There is nothing quite as much fun for many young readers as solving a puzzle. The Great Brassmonkey Bay Jewel Robbery is one of many new kids’ books that combines the appeal of a hilarious hero’s journey with lots of carefully disguised scientific facts and insights!
But would any writer risk book sales for the sake of education? Quite a few writers think it’s part of their job! One way to teach kids while entertaining them, without scaring them off, is to leverage the fascination of multimedia in the interests of educational infotainment, to keep young audiences amused while giving them ideas to discover.
Take the irresistible wordplay most writers live for. Vocabulary may not always be of immediate interest to young audiences. Yet improving the vocabulary of young readers is increasingly important at a time when educational analysts in many countries are discovering a disturbing decline in literacy among schoolchildren. With declining literacy go future career opportunities. That’s enough to worry any teacher, parent, or grandparent.
Most of the animal heroes in this book are endangered species. The where and why of exotic animal entrapment by a ruthless smuggler is embedded into the story. Many young animal enthusiasts aren’t aware that trafficking remains the second most significant cause of species loss, after the better-known problem of animal habitat destruction.
Opportunities to uncover useful insights from the arts have not been neglected. In The Great Brassmonkey Bay Jewel Robbery video clip above, novel vocabulary is integrated into songs and stories kids may take up and repeat. Real, often funny, collective nouns for animal groups (like a murder of crows and a wisdom of owls!) are used to argue that quality, not quantity, is what really counts in life and those we share it with!
The story is narrated by an trio of avian ‘fact checkers’ in a contemporary spoof of the classic Greek chorus of ancient theatre plays that incorporates our growing awareness of ‘fake news’. And musical trailers promoting The Great Brassmonkey Bay Jewel Robbery include songs written in different popular musical genres, including jazz, rock, hip hop, country, etc.
Discovery is critical to much youth entertainment, including many games. Brio’s creative team is considering developing spin-off video games based on the book’s characters. The opportunities for young readers to learn while enjoying themselves are abundantly available to resourceful developers. Not only that, educational games are also increasingly profitable, worth $1.5 billion and growing fast, according to a 2013 US study.
After all, learning while having a good time is how most of us got our most enduring education and skills, no?
The Artful Gluffster 