The future of reading to tiny tots

To celebrate the end of Book Week in this National Year of Reading our local library opened its doors at 6 pm last night to read to the public. I went up the far end of the building where the children assembled and listened to the story time which has vastly evolved from when I was a tiny tot. The librarian presented an 'active' book first where he had all the kids jumping and jiggling and laughing along to the story line.

  
Next he whipped out the ipad and read three very differeent books to the audience which they could all see on the screen beside him. The first was a make your own story which had simple plot elements to choose from. Once the kids had selected what they wanted then the librarian played the story on the screen. Lots of movement, lots of laughter: the kids were really engaged.

   Then finally the librarian read two more stories from the ipad which were displayed on the screen. The first had many gadgets he could tweak to make the illustrations come alive. Words could fly off the page or buildings tumble or pages could turn all by themselves. It was engaging and somehow suggestive of Harry Potter-type wizardry of the printed word. (I'm thinking here of The Daily Prophet) There was even background music. The effect was pleasing and the quality of the illustrations carried the whole performance well. The last book he read from the ipad didn't have the added gadgetry and it was up to the librarian's skill as a story-teller to bring life to the pages, which he did admirably.

   I walked away thinking that this was the future of reading to tiny tots. Librarians would need ipads and screens and connecting cords.

   Was it a pleasurable experience? Yes, the kids enjoyed it. Was it intimate and cuddly the way story time can be? (I'm trying here to translate a group experience to a one on one reading) Well no. I can't imagine putting my children to bed and reading to them from an ipad with a nearby large screen. Maybe I'm old-fashioned.