Those well-versed in history are familiar with the great debates of our time—Roe v. Wade, boxers v. briefs, Mary Kate v. Ashley. Now, after a series of articles in venerable publications like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, we can add to that list of life’s most pressing questions this: Should kids learn to read with e-books?
The Times last week found parents who insist their children read and be read to with old-fashioned paper books, citing things like “the experience of turning a page” and the “intimacy” of reading together without the potential distraction of Angry Birds. That, coupled with the fact that all baby showers involve the bestowing of multiple children’s books upon soon-to-be mothers, means kids’ titles are actually a bright spot in the world of old-fashioned publishing. E-books for children under 8 represent less than 5% of total annual sales of children’s books, compared with more than 25% for some adult categories.
The Journal, for its part, assessed the kid-friendliness of various e-readers, but comes to basically the same conclusion: Most of the time (excluding admirable Skype sessions on the part of the corporate traveler parent), print books are preferable, in no small part because kids are fairly fickle when it comes to the pace of a page-turn (something no existing e-reader lets a user dictate.) Even a growing cadre of children’s books with multimedia can’t overcome the benefits of print (I would add to this list of benefits the fact that toddlers have zero qualms about throwing books on the floor, something that’s much easier to accept when said book isn’t an iPad.)
Now I don’t have kids, so I can lend nothing to this debate from the perspective of a mother. I also don’t remember being read to as a child (though I know it happened frequently and is in large part responsible for my lifelong love of books.) But even as a 20-something whose immediate takeaway from these articles was “UGH, now bookstores will just have more kid shit in them,” I have to appreciate the irony. The same adults who unceremoniously made the personal switch to e-readers are citing the feel of turning of a page, the smell of a book and the silence of print when it comes to their kids. In other words, every reason I’ve avoided making the switch myself, just applied to Hop on Pop. Continue reading “Kids Need Kindles Too”
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