New books jump off the page with digital enhancements

by: Bob Minzesheimer

Now even print books are getting into the digital act.

When The Search for WondLa, the start of a fantasy trilogy for kids starring a 12-year-old girl raised by a robot on an alien planet, is published today, it will include three symbols that link to digital maps of the girl's quest for other humans.

Readers with a webcam can see 3-D interactive maps of the girl's search. Readers without a webcam but access to the Internet can link to a regular map and a video.

WondLa (Simon & Schuster, $17.99) is one of the new "enhanced" hybrids in the divide between e-books (about 8% of the book market, but its fastest-growing segment) and books still made out of paper and ink.

Author/illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi initially balked when his publisher suggested that digital elements be added to WondLa, fearing it would be "gimmicky."

But DiTerlizzi, co-author of the popular Spiderwick Chronicles series that became a 2008 movie, says he changed his mind when he saw that digital "augmented reality" could "enhance the story and not take anything away."

His is far from the only print book employing digital tricks.

Jessica Watson's True Spirit: The True Story of a 16-Year-Old Australian Who Sailed Solo, Nonstop, and Unassisted Around the World (Atria, $16, paperback original) includes 18 tags or bar codes that let readers with smartphones watch parts of Watson's video diary of her voyage. (Readers without smartphones can find the videos on the Internet.)

"It's the perfect marriage of form and function," says publisher Judith Curr. "You read Jessica's description of what she was doing on a particular day in her journey, then watch her video from that day."

Watson's videos are already on YouTube, but Curr says the book's codes make them easier to find.

Atria plans to use the same technology in books by singing sensation Susan Boyle (The Woman I Was Born to Be, Oct. 12) and Olympic skater Apolo Ohno (Zero Regrets, Oct. 26).

Lisa Von Drasek, librarian at Bank Street College of Education School for Children in New York, says she likes enhanced books when "the enhanced part is just that, not an essential element to the reading experience."

She says her students were "mesmerized" when DiTerlizzi previewed his book and its digital maps last spring. But she worries about future technical support: "The book exists for years, but the online element disappears."

Michael Norris, a publishing analyst for Simba, a market research firm, applauds such experiments but adds, "The books still need to stand as strong, complete products without the add-ons, because the add-ons may not last forever."

from: USA Today