Children's Books discussion

Just curious, how many people read digital books to their younger children? I had my nieces over and my 2 year old niece was just fascinated by the pictures!

I'm still old-fashioned and only read actual picture books to my grandkids. I feel they have enough electronic gadgets to look at that seeing real artistic art in the books is important.

So far, I'm only reading the "old fashioned" hard copy books with my sixteen month old and I don't plan to change to e-books with him when he is older -- unless for some reason that is the only way I can get him to read. Like Tricia, I feel there is enough screen time elsewhere for kids and I want to minimize it. But then again I don't read e-books myself, either. I do wonder if kids respond to e-books in the same way? My son likes to flip back and forth sometimes, go back to study a certain illustration, and I remember bring the same way as a kid. Is it as easy/satisfying to do that with an e-book? I look forward to insights from others!

(PS, Angela, I moved this out of the PBC folder and renamed the thread so hopefully more members will see it ;-> )

I got a kindle a few years ago as a present and so far, I am rebelling and have not set it up yet :-)

I'm old-fashioned myself - and I do not find e-books comfortable for flipping back and forth, that kind of thing. That being said, they have their place.

I just discovered an OOP collection of Walter de la Mare's fairy poems, with lots of delightful illustrations by Dorothy P. Lathrop, called Down-Adown-Derry: A Book of Fairy Poems. Libraries probably don't have a copy. But, www.gutenberg.org (the Gutenberg Project) does, for free.

I prefer using regular books for reading to my 5 year old. BUT, having a few books on my e-reader has saved my life a few times. Especially when we all went camping as a family and nobody packed picture books and my nephew refused to sleep without a night-night story. Go Dogs Go was the only book I had on my kindle, because I got it free from somewhere. We read it every single night, but he went to sleep afterwards. So they can be useful at times.

Sam wrote: "I prefer using regular books for reading to my 5 year old. BUT, having a few books on my e-reader has saved my life a few times. Especially when we all went camping as a family and nobody packed pi..."

I can see how a kindle with e-books could be a life-saver in such a situation. That being said, when a similar situation arose during a road-trip in our own family (years before e-books were even a possibility), my parents (or I) took turns making up stories and orally relating them to my sister (who was about four or five at the time).

I think it's worthwhile to distinguish between ebooks that are simply digital versions of print books and ebooks that have audio and animation. A digitized print book can offer convenient portability and may cost less but there is little else to recommend it over the print version (the iPad ebooks also do a great job of simulating the page turn--it's easy to flip back and forth).
Ebooks with sound and animation are a whole different thing and should be judged on their own without comparing the experience to reading print books. (Someone would surely be making the case that even print books can have sound and animation, depending on the abilities of the person reading). But we should look at the quality of the stories and the art--and so far I'd say enhanced ebooks have a long way to go. In addition to trite stories and bad art, the interactivity is often more distracting than enhancing, and any narration is arguably replacing one of the most important qualities of picture books: a parent sitting and reading to a child.
So instead of arguing over which is better, print or ebook, we should be looking for ebooks with great stories and art that use animation to enhance the story and accommodate real time reading. There are ebooks like that available but they are hard to find (that's a story for another thread), but when you find them and sit with a child and read them and listen to the sounds and watch the characters move, the arguments about kids having too much "screen time" fall away and you and the child can have an experience as wonderful as reading a print book.

Well, hm, I kind of want to start a new thread, but these thoughts all go together, I think.

I think enhanced ebooks will be cool as they get better. But I also argue that they're most definitely still 'screen time.' You say "sit with a child and read them and listen to the sounds and watch the characters move," and I say "closed-captioned movie."

The thing about paper books is that each one is a different size, instead of whatever size your reader is. And they often smell good. And you can easily look at two pages at once. And they have heft and, if you're little, the large picture-books feel good in your arms. And sometimes someone else has made notations in the margins, or let teardrops stain a sad passage, or scribbled in the end-papers of a book about a kids with ADHD (eg, my library copy of Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key).

And of course it's much harder to share ebooks. For example, as I understand it, you're only leasing your kindle books from Amazon. And if they go 'out of print' you're sol, because you're not going to find a used copy on half.com. And people who collect antiquarian books will become extinct. And large-format graphic novels (which are growing in popularity) certainly wouldn't translate well to the small screen.

And, to bring it back to little children's books, what about pop-up books? Do you really think that watching a video of someone else manipulate the tabs is going to be satisfying? (In case you don't know, not all pop-up books are trite gimmicks. Many are true art for all ages.)

E-books definitely have their place and I'm glad they were invented. But I hope writers, artists, publishers, and readers & parents keep creating and sharing paper books.

(Sorry for the long rant.)

Oh, and by 'flipping back and forth' I don't mean to the previous page - I know that's easy on my Sony. I mean, flipping to the cast of characters or the prophecy, or to the end-notes or appendix of a non-fiction book, that kind of thing.

I think...
a) the moving, animated ones sound weird and cheesy and I'm so very glad I've never come across one.
b) On normal, but Kindlefied books? They're okay, but print books are better and you can keep reading them...no batteries required.

I'm really enjoying this discussion and the insights into the pros/cons of ebooks for kids. I don't see myself using one with my son for several years, or ever abandoning paper books entirely, but the merits for homeschool and oop books etc do sound promising. Of course, by the time my son is ready for that ebooks will probably have advanced even more with more great features ! Though that's one of my favorite features of paper books, handing them down unchanged--my son can read and touch the very same books I did as a child :-)

My child really has no interest in ebooks, which to be honest is alright with me. For myself, I would say that I read only a few ebooks a year. Mostly ones that I am reading for review. I find I still enjoy flipping the pages of a book and seeing the illustrations first hand. I often wonder how ebooks versus traditional picture books affect how children learn to read. Personally, I think they miss out on how the words are spoken and the bonding experience between parent and child. I am glad they were invented and certainly have seen the benefits of reading them but I still think that they should be used more when reading is established.

Just joined goodreads, and that's my first comment. Hope I am not going against any rules...
I see the discussion is quite old, but very interesting for me. I love paper picture books much better, of course, but I see there weren't mentioned two quite important (at least for our family) ebook qualities and I feel need to advocate them.
First, we are Russian-speaking family living in Norway and it is so hard to collect here all Russian picture books we love so much. Of course, half of our luggage in all our trips back from holidays in Russia or Latvia contains of books, but still that's not enough for bookloving 5yo and her not so bookloving, but still interested brother.
And we change flats and countries quite often, too, leaving a large part of our library behind. So ebooks are essential.
And the second idea is very personal, but I need my Kindle desperately if I breastfeed baby in the dark room and my daughter is waiting for me (to read to her or just cuddle) in the same room and is getting bored without a book. Then the Kindle with a picture book in it (and lightning on) is a big help!

Tanja, welcome to the group and thank you so much for sharing your perspectives and enriching our discussion! I really appreciate the points you made. I hadn't considered the significant benefit to ebooks when one has limited access to print versions, as in your situation. I can relate to the breastfeeding situation, though I don't have a Kindle or other device. Thanks for sharing! :-)

Kathryn wrote: "Tanja, welcome to the group and thank you so much for sharing your perspectives and enriching our discussion! I really appreciate the points you made. I hadn't considered the significant benefit to..."

The idea of getting a Kindle to buy German picture books might be the way for me to get interested in using my Kindle (but I don't know if I can purchase German picture books at Amazon Germany and put them on my Amazon Canada Kindle).

Kathryn, thank you!

Gundula, I think they must have German picture books on Canadian amazon as well.
At least bilingual I see immediately.
And when I put a book on Amazon, they are enrolled in all Amazons worldwide.

Tanja wrote: "Kathryn, thank you!

Gundula, I think they must have German picture books on Canadian amazon as well.
At least bilingual I see immediately.
And when I put a book on Amazon, they are enrolled in all..."

I should check that out at least for some of the picture books we read as children in Germany.

I sell my children's book both on kindle and in print and I have to say the print version sells a lot better. I am not too upset by this, although it does make getting sales harder. I think there is a certain magic to print books that young children just won't get from ebooks, although for slightly older children I highly recommend a basic kindle loaded with a few dozen books for travelling and sitting in waiting rooms etc. Life saver.

My children's book is also available as Kindle ebook (with pop-up text for easier reading on smaller devices) and as a print book. I do find that the expectation for children's picture books is still traditional print, even though it seems the youngsters are all growing up with an iPad or Mommy's iPhone in their hand and they are far more computer literate than older gens.

Currently Kindle Direct Publishing doesn't allow for adding music and FX, although I believe Apple iBooks does. I think that in general parent are okay with interactive storybook Apps (we're building one for the book now) since it adds a new layer of learning/entertainment not found in traditional print books. But I'd love for some parents to weigh in on how they feel about interactive storybook Apps for their kids.

I also agree that one device loaded with some good children's books can be such a convenience for parents (or baby-sitting relatives) when leaving the home on outings or appointments.

Happily ever after,
Marie Rose

Nice to get authors' perspectives on this issue, thank you both.

MarieRose, please edit your signature here to remove your website. That may be listed in your individual Author's Folder thread. Thx.