Netflix, Spotify, iPads, YouTube and Instagram are just a few things that didn't exist when the Children's Laureate was set up 20 years ago.
In 1999, the main obstacle in getting children interested in reading was their own attention spans.
The printed page may now have far more competition than it used to, but author Michael Morpurgo, who set up the Children's Laureate, says technology has in some ways been "enormously beneficial".
"Children are now using the written word a great deal, they are emailing and they are texting," he tells BBC News. "And so the written word is more familiar to them to express themselves.