“Books are really part of what makes us human.” So asserts Rosemary Agoglia, curator of education at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts, in a New York Times article about efforts to teach children the merits and pleasures of the “pre-web page,” of books. In New York City, the Morgan Book Project seeks to “instill in children of the digital age an appreciation for books by providing authentic materials to write, illustrate and construct their own medieval and Renaissance-inspired illuminated manuscripts.”

The NYC Department of Education developed the free program for children in grades 3 through 7, in conjunction with the world-renowned Morgan Library and Museum, which houses a rich collection of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts written in gorgeous flowing scripts side-by-side with multicolored, detailed illustrations, as well as a priceless collection of printed books including Gutenberg Bibles (and some of which can be viewed online).

Students who participate in the Morgan Book Project make their own illuminated manuscripts, even mixing the pigments using 16th century techniques. Cochineal — dried insects — makes red dye; malachite (a green mineral), spinach, fish glue, gum arabic, saffron threads and 22-karat gold are also used.

The result is that students learn how books are made and, it is hoped, will acquire a deeper understanding of the marvels of physical books. A hand-made, hand-painted and written book like the ones the children in the Morgan program make is something that they can hold up and say is theirs only. Ida Owens, a teacher in the program, also emphasizes — to the surprise of children reared on tablets and computer screens – that medieval illuminated manuscripts, like web pages, combine text and images. The manuscripts are not paginated so students can “scroll and scroll” through them, just as do up and down a web page. Marie H. Trope-Podell, book project creator and manager of gallery programs at the Morgan, also notes that the program is “not a rebellion or reaction against the digital book — quite the opposite.”

Agoglia of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art also says she thinks that “digital and physical content delivery formats [will] co-exist for the next generation of readers.” But she does describe those aspects of physical books that cannot be recreated on an iPad, the tactile pleasures of turning pages, marking them, folding down corners, writing your name or gluing in a bookplate. Books, she says, are more than just the text on their pages:

“It is those dog-eared pages, coffee-stained covers or where you signed your name in the front when you were 4 years old. That memory is attributed to a physical object. Books are really part of what makes us human.”

As many times as I’ve heard people exclaim over the portability and convenience of a Kindle or iPad — and spoken in favor of the cheaper prices of e-books — I’ve heard someone speak up about a preference for curling up in a comfy chair with a book rather than a slab of metal, for knowing that you don’t need to recharge a book’s battery, for being able to look at 2, 3, more pages at once. I do like the idea of carrying around a library on an iPad or even on my phone while finding many merits to reading real books with real pages that “start up” when you open their covers.

On the other hand, my teenage autistic son, Charlie, reads only a few single words and does not show any interest in books. He loves music, which he listens to on his iPad: Thanks to him, I have a sense of what it may have been like to live in a culture in which poetry and song were orally transmitted and experienced, as in the times of Greeks in the 8th century BCE and earlier. It is only fairly recently in the history of the world that there have been efforts to teach so many to read and write and, before there were books, there were scrolls made from papyrus and clay and stone tablets. If books have something to do with making us human, they are only one thing that does.

Would it not be a happy irony for today’s children to learn a greater regard and liking for books because “the real thing” does so many things that an iPad cannot? Will iPads last as long as books have?

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