Beyond the Page: Pairing Children’s Literature with Video Games

Authors

  • Matthew Farber
  • James A. Erekson

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5860/cal.21.1.7

Abstract

A patron walks in and asks for the latest Minecraft book—luckily a copy was just checked in! Like other media reinforcement books, popular video game books often demand multiple copies and frequent replacements. A satisfied patron might walk out with a target book and a stack of other titles.

But what if the model were flipped, and instead of reinforcing a single franchise, connections among games and books represented the library’s wider book and media collection? We introduce recent narrative video games for tweens, encouraging exploration of themes and topical connections between games and the children’s literature collection.

Author Biographies

Matthew Farber

Matthew Farber, EdD, is an associate professor of educational technology at the University of Northern Colorado, where he also co-directs the Gaming SEL Lab. He has been invited to the White House, writes for Edutopia, authored several books and papers, and frequently collaborates with UNESCO MGIEP and Games for Change.

James A. Erekson

James A. Erekson, PhD, is Associate Professor of Reading in the University of Northern Colorado School of Teacher Education. He teaches literacy and children’s literature courses and publishes nationally on how to reach striving readers.

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Published

2023-04-04

Issue

Vol. 21 No. 1 (2023): Spring

Section

Features

License

In the event that an author's work is accepted for publication in CAL, the author is required to sign a copyright agreement with ALA/ALSC. For more information and/or to download the copyright forms, visit the ALA Publishing Web site.

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