Author Bob Kerr asks his grandson Owen Coombes to explain the difference between books and games.
Do you think this recording is working Owen?
Yes, it’s working.
Good, tell us who you are.
I’m Owen Coombes. I’m 11 years old and I go to Brooklyn School.
What was the first book you remember reading?
The first chapter book I read by myself was Dogman by Dav Pilkey. Dogman is a police officer. He has a dog’s head due to an accident. Peety the cat is always trying to get Dogman into trouble. I’ve read all the Dogman books. I got the first one from a friend on my seventh birthday.
After Dogman I read the Tom Gates series. They’re similar to Dogman, graphic novels, words and pictures. They were easy to read. Tom is a kid about 10 years old. I started reading them when I was nine.
I remember reading you Hatchet by Gary Paulsen then you read it by yourself. What was your favourite bit?
I think when he was attacked by the bear and then saved by the skunk. After Hatchet there was Hatchet in Winter. That was even better.
Why?
It was the survival. Brian had to survive on his own and hunt for food and stuff.
After Hatchet?
Harry Potter. Mum read me the series then I read them all again and I’ve been listening to the audiobooks on my headphones over and over again, I’m still doing it. I know everything about them.
Tell me about Hagrid.
What do you want to know? You have to ask proper questions. He’s a half giant and becomes Harry’s friend.
Are the films different from the books?
The films have less in them, they miss out quite a lot of good bits. A film can only be two hours long. The books are more detailed.
Now I’m reading Holes by Louis Sachar. I read it a week ago. It’s about someone who goes to jail for something they haven’t done. Well they have the option of going to jail or to Camp Green Lake. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. Every day you have to dig a hole five-foot-deep and five foot wide. The warden wants you to find treasure and jewels and stuff for her. There are no walls so you can run away but there is no water for hundreds of miles. Stanley, who is the main character, does run away and he meets someone else who has run away. I’ve read it twice.
This term our class at school is reading Enemy Camp by David Hill.
We could go to Featherston and see where the real camp was. Do you know what actually happened there?
No, I don’t want you to tell me and spoil it.
When did you start playing computer games?
I started playing a Mario game on a Nintendo DS when I was five. That’s a little hand-held device. Then I started playing Minecraft but I don’t play that so much now. In Minecraft you have to survive as long as you can. You mine stuff, go into caves and get iron, build a house and fight zombies. It’s easy. Once you’ve got stuff and you’ve built three blocks up you can’t really die.
I’ve been playing Fortnight for years and recently I’ve been playing Valorant. I got it two weeks ago. My friends told me about it. They told me to get it.
How do you get a game? Being a bit old, I only know about book shops.
Yeah, I know. You can go to Epic Games which is a game company, usually you start with the free version. Fortnite is free. Valorant is free. What you do is click on the game, get yourself a name and a password. Make your account. It’s pretty easy really.
What happens in Fortnight?
You run around farming for materials, looting, if you see someone you can run away or fight them.
I read that Fortnite is called that because you have to build a fort in the night to keep out the slimy, zombie things.
No. Well maybe in the first mode of Fortnite ever you had to build a base and shoot at zombies from your base. Now it’s much bigger and really popular. Millions of people play it.
In a game can you get to the edge of world?
Yes, there’s an invisible barrier. You just can’t go any further.
If the games are free how do game companies make money?
There are in-game purchases. In Fortnite you start off with one skin and one axe which doesn’t look very cool. They get you to spend money by putting a bunch of cool skins and stuff in the shop for you to buy with V- bucks which is their currency. A skin is like becoming a new character. When I want to buy something I click on it and mum will enter her credit card so she can get me things and I will pay her back with my pocket money. I can also send messages. The messages show on the top of your screen. If I see my friends from school are on-line I will click on ‘invite to party’. I have to have voice chat on and they have to have voice chat on so we can talk. I think there is another part of the game where I could talk to anyone anywhere in in the world but I don’t do that. I just talk to my friends from school.
What’s the difference between reading a book and gaming?
Not many books have been turned into games. There are no Dogman games and no Tom Gates games. Just recently a Harry Potter game has appeared. It’s called Hogwarts’s Legacy. It’s set 100 years before the books so Harry Potter isn’t in the game. Is that something to do with copyright?
When I’m playing games I have to think about what I’m doing all the time. I’m clicking on the keyboard and moving my fingers everywhere and talking to my friends all at the same time.
If I’m reading I just have to hold the book or lie in bed and listen to my audio book. In books there are only words. I have to imagine things. In The Halfmen of O there are bloodcats so I pictured a huge black cat with claws. In Hatchet Brian is attacked by a moose. I know what they look like because I’d seen pictures. There is also a skunk. I had to make more of a guess there. I pictured an animal that was black with a big tail and a white stripe. I also had to imagine the lake where the plane crashed surrounded by trees and rocks and the berries that Brian eats.
In a game the pictures are all on the screen. You don’t have to imagine things.
Thank you for explaining that, Owen.
All good.
How do I stop this recording?
You press that red button there.
The graphic novel Jack &Sandy by Bob Kerr (Bateman, $29.99) is available in bookstores nationwide. It's an adventure told across three generations – a story about friendship, family and the devastating effects of war.
