Ebooks Catching On With Kids

Ebooks catch on with children, according to a Los Angeles Times article,

After he's finished his homework and his chores for the day, 8-year-old Skye Vaughn-Perling likes to read Dr. Seuss. He's a particular fan of the hijinks that ensue when the elephant Horton hears strange voices emanating from a dust speck in "Horton Hears a Who."

He doesn't read from a dog-eared copy of the children's classic, though. Skye, who lives in Agoura Hills, often reads on his computer, pressing the arrow button when he wants to turn a page. Sometimes the characters move around on the screen like animated cartoons on TV. If he wants, Skye can have the computer read a book to him while he's curled up in bed.

"It's a whole new level of exploring the books," said his mother, Victoria Vaughn-Perling.

Readers and publishers alike are embracing a digital future. Electronic-book sales increased 73% in October compared with the same month last year, according to the Assn. of American Publishers, while sales of adult paperbacks decreased 23% and children's paperbacks declined 14.8%. Sales of higher-education books, including textbooks, fell 443%.

And, according to the article, the children's book market is especially ripe for the wonders of the digital world. And, even large publishers such as Harcourt, Harper Collins and Random House are getting in line.

Although I find it somewhat foreign to read an e-book (I’m rapidly getting used to it!) children and young adults today consider iPods and Kindles second nature and are eagerly embracing e-books.

Today's kids, after all, have grown up around technology and don't think twice about learning from computers and sleeping with their iPods. In some cases, watching a book on a computer might even make them enjoy reading more, publishers say.

How about you? Your kids? Are they reading e-books?

Save a tree! Read an e-book! Quake's got 'em!

Mary Cunningham - Cynthia's Attic 'Tween series

Fictionwise