What if...

...we begin to look at books for children in a whole new light:  we acknowledge that books, like everything else in our media-saturated world, are about to undergo a profound metamorphosis.  Many, I hope, will soon begin to be made out of sustainable materials...yes, my copy of Cradle to Cradle (signed, no less, by William McDonough) just arrived in the mail.  The pages, which are actually plastic resins and inorganic fillers, have the look and feel of paper.  The entire design (as you would expect, coming from McDonough, Braungart, and crew) is very pleasing...and, it seems, the concept of creating books out of these materials ("Cradle to Cradle" was bound into a book format created by Charles Melcher of Melcher Media) would be especially well suited to books for children.  One wonders why more publishers aren't moving toward this, faster...a plastic book for a child, one that looks and feels like paper...doesn't it seem ideal?  They would be far hardier; less prone to damage from spilled apple juice, and peanut butter smudges, and trips to the pool...

On other fronts, there is a subject about which my book group knows I am quite passionate: getting books to children via the screen, like the one you're looking at right now.  Take note of the $100 laptop featured on the TED site...and the photo in which two children are reading a book.  These laptops will go to children who might not, otherwise, ever own a book.  On this laptop, they will have access to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of books.  This is good.  Very, very good.

I don't think that anything can ever replace the glory that is a beautifully bound, gorgeously produced, exquisitely designed GOOD book.  A book stitched together, in the old way, and created with great love and care.  There will, I believe, always be a place for these books.  There will, I am sure, always be a market for them.  That said: we need to add room for the new, and make way for formats that continue to spread literacy in every way possible.  The thing that seems most clear is that the book world is changing: it simply has too...our newest generation, the youngest children, will experience their books in ways we never dreamed of...how can we best facilitate these changes?  Will we do our best, keeping up with this new world of books? Let's hope so.  

There is so much to be gained by it, so many new ways to learn.