QR codes: Moving from Page to Screen and Back Again
With the advent of QR codes, sound books, and "read-alouds," the division between hard and soft-bound books, audio books, and videos is becoming blurred.
For example, the "Moon's First Friends” book includes two QR codes, one at the beginning of the book to hear the countdown to Apollo 11's liftoff and another QR code at the end of the book to listen to Neil Armstrong’s first words when he arrived on the moon.
With the addition of QR codes in books, elders can read and listen with young children. With the evolving QR codes bringing sound to books, we are in a whole new world where activity professionals, as well as paid or family caregivers, can also read to their loved ones and listen by themselves or in groups. Libraries are increasingly making available more books that include QR codes so that these books can be available to people of all ages, stages, and backgrounds.
QR Code Definition
A QR code, short for Quick Response, is a scannable barcode, consisting of black and white squares, that stores data, URLs or other information for reading by the camera on a smartphone. QR codes can redirect users to landing pages, websites, social media profiles, or store coupons. This article covers how books can redirect the reader to corresponding music and voice.
My Favorite Picture Books with QR Codes
1. Wild Symphony
I first came across QR codes in Dan Brown's Wild Symphony book. Dan Brown is the #1 NY Times Bestselling Author of The Da Vinci Code, which was made into a 2006 thriller film staring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou. Dan's Wild Symphony book includes music composed by the author, himself. You can hear music while you read the book, by scanning a QR code to visit wildsymphony.com and downloading the free app from Apple's App Store or Google Play (phone or tablet). Each animal represents an instrument of the orchestra and a corresponding musical movement from the symphony, that plays when you hold your device (iPhone or iPad) over the QR code in the book.
Wild Symphony was published September 1, 2020, recommended for 2-6 year olds. I started reading the book to a child when he was a year old. By the age of two, he could click on the iPhone or iPAD to listen to the music that corresponded with the animal featured on each page. My then 7-year old grandson was already reading the book and listening to the corresponding music in class. This ability was really helpful during the first year of the Pandemic, when the 7-year old was attending school through distance. The book, with accompanying music, is also available through animated video on YouTube, in many libraries and other YouTube read-alouds.
2. Moon's First Friends
I discovered Moon's First Friends by Susanna Leonard Hill in 2023, but found that it was first published June 4, 2019, recommended for 4-7 year olds. The book includes a QR code at the beginning of the book to hear the countdown to Apollo 11's liftoff and another QR code at the end of the book to listen to Neil Armstrong's first words on the moon!
3. How To Build an Orchestra
Elisa Paganelli, who illustrated Moon's First Friends, also illustrated the London Symphony Orchestra's How To Build an Orchestra, by Mary Auld, published April 23, 2020, recommended for 5-7 year olds. The book has 43 musical tracks that include exerpts from composers dating back to Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) and up to Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990). Mary Auld and Elisa Paganelli are in the process of publishing several books with downloadable music for different instruments of the orchestra (such as flute, clarinet, violin, and drum). These books are available through Amazon UK and the London Symphony Orchestra.
Sounds Good: Discover 50 Instruments
A new picture book, by Ole and her husband Hans Konnecke, includes a QR code on each facing page to pages with pictures featuring each of 52 musical instruments. Ole wrote the words and drew the pictures. Hans composed a musical piece for each instrument, which is pictured played by animals. This book differs from Dan Brown’s Wild Symphony, in which the reader touches the QR code to play the musical theme of each animal with a unique instrument, but does not show the instrument in the picture.
Pre-QR Code Music Books for Kids
Before QR codes connected children's books to sound, most books about instruments of the orchestra, such as Welcome to the Symphony, by Carolyn Sloan, pubished October 27, 2015, had battery-operated sound panels or no sound at all. The Very Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, published October 25, 2022, has 10 musical sounds that the reader/viewer can turn on or off with a switch to save batteries. The original Young Person's Guilde to the Orchestra, by Anita Ganeri, first published in 1996, for 7-10 year olds, includes a CD narrated by Ben Kingsley. Similarly, My First Classical Music Book, by Genevieve Helsby, published in 2009, includes a CD with music.
What about Books with QR Codes for Adults?
Adults, as well as children, can learn about science and music, including instruments of the orchestra. Elders who have never been exposed to symphonic music can learn how to play an instrument and can benefit from reading books that include corresponding sound. Failing eyes can benefit from larger type, fewer words on a page, and less screen time. Since sound is often the last sense to leave, elders with or without memory loss can expand their mind by connecting QR sound with pictures and words.
Moving Forward
Some children's books have been made into feature films, and many are now being featured in story-time videos and video shorts. I'm interested in where the integration of reading and sound is headed for all generations. Dana Goldstein wrote a March 8, 2022 article in The NY Times, " Pandemic Has Worsened the Reading Crisis in Schools." As the pandemic entered its third year, she noted, "a cluster of new studies now show that about a third of children in the youngest grades are missing reading benchmarks, up significantly from before the pandemic."
Reading skills help language and other life skills. Learning through the multi-senses (sound and movement, as well as sight) is more participatory than just learning by viewing a screen, reading and looking at pictures. When we view a screen, we usually hold our head in one position, with our eyes directed at the screen. When we read a book, our head and body can be in various positions. When we read a book that includes a QR code, we activate the QR code through touch to hear sound, such as music or voice.
My grandchildren started activating QR codes in books when they were still toddlers. Why not give doddlers, really any of us at any age or stage, that same opportunity?
Reflective Intergenerational Sound/Picture Book Activity
Name the instrument on each page of one of the sound books described in this article.
What sound book do you like best? Why?
If you could author a sound book, what would your write about?