One of the recent debates in the field of children’s studies is over the question of whether or not books have the ability to grant agency to child readers. Although this controversy is present , there seems to be agreement over the idea that books featuring movable parts and Choose Your Own Adventure books (CYOA) provide for more authority for the child than traditional literary-media. However, a more nuanced view reveals that this may not be entirely true. This exhibit features these two lauded categories and looks at them through the lens of death. We focused on how death and violence were used. With movable books, death and violence were actions that the reader could do, and as such death was treated with levity. In CYOA death/violence were mostly actions that happened to the reader, and were used as deterrents from unwanted actions, making death a punishment. Our exhibit focuses on the art of interaction concerning violence and death between readers, authors, and the books themselves in order to highlight how the agency of the child fluctuates in the face of this taboo topic.
We chose to focus on interactive media because it interested us- decision making, pop-ups, and movable factors are an enjoyable and unique reading experience almost special to children’s literature. The power of the child concerning death has been a wildly covered topic in our class discussions, and as such, seemed to be a perfect lens to view these novel literary forms. We hope that those of you who browse our online collection can become just as captivated as we have been while working on this theme.
The first category displayed in this exhibit covers interactive movable books, which follow a storyline that has a linear story-path, but allows the child to take part in the action instead. Through transformations, pop-ups, volvelles, and more, the child can manipulate the action of the page. Although the movable actions in the books are at the child’s disposal, the author is the end determinant of the book. As shown in The Dwinding Party and The Ghosts of Creepy Castle, the designated person who ‘disappears’ each page will never appear in the book again, even if the child does not cause their disappearance. The child is lauded for causing mayhem, violence, and trouble in the book, such as in The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts. In these exhibit items, death and violence are encouraged, and are even the only choice presented in the book. This exhibit also features Ghostly Towers, a doll-house type pop-up book, which we found to grant the closest form to true agency for the child. In this play- book, the cover mentions the inclusive “press-out characters and props” for the child to use when using it. While there are plays for the child to act out within the book, the child doesn’t have to read them (and is actually encouraged not to) and can choose to simply play with the props and pop-out mansion. Although this particular example reflects the way that children can gain more autonomy, they can still follow the story that the author incorporates, detailing death in two very distinctive lights, which could potentially affect the child’s interpretation of the story, allowing them to make their own decisions on how ‘scary’ death and violence are in general. In this section, please take notice of how the child reader can cause death and violence, and the choices they can make in their reading experience in general.
Another category of interactive book that is displayed in this exhibit and allows for power in child agency is Choose Your Own Adventure books. Although the child can choose their own decisions throughout the story, the authors’ bias forces the reader to absorb the morals that they impose, with the outcome of each decision decided by the author’s moral compass. In the exhibit is an outlined systemic tree of Louise Foley’s Forest of Fear. Similar to other CYOA books, the different outcomes relying on the child reader’s decisions throughout the story range from beneficial rewards to unwanted consequences. While the child reader is given more room to choose what they read as they flip through the pages, the author decides on the actions they can choose. Other books included in this exhibit include Supercomputer , Space Vampire, Space Patrol, and The Horror of High Ridge, which also display similar types of choices and the consequences of those choices based on the decision of the reader. In this section, please take notice of the choices available and how the child reader is primarily experiencing death and violence, especially in the 'bad endings'.
While we focus on the intended function of each text presented in this exhibit, please keep in mind that these types of books are part toy, and have constraints. Children can ignore the words entirely in the movable books presented and just spend their time pulling tabs and opening pages, flipping where they want. Each ending in a CYOA book can be tracked from the end to the beginning, with the child playing backwards- and you never truly have to commit to your choices, reading each outcome before truly deciding what choice to make. But, in the movable book only certain actions are crafted for the reader by the manufacturer, and in CYOA, you need to make distinct choices to follow a story and can’t open to a random page. In this case, children can grasp their own agency through 'cheating'- doing what they want around the bounds of the book, but the book will always have bounds instilled by the artifact itself.
Reflecting on different types of interactivity and the varying levels of agency granted to the reader, the division of power between the author and the child, who takes part in the action of the book, can vary. While the interactions in these books do grant some form of agency to the child, it doesn’t ultimately grant complete power to either the adult or the child. The incorporation of fear and responsibility for actions throughout the different stories created a similar correlation that followed how the adult author incorporated death-related themes into them. As the child is placed as the center of each story in a different setting, the adult forces them into a space that makes them take on a role of major responsibility. It is through different levels of agency that the child receives between books with movable parts and CYOA that reveals how the child can take away from conceptualizing the overall topic of morbid ideas.
