The translation of storytelling across multiple media that creates this has a name- transmedia. And publishers are starting to recognize that this is a trend that they need to pay attention to. There have been a fair number of apps that have created interactive versions of books (The Monster at the End of This Book is a huge favorite here) and there are “read to me” ebooks, which my kids also like, but mainstream children’s publisher Scholastic looks to be taking things a step further.

Publishers Weekly reports that Scholastic is partnering with Ruckus Media to create an imprint called Scholastic Ruckus. Not only will this imprint produce interactive storybook apps, but it will provide digital content concurrently with the publication of children’s books (as opposed to having the digital content be “after the fact”), and it will create transmedia properties- a variety of versions of a story told across multiple platforms, which will include not just print copies, but film, gaming, online formats, and other interactive media experiences. I like that Scholastic is embracing this trend and will be interested to see what comes out of the new imprint. But Scholastic is a children’s publisher and so now we will have a generation of kids that expect a lot more from storytelling than what they can see on the printed page. Will it limit their imaginations to have other people’s visions of their reading experience surrounding them , or will it expand them? I don’t know. I can tell you this though: in spite of how exciting I think immersive experiences and transmedia can be, I’ll take the printed page (and the occasional live performance) any day.