In what seems to be a push to get young readers interested in Charles Dickens (whose birthday is Feb. 7), the BBC website is featuring an interactive game and an animated version of the author’s life.

In the game, “Survive Dickens’ London”, you walk along Victorian London streets, meeting various characters from Dickens’ novels and learning facts about his life and the standard of living in the Victorian age (if you’re not careful you may even catch cholera).

The animated short of Dickens’ life is brief and somewhat amusing. Once the cartoon is over, viewers may use the scene selector to get details on the people and historical events. The website also includes links to more in-depth sites about Dickens, such as The Dickens Museum, the Charles Dickens’ Birthplace Museum, and Charles Dickens Literature, where the author’s works are available online.

Dickens’ work recently made the cut as essential reading after the British education secretary was forced to defend changes to the curriculum for 11- to 14-year-olds (previously noted by Quillblog here).

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