Novel idea brings stories to life
There’s nothing quite like having a book literally come to life in the palm of your hands.
That’s what you can expect when you pick up James Russell’s new novel, The Dragon Defenders.
A continuation of his picture book trilogy about two brothers’ dragon adventures, the Mangere Bridge author has been integrating augmented reality into his books.
Hover your smartphone or tablet over certain pages and be transported into the world of Flynn and Paddy as they explore an island filled with dragons.
The Dragon Defenders is the first in a series of novels, funded by Creative New Zealand, and Russell plans to release five in the series.
Aimed at 7 to 12-year-olds, he’s kept the chapters short and the thrill levels high.
‘‘I remember reading books when I was young and I would be lying in bed with my heart thumping because it was such an exciting book,’’ Russell says.
‘‘I thought it was amazing how a book could elicit this reaction so I wanted to do something to make these books as exciting as possible.’’
Inspired by his own sons’ love of reading, Russell originally started writing stories for them.They loved them so much he found an illustrator and selfpublished the books in 2012, which he says was a risk that paid off.
The former journalist would write on the train to and from work and it became his full-time job when he lost his job last year.
‘‘It’s a really good outcome from being made redundant,’’ he says. ‘‘Now I’m making a living from being a writer which can be pretty rare.’’
The picture books have also just been released in the United States to a good reaction.
Russell says the augmented reality feature draws in young ones who aren’t into reading but are happy to play on iPads and has received great feedback from parents.
‘‘I thought there would be a backlash but 99.9 per cent of people are really into it. It’s a two minute distraction, and they’re still going to spend five hours reading the book.
‘‘I get so many parents emailing me telling me they’re chuffed because their kids don’t want to go to bed, they want to keep reading.’’
The Dragon Defenders is available in most bookstores at and dragonbrothersbooks.com