My daughter is 2 and every book I've purchased for her is a paper book. I also choose paper books when I'm getting a book for myself, but think it's a book my child should read in the future. I do this because I'm not sure if the ebook will be there in the future. Also, there's a higher probability of discover of the book on a bookshelf in my house instead of it being one of a thousand files on a computer somewhere.
I do this because I'm not sure if the ebook will be there in the future.
This is why I wish ebooks were sold without DRM.
(For what it's worth, there are programs available that make it relatively easy to remove DRM from your purchased books. I use them on every book I buy for the very reasons you outlined.)
It's not just DRM. I'll be the first to admit that I'm terrible about maintaining my digital libraries. I'm slack on backups and I have files all over the place. Also, I don't put much stock in maintaining my digital library in "the cloud." I'm fairly confident that Google, Amazon, et. al. will be there in 15-20 years, but it's not a guarantee and no one knows what will actually happen with all that data once one of them does go belly up. Remember no one though Lehman Brothers would disappear in less than a week.
I love my Kindle, but I don't want my two year old daughter to use it.
Why? She's hard on things. If she tears a page out of a regular book, that's no big deal; if she cracks my Kindle's screen that's rather more annoying. If I had an iPad, that'd be even more worrying -- a $600 device is a bit much. I could read to her from the ebook, but since she likes to read for herself I'd then have to get her child-safe copies anyway...
Also, the sort of books aimed at a two year old are pretty picture heavy. A Kindle has many strengths, but pictures are not among them.
As soon as she's onto less picture-heavy books, and I think she's trustable with such a device, I'll be letting her use one. I have no particular emotional attachment to the paper form, which I want to pass onto her.
This is a yet another article reminiscing about "the old way" claiming "the new way" takes away something which was never there. There is nothing romantic about a book. There is nothing especially important to kids about print in contrast with a digital edition. It might not be a fair comparison taking a 600$, 10" monochrome ink-gray kindle reader and comparing it with a large, colourfully printed kids book, but assuming you have a device able to reproduce it, being sturdy enough to survive your average 2-years-old, what exactly is the advantage of a book? The idea that a tree died for it?
E-books all look and feel the same, plus they lack texture, smell and make no sound when a page is turned. They're an abstraction of the reading experience.
Everything about handling a book stimulates the senses. Books have weight, texture, colors, smells, and they make noise when pages are turned. Because they vary so wildly in size, typography and paper composition, there's an enormous variety of sensations to be had.
E-readers are great and convenient for grown-ups, because all we want is the content, but young children are at a time of their lives when they need to physically experience the world around them. Physical books are better than e-readers on that count.
See, everything is a toy to a six year old. Everything they see, hear or handle shapes their development in some way. Devices like smartphones and tablets have great unique uses, like people in other comments are saying, so I'm not suggesting you ban kids from using them or anything.
But I maintain books have far more physical qualities than any tablet or e-reader. Variety, for starters. Tabs and e-readers all come in some shade of black or gray, they all present a very similar glass texture to the touch, and they only have that new gadget smell for two days. On the other hand, very few books are the same. Moving from a magazine to a hardcover to a paperback may be all the same for you and me, but for a 6 year old is an extremely important feast of sensations that informs her developing mind about the myriad materials and textures and smells the world is made of.
When 'Everything is a toy', there is no real meaning whether it's an ebook, a book, a cutting board... The question is, whether a book allows for anything special, or is removing books 'robs a child of a variety'. I think not. We can't all have every stimulus available for our children. I never experienced snow until I was 30. Some kids never see an ocean. Some live in the city, some in a more rural environment. Some have pets, some don't. Future generations will not live with paper in their household. They will not be robbed of anything.
Keep in mind, this isn't saying ebook readers are suitable for everything. No ebook reader, at the moment, can match a huge, colourfully printed kids book, not to mention their fragility and price isn't suitable for kids. The same goes for feelies, pop-up books, cards with animals, or colours or other such educational toys, and so on. Take those out of the equation, and there are no advantages for print over digital. Actually, there is no advantages for print over anything if those are taken out, since a child will just refer to them as yet another toy.
removing books 'robs a child of a variety'. I think not.
By definition, it does. The issue seems to be whether or not that variety matters. Trouble is, that leads to a discussion about parenting instead of tech :/
One of my toddler's favorite books includes items such as a the wool of a lamb and the texture of an elephant's ears. These are things an ebook cannot reproduce.
A similar argument can be made about original paintings, versus prints, versus (not really there yet, but can't be too far off) full-size, HD digital painting displays.
You have the information, and you have the physical object used to represent it. Of course you can take away the physical object and keep just the information. That doesn't mean there aren't those who enjoy the physical object for what it is.
I think a very large portion of ebook users have Kindles or similar e-ink devices. These are great for reading text-heavy novels, things you would normally get as low-quality paperbacks anyhow. They are horrible for picture books and the like--black and white, low resolution and you can only view one page at a time.
Normal screens like tablets and computers are better for picture books but have other issues--they're relatively expensive, run out of battery quickly and strain your eyesight.
Ultimately, it should come as no surprise that picture books do not translate as well to ebooks as novels.
I remember very vividly some of my earliest extended reading experiences.
One day I found a whole box of old Marvel comics that someone had lovingly collected since the 40s, including first issues of entire heroes and villains! I had no idea what treasure I had unearthed. All I knew is that to an 7 year old, the combination of illustrations (even in black and white) and frame-by-frame storytelling was an incredible revelation! I spent the entire summer going through the whole box and passed them around to my siblings who loved them almost as much as I. This was the birth of my fascination with sci-fi and later fantasy stories (there was a surprising amount of mythology in Marvel comics, especially the old comics).
When I was a little older, around 9 or 10, my father bought me an entire set of thick encyclopedia books. Each one of the fifteen tomes was one inch thick or more. To a child, they initially looked intimidating as hell, though the color and texture of the covers as well as the detailed illustrations on perfectly smooth, polished paper was surprisingly attractive. At first, I would only use it to lookup something I did not know. But later, the interconnections and ease of reading was so great, that I ended up reading each book cover-to-cover! This is how I really discovered my appreciation of knowledge and how I gained strong confidence and desire in using and spending time in libraries for both work and pleasure.
Somehow, I doubt the depth of these childhood (self-)discovery and learning experiences could be easily replicated with any e-books... This is even if there were not so many distractions in modern-day life such as mobiles and the Internet.
Therefore, I am not surprised there is a move back to paper for parents.
In particular, I believe simply the tactile nature of books at the very earliest ages (say 1-7) is important. Humans are physical beings and they relate and respond most strongly to physical objects, even if it is to later discard that physicality. This instinct should be developed as early as possible when the brain development is most primitive.
In addition, a child gains the feeling of control, understands there's a difference between a thing and its representation in words and pictures directly, but that the representation itself is real and is a thing since you can hold and control it. This will then lead to a deeper understanding of the real revolution technologies provide later. Tip: it's not that you can use gestures on your iPad books! :)
This is a very narrow, romantic view of things. If a future kid finds a 40 year old e-book reader, would that be less of a find than the comics? more? Are books better because they wear and tear? I can buy a new book, then leave it outside in the sun and dew for a week, would that make it better? Why isn't a digital edition, that could also supply a kid with references to the original mythologies and books worse?
Would you like your child to learn about the world from a dated, occasionally incorrect encyclopaedia, simply because it weighs more?
What is the difference between a print of a picture on paper than on a screen? Neither is an original creation. An artist can create a 100% digital image on his PC, but according to this logic, printing it in a book gives it some magical "quality". Books are not physical objects because they have pages. You're superimposing your own values, as someone who grew without computers on this era. Leafing through an old book isn't more or less enriching because of the weight, the yellowing pages and smell of old glue, but because of the discovery and learning.
For the 5-and-under crowd, ebooks simply cannot compare to the paper book experience. Color, size, the physical act of page turning, and (for the littlest ones) texture are too important.
However, my 8yo is in the process of earning his own e-reader. At this point, he's past the sparkly, fuzzy, pop-up, colorful books and on to chapter books (which are printed in simple black on cheap paper anyway), so nothing is lost. He's very responsible with electronics, and the idea of having something so grown-up has really helped him get over his reading anxiety and become an enthusiastic reader.
The portability is a big benefit for him, too... it's nice to let him easily take his reading with when he gets shipped off to his grandparents' farm on breaks from school, or we run off somewhere together.
The main down-side, from my perspective, is that on an ereader, I can't let him take his books to school. It's too easy to have an item like that stolen, stepped on, spilled on, dropped -- you get the idea -- in a hectic 2nd grade classroom.
There are a ton of reasons one could imagine for this (not that any of these are true - just guesses): E-books for kids are generally not interactive - what's the point or advantage of getting electronic versions (which are often not cheaper, either). Also, the electronic devices still belong to the parents - kids can't take the ipad to bed with them, but they can take the books. Another issue is the bookshelf - kids can see and choose books, and parents and kids can see what they've read - a 'virtual' bookshelf isn't the same and again, isn't owned by the kid. Mainly though, it's just tradition - we might teach/parent the way we were taught/parented, or we might like the nostalgic feeling of reading a real book to our kids. Reading The Night Before Christmas, for example, is a big tradition. We got a version of the book that let us record grandpa reading it (the nook tablet now supports that feature, too).
A key problem with ebooks is the lack of instant differentiation. It's all a sea of equality, no discernible difference until you in fact read it. This vs, say, my main bookcase (I've 26) instantly discerning deteriorating comic books from gold inlay leather bound classics ... and the key difference that my favorite works are in that case while lesser & disposable volumes aren't. This vs my ebook collections where everything is on what amounts to one set of racks differentiated only by retailer.
I mention this in context because my biggest concern is my children can with ease peruse a large collection of fine works worth their time and consideration just by the fact the titles are in a limited physical space, while the ebooks are mere bits in a dense sea thereof. Atoms are important for ensuring others can find them.
FWIW: one of my daughter's first words was "iPad".
Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but I'm working with some illustrators on an interactive children's book, and I'm curious how parents feel about book apps for kids.
Does the idea of a richly interactive children's book appeal to you, and if so, how much interactivity is too much? At what point does an interactive book become a game, in your opinion, and do you think video games for young children (under 6-ish) present moral or developmental issues?
An interactive book is a good thing, but you have to know whether it is for increasing the parent/child reading experience, or to hand it over to the child for self entertainment (ie, stop bugging me for 5 minutes and read this).
In the first category - having things move/animate would be more important than story telling, in the second, having a self-led easy to use system for the child to work their own way through a story is important.
> do you think video games for young children (under 6-ish) present moral or developmental issues?
No, but if you let a young child endlessly play video games you've only got yourself to blame. Interactive books for children are to paper what illustrated is to text. There are no 'morals' in material (assuming the content is benign) ,only in the way they are allowed to access it. Developmentally, you have to bring up a child in the world it's going to live in, electronic devices are here to stay.
Thanks for your feedback. We agree with your two use cases, but we have no idea which will end up being dominant. I guess we will just have to ship it to find out.
It depends on the age of the kid... for a 2yo, moving pictures and talking characters in a book app offer similar benefits to pop-up books and those book-on-tape/CD/vinyl and deadtree book combos -- they help the child learn that the words have meaning, and demonstrate that meaning in a very accessible way, while keeping things interesting.
For an elementary schooler, a book should be a book. Any interactivity beyond the "choose your own adventure" style will cause me not to purchase. There's something to be said for letting reading happen, instead of distracting with things that could have been left to the imagination.
Over the elementary school age, I imagine that any child would find an "interactive book" at least as annoying and distracting as I do as an adult.
My idea of an interactive childrens book would be like a mix of choose your own adventure + scribblenauts.
Giving the child the chance to first set up the main character with any attributes they like, having a storyline that they can follow but allowing them to try and progress through some problems themselves with some puzzle solving techniques. (And adjusting the outcome based on their choices to solve the problems)
My daughters love the Sesame Street iPad translation of "The Monster at the End of this Book". Generally we read paper books to them, but they enjoy the interactive Grover story, too. I don't see any moral or development issues. Everything in moderation.
I mean, it's a simple mechanics problem right. Have you ever tried to lie down and read to your kid from an iPad, or kindle. It's not easy. Also, kids like to use books hard. Reading to them selves, kicking them around a room.
I don't think it's a market thing, i think it's a how you use them thing.
I wouldn't read ebooks to my kid. I have a kindle and it is currently my preferred method of reading. I don't like reading a book as it always get damaged and it bugs me when I am left with a 600 page book taking up shelf space.
However... for a child I think it is imperative that they learn about books and libraries. There is so much technology around it is important to me that his room is free from all technology for as long as possible.
Also, for young children I think it is nice for them to be able to pick up and choose a book and not flick through some options on a single device to get to the story they want. In time this may be what my kid does.. but i'll be damned if I do anything to promote it.
I think it goes back to that article/rant a few weeks ago about touchscreens and similar things being a transitional technology to hold us over until our technology gives real tactile feedback instead of a flat glass surface. Tactile feedback and learning how to grip things are very important for small children to learn, so I definitely agree that paper books are best for them.
moving my question to ask all parents - is it the technology or specifically books? do your kids use your ipad/computer for other things?
I'm not a parent myself, but my nieces and nephews love the ipad. they stick to content made specifically for the device tho, they arent "e-reading" dr seuss.
I have purchased and read to children e-books on both an e-ink device and an iPad, so perhaps I can make a few comments from experience.
The main problem is that the quality of children's ebooks is very poor. Even chapter books for < 10yo (say The Magic Treehouse series) have extensive illustrations. I can't believe it is a limitation of e-PUB (after all, we seem to have graphic novels beautifully presented on the iPad), but illustrations in children's e-books are generally shoddy. Images are abominably low-res, non-zoomable and so on.
There is a popular children's series called "Geronimo Stilton". It uses not only images but imaginative typography, for example:
I bought an e-PUB of one of those books - the e-publisher's solution was to treat the ENTIRE page as one low-quality image. It was awful. It also cost as much as the actual book.
Which brings us to pricing. There is no real saving in buying children's ebooks over the actual thing, and in fact with bookstore discounts the print is often cheaper.
The article makes the good point that children receive many books as gifts, and of course there is a tactile pleasure with books to the point where I wouldn't expect 100% e-book penetration, but I certainly would purchase more children's e-books if the quality was acceptable.
As for iPad-type interactive stories, they are really quite a different category. They are nice as a diversion, but their quality and quantity comes nowhere near 200 years of great children's storytelling.
There is no uniqueness to E-books because it all has the same typography. I think the publishers and providers needs to work on improving typography of E-books and work on providine e-versions of the books not just digitalized version of the printed edition.
I was really disappointed to find no ebook version of Raold Dahl's books, so I bought most of them in paperback and read them to my boys. Now I'm reading them The Hobbit on my Kindle. Prior to that we used several interactive reading apps on the iPad.
For me, the most basic barrier to children's e-books is that tablet screens aren't big enough yet. There's nothing like a 12" by 12" picture book to really pull you into the world of the illustrations. An iPad-sized screen just doesn't cut it.
For those that don't click, Adobe published the (public domain) book and ran screaming away from the position implied by the parent. The file had some "don't read aloud" metadata that Adobe claimed was for devices and then removed in a subsequent version.
