Online Intrigue in an Arizona Library

n October 1, 2003, the Maricopa County Library District, along with author James M. Deem, made history — or “at least a footnote,” as Deem put it — in children’s publishing. This was the day that the first chapter of Deem’s novel The Mystery Club of Luna Drive went live on the Maricopa County Library District’s website (http://libcat.maricopa.gov/mysteryclub/ [now found at www.jamesmdeem.com/books.mcld.htm] ). To our knowledge, this was the first time that a public library had become a participant in the creative process — commissioning an original work and presenting it online. The library had, in essence, become a publisher.

The genesis of this project was a confluence of several ideas that led to the same conclusion. At its core was the desire to motivate kids to read in any way possible. In my travels throughout the county libraries, I’d noticed the phenomenon of children gravitating to the banks of shiny new computers and logging on to gaming sites. It made sense to reach kids, to connect them with stories, where they were — at the computer screen. Also, public libraries have become increasingly creative in their use of websites. The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County in North Carolina, for instance, had put some short animated stories for preschoolers on their website. I realized that we could use our website not simply to provide information about our programs but actually to deliver programming.

Aware of the success of Avi’s “Breakfast Serials” project for newspapers, we quickly settled on the idea of publishing a novel serially on our website. The idea of serialization was highly appealing for obvious reasons. Having to wait for the next installment to find out “what happens next” has been proven to have universal appeal ever since crowds in New York Harbor awaited the arrival of the installment of Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop that revealed the fate of Little Nell. Once we made the decision to publish an original novel serially, the questions that naturally followed were about what kind of story we might put on the website and how it might be presented.

It wasn’t enough to publish any story online. It had to be something appropriate to the online format and also something that would keep kids wanting to come back over a period of time. I began to think about the kinds of stories I thought were particularly cool when I was in elementary school, and I remembered my infatuation with mystery stories. I thought the mystery genre would lend itself well to serialization. I had the vague stirrings of an idea for a story that would involve a group of kids in Arizona solving mysteries — “desert detectives.” They could have a parent who worked for a newspaper or television, which would give them the excuse to travel around our very large county. The next step was to find the right author. We wanted a known and respected author who could write the sort of story we had in mind and who would be willing to write for online publication. I had been introduced to James Deem through a mutual acquaintance and was familiar with his series of nonfiction titles about the supernatural (How to Read Your Mother’s Mind, for example) as well as with his challenging novel 3 NBs of Julian Drew. The planets seemed to be in alignment — Deem lived in Arizona, he had the time to write, and the library district had the opportunity to apply for a grant through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) to fund the project. Fascinated as he was with stories involving mysteries and the supernatural, Deem immediately understood the vision of the project and the sort of story it would require. I asked him to read a couple of books that were particular favorites during my own mystery phase — The Mysterious Schoolmaster by Swedish author Karin Anckarsvärd and The Secret of Terror Castle, the first book in the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series. Adding elements of the supernatural and even time travel to the traditional mystery series genre, Deem created a group of kids who form The Mystery Club of Luna Drive. Not only were the Luna Drive kids presented with a mystery to solve, but they each had mysteries of their own, adding a layer of complexity to the story. Max, for example, wears his New York Yankees cap over his head and doesn’t speak, the reason for which is unraveled by the children along with the mystery of the librarian, Miss Moon, and the strange Luna Drive library itself. The idea of having the story take place in Arizona wasn’t meant to limit the appeal or the reach of the novel; it just made sense with the Maricopa County Library District as the sponsoring and hosting institution. When we initially contacted some national organizations to publicize the project, we were rebuffed with the comment that it appeared to be a “regional” project. My initial response to this reaction was, Following this logic, shouldn’t kids in Arizona ignore a story that takes place in New York? The reality, of course, was that once the story went online, we received comments from all over the United States and Canada. We even heard from kids in China.

We gave a great deal of thought to the way the story should be presented on the screen. I had seen online books that were nothing but a stream of uninterrupted text to be scrolled down and down, interminably. This was certainly something to avoid in terms of design, but what was the best alternative? Deem came up with a design solution: we used a large, dark font and spread each chapter over ten pages so that the scrolling was minimal. The result is, I think, something of a model for online texts. We received a good deal of positive feedback on the design.

The online format allowed us to go beyond the story itself to create a dedicated website that put the story in context and provided activities, web links, and other information that would enhance the experience. We added a kids’ section with a monthly activity, and one for teachers with booklists and discussion questions. Deem was able to provide some insight into his writing process in a feature called “Facts Behind the Story.”

We realized that the most natural audience for the project was schools. Teachers and teacher librarians were our natural allies in bringing this story to kids. We promoted it heavily in schools and were rewarded with a number of classes who followed each chapter as it went online at the beginning of each month. Typical of the responses we received was this one sent via the comment feature of the website by nine-year-old Shane in January 2005: “The book is so mysterious and fun! Every time my librarian (Mrs. Pritts) stops reading, everyone in the bookclub whines because we’re so into the book. I love the way it has so many little mysteries at the same time. It is the best online book I have ever heard. The book is so good, Mrs. Pritts said it’s the best bookclub the school has ever had!”

The response to this project in the library community has been gratifying. The project was honored with the 2004 Highsmith Library Innovation Award, cited as the most innovative library project of the year. The library district also received a 2005 John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award for the publicity done for the project. Many people have told us that the idea was too good to let die. But as we searched for a new author and new novel, new questions arose. One question was, Why work with a library? The advantage was, of course, that we could pay a commission, whereas self-publishing online offers limited opportunity for remuneration. A second question was, Won’t online publication decrease the chances for the book to be published in a conventional format? On the contrary, we think that the online exposure has actually increased the potential audience for the book in print form. Deem is exploring publication opportunities for The Mystery Club of Luna Drive, and we have received many, many comments from kids via the website comment form and other venues, all wanting to know when the story will come out as a book.

The Mystery Club of Luna Drive was just the first of what we hope will be an ongoing series of serialized online stories commissioned by noted creators of books for children. We have just finalized a contract with author and storyteller Bill Harley to serialize his novel Flyboy on the library district’s website beginning this month. Harley is best known for his live storytelling and his Grammy-nominated CDs, but he is also a terrific author of stories that capture what I consider to be the quintessentially American childhood. In Flyboy Harley tells the tale of Darius, who, after losing his parents and being sent to live with his unpleasant Aunt Inga, rediscovers magic in his life with the help of an old bicycle and a mysterious old man who calls himself Daedalus. Flyboy will have immediate appeal for the readers of Lemony Snicket and Roald Dahl.

Our dream is that this project will become self-supporting and that interested authors will begin approaching us, wanting to be involved. There is a great deal of potential in the online format, both for the kinds of stories that might be best told and read on a computer screen and for the ways that digital technology can influence how a story can be created and presented. And this is only the beginning of the possibilities to explore.

Tim Wadham is children’s services coordinator for the Maricopa (AZ) County Public Library District.