With the rising popularity of e-book platforms such as the Kindle and Kobo, the next generation of readers will likely favour digital copies over print.

In a time when young consumers gain the bulk of their information from instant access to short and snappy online articles, a 900-page Tolstoy novel isn’t exactly an appealing addition to the class syllabus. It’s nearly impossible to get students to sit still in class let alone get them to be interested in reading.

“There are the endless stories about the novel being dead, that the end of reading is imminent,” said Canadian author Kate Pullinger in an interview with Maclean’s Magazine. “This is not a view I would subscribe to because I do think that human beings have a fundamental desire to tell and be told stories.”

Pullinger and British-Canadian multimedia writer Chris Joseph may have found a way to save the integrity of the traditional novel by combining it with the best parts of the modern e-book.

Their collaborative digital work Inanimate Alice could very well be the future of reading. Directed and written by Pullinger and Joseph and produced by Ian Harper, the book is a  multimodal work of fiction that follows the story of eight-year-old Alice and her travels with her parents and imaginary friend Brad. The series released its first online episode in 2005 and is expected to have a total of 10 segments that unfold Alice’s life from childhood to adulthood.

Inanimate Alice uses a blend of text, sound and images in an interactive manner that engages the minds of its viewer. This hands-on form of reading is quickly becoming popular worldwide for young students and has been incorporated into the education curricula of schools in the United States, Australia and even Saskatoon’s Catholic school system.

Krista Berzolla and Lauren Willey, middle-school teachers in the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Division, began using Inanimate Alice as an educational tool in their classrooms last fall.

Though the digital book has become ingrained in the educational systems in other countries, Berzolla and Willey are some of the first Canadian instructors to take interest in it. This may be because its combination of vivid visuals and interactive storytelling make it seem more like a video game than an actual book, which lowers its pedagogic value to those with more traditional approaches to teaching.

Though Inanimate Alice may not be widely popular in Canada yet, it has been translated into several different languages — including Japanese — and has been awarded best website by the American Association of School Librarians. The website wasn’t initially intended to be a  literacy tool, but Pullinger and Joseph’s work is proving to be an effective tool for getting young students to enjoy reading.

Inanimate Alice’s sixth episode will be released this year. Readers have travelled with her from China to Italy, Russia and her home country of England, learning to problem-solve and even avoid peer pressure along the way.

Pullinger and Joseph aren’t alone in their embracement of multimedia books. Digital publishing houses such as Vook have been popping up across the world over the past few years, combining text, video and social media to put their own modern spin on literacy.

Even the University of Saskatchewan libraries offer e-textbooks as a resource for students, some of which are available free of charge. The U of S also has plans to introduce an open-textbook program in the future that can be accessed online on both computers and mobile devices.

With elementary schools, secondary schools and the U of S  rapidly decreasing their use of print books, the future of reading as we know it is uncertain. Between White Cat Book Company closing its doors on Dec. 31, 2014 and the potential shutting down of Westgate Books this June, now certainly isn’t the golden age for the print novel in Saskatoon.

However, multimedia books such as Inanimate Alice propose a new direction for literature that stays true to its roots. In a traditional educational system, students with learning disabilities, such as attention deficit hyperactive disorder and dyslexia, often struggle to keep up and find it difficult to become engaged in reading.

Authors such as Pullinger hope to fix this issue by making reading a fun and interactive experience for the next generation. Digital books won’t be the death of the print novel, they’re just a reminder that it’s due for a revival.