio Library and Reading Consultant
Reese, Jenn. (2012). Above World. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.
Technologically dependent upon breathing necklaces that are failing, the undersea colony of Coral Kampii is in danger. Fleeing from on overpopulated world generations earlier, the Kampii have found a way to genetically modify themselves to living under the oceans but that way of life is now endangered. No one has the knowledge to repair the aging breathing devices. Thirteen-year-old Aluna and her techno-savvy friend Hoku make the decision to leave their underwater world and search for a solution Above World. They encounter other creatures that have adapted to living conditions that will remind the reader of creatures from mythology. Though an adventure story with exciting twists and turns, this science fiction journey is also about trust and friendship. Visit this first time author at her website to keep up with the next venture into Above World.
- Karen Hildebrand, Ohio Library and Reading Consultant
Shulman, Mark and Hazlitt Krog. (2012). Attack of the Killer Video Book: Tips & tricks for young directors. Revised and updated. Ontario, CA: Annick Press/Firefly Books.
As digital cameras continually improve on phones and individual cameras, and YouTube and FaceBook video postings become more popular, this new edition of Attack of the Killer Video Book offers the latest tips for young filmmakers. Tips include lighting, special effects, shooting from phone cameras or webcams and music videos. The design and layout of the book with sidebars and speech bubbles make this a very kid-friendly handbook. Suggestions for marketing or posting your videos are included. For teachers who are interested in incorporating video techniques and ideas for large groups in classrooms, the publisher has a detailed lesson plan available.
- Karen Hildebrand, Ohio Library and Reading Consultant
GRADES 9 to 12
Brooks, Kevin. (2011). iBoy. New York: Scholastic.
Set in the future, Tom is hit by an iPhone on his way to visit a childhood friend. The surgeons do their best to remove it but fragments are still lodged in his brain. He becomes part human and part iPhone. He is able to hear phone calls, read emails and texts, hack into databases, take photographs and videos—essentially anything an iPhone can do but more. Tom can see a mobile phone in the back of someone's pocket and instantly download and scan information, thus knowing everything about this stranger. In addition, his scar transmits electrical shocks and his skin glows like a lit up iPhone at night. When his friend, Lucy, is assaulted by a gang he sets out to solve who did it and why using all of his iPhone capabilities and superpowers. Later he is faced with some moral decisions. This is the prefect novel for young adolescents who have their cell phones attached to their ears.
- Deanna Day, Washington State University Vancouver
Davies, Stephen. (2011). Outlaw. New York: Clarion Books.
Suspended from his British boarding school for geothimbling and climbing a wall into an off-limits area, fifteen-year-old Jake Knight is sent to join his parents in Burkina Faso where he anticipates much adventure. Unsurprisingly, adventure finds him and his sister Kas when they are kidnapped at an elaborate banquet by two men trying to blame the kidnapping on Yakuuba Sor, a master of disguise considered by some to be a terrorist and by others to be a hero of the common folks. The action in the book is fast paced with something exciting happening in just about every chapter. There is humor in its pages as well, and readers are likely to be intrigued by the growing awareness of Jake and Kas that things are not as they seem, and that the alleged good guys may not be on the right side, after all. Jake’s sister Kas is more aware than her brother of the suffering of the poor in this country and the division between those with money and influence and those with few resources. Ironically, the very individuals Jake has been disdainful toward are the ones who help the two siblings escape from their captors. Adding to the intrigue are the nifty technological touches such as low-tech but useful ways to charge batteries, the Mosquito ringtone able to be heard only by young ears, a beetle with a GPS component, and most chilling, the Predator, a highly effective bomb whose use promises complete annihilation of its target area and any humans within its range.
- Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University Pullman
Hautman, Pete. (2012). The Klaatu Diskos: The obsidian blade. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.
Fearful that his minister father will realize he has broken a rule, Tucker Feye watches as his father seems to disappear into thin air while on top of the roof of the house. Returning an hour later with Lahlia, a girl he claims to have found wandering alone downtown, Tucker’s father has lost his faith and no longer believes in the existence of God. As his father becomes increasingly depressed and his mother is drawn into an obsession with counting and numbers, Tucker engages in reckless behaviors with his neighbor friends. When he returns from an outing one day, his parents have disappeared, intent on finding help for his mother, and he has been left in the care of his uncle Kosh, a man he barely knows. While living in his reconstructed barn, Tucker sees a disk similar to the one he saw atop the roof when his father went missing. Eventually, he realizes that these disks provide avenues to the past and to the future as he desperately searches for his parents amid many shifts of time and setting and several attempts on his life. Most intriguing of all are the author’s hints that society's obsession with computer-related numbers can be blamed for the mental and emotional problems for its citizens, adding to its timeliness. Doctors even blame what they call Rapid-onset Autism-like Disorder in Tucker’s mother on her incessant solving of Sudoku puzzles. There is plenty of food for thought here, and while Hautman may be trying to do too much in this one--with time travel, disorders brought on by technology, prophets, extinct species that aren't extinct after all, and mendicants who use technology to heal--it will be interesting to see what happens in the next installment of this promised trilogy.
- Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University Pullman
Meyer, Marissa. (2011). Cinder. New York: Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan.
Marissa Meyer’s science fiction transformation of the “Cinderella” story introduces a Chinese cyborg, Linh Mei, or Cinder as her friends know her. Being a cyborg earns Cinder second-class status from most people in New Beijing as well as the disdain of her stepmother. Yet, all of the technology pulsing throughout her body has some obvious benefits. For instance, she can easily detect someone's dishonesty, and she has the reputation of being the best mechanic in New Beijing. This reputation actually brings the prince to her in hopes that she can repair his android before the annual ball. When the Letumosis pandemic threatens her stepsister’s life, Cinder is “volunteered” for plague research that no one has ever survived. It is during this testing that Cinder learns she is more than just a cyborg. Readers will anxiously await the next books in the Lunar Chronicles so they can learn Cinder's fate.
- Terrell A. Young, Brigham Young University
McLaughlin, Lauren. (2011). Scored. New York: Random House.
Once the Second Depression effectively eradicates the middle class, the future of the next generation is determined by scores determined by a computer program. Scores are posted periodically, and students move through various peer groups according to those scores. Through a series of surveillance tools--smart-cams or “eyeballs” as the teens like to call them--students are observed both while at school and on the street for any violations of the five elements of fitness: peer group, impulse control, congruity, diligence, and rapport. In this society, individuals are known and scored for the company they keep, and loyalty has little value since it won't earn any points. Imani's score drops drastically because of her friend’s decision to have a relationship with one of the unscored, leaving her with little chance at the college scholarship and successful future promised by a score 90 or above. In desperation, she pairs up with Diego Landis, one of the unscored, to write an essay examining both sides to the scoring system, but her motives are dishonest. Eventually, Imani realizes that the scoring system, perhaps intended to interrupt the pattern of poverty, is at its core simply another sorting machine with the ultimate goal being human perfection. Much of the book mirrors today’s tendency to define individuals by their own numbers--GPAs, SAT scores, salaries--numbers that have little to do with human worth or the characteristics that should matter. Readers are likely to ponder how succeeding at the scoring system means failing at being an individual and shedding the best of human nature. Could such a system, taken to extremes, eradicate kindness, generosity, and collaboration, behaviors avoided unless they are rewarded with points? This is a provocative title that raises important questions.
- Barbara A. Ward, Washington State University Pullman
Price, Lissa. (2012). Starters. New York: Delacorte Press.
On the run ever since the Spore Wars claimed her parents, Callie Woodland has been living in whatever abandoned spaces she and her brother Tyler can find. Because Tyler is sick and other survivors seem willing to fight to the death for food and space, Callie rents her body to wealthy older patrons via Prime Destinations, an outfit based in Beverly Hills and run by the mysterious Old Man. Since the Spore Wars killed off anyone between the age of twenty and sixty, teens such as Callie, known as Starters, are highly prized for the illusion of youth they can provide to the older generation or Enders. While technological advances have made it possible for them to live longer, it can’t stave off the effects of time. After weighing the benefits and the risks, Callie signs a contract, is cleaned up and beautified, and undergoes surgery to implant a microchip in her brain. But something goes wrong during her third rental, and she is able to hear the voice of the woman renting her body. The woman has become convinced that Prime Destinations had something to do with her missing granddaughter. As Callie wonders if she can trust anyone, even an unexpected love interest, she wishes she had not ignored the warning signs that things were not as they seemed. The book provides an interesting twist on today's society, which often seems to cater to teens and ignore the tastes of the elderly. Since there will be a follow-up title, perhaps the book’s lingering questions will be answered and the characters will be fleshed out even more. One thing is for certain: The future being painted here is bleak. This title is vivid proof that desperate individuals will agree to desperate solutions to their problems, and there is always someone ready to take advantage of their desperation.
- Barbara A. Ward,Washington State University Pullman
Wells, Dan. (2012). Partials. New York: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins.
A futuristic dystopia is created when a virus is unleashed by corporation ParaGen with the introduction of Partials, genetically engineered semi-humans who are taking the place of real human beings. The virus has wiped out most of human civilization and only a few thousand survivors remain. The virus has made it impossible for human babies to survive more than 56 hours after birth. Survivor Kira Walker, a 16 year old medic, is determined to fight the Partials and discover a way to bring back human life and a future for the survivors. Civilization is barely maintaining with limited resources like electricity, fuel, and transportation and even less hope that things will ever improve. So far Kira’s attempts have failed. Her latest idea is to capture a Partial and learn from it, which brings surprising results. Military action, scavenging, and a host of characters make this fast moving plot fraught with suspense. This first installment in a planned series will leave readers with a cliffhanger ending and anxiously awaiting the next book. The publishers have created an intriguing book trailer. In addition, this new series has a website and FaceBook fan page.
- Karen Hildebrand, Ohio Library and Reading Consultant
