The Mystery of the Magna Carta
A talented artist, Denise Elaine Conquest Steele has produced a unique and entertaining book for young adults. Based around the events of Magna Carta and King John this interactive book – complete with free apps for smartphones and tablets, pop-ups, colour and sound intermixed with traditional storytelling – The Mystery of the Magna Carta is potentially a fun way to discover history.
‘Percy’, and her cat Jeeves, meet Dennis a village historian and together they time-travel to 1215 and come up against legends, myths, rumours and the occasional true fact.
The author has assured readers/users that all the apps will be updated adding new content as appropriate, and there are four different endings: three traditional ones and one surprise – apparently. I say apparently, because unfortunately restrictions of time to review books would have been prohibitive to explore this idea – and I do not have a smartphone.
My reservation is that this is not fiction, but nor is it non-fiction. The story-telling aspect rivals the several pages of academic-style text which interrupt the flow of the narrative. Will younger readers be interested in the data aspect? What audience is this aimed at? Is this a story aimed at young readers, or a history book aimed at older teenagers? Additionally, the use of alternative words when the author feels the text is too complex was, I thought, bizarre: i.e ‘volume/book’. Use one level or another, but not both – the approach did not work.
However, this is an interesting and ambitious concept.
