For Their Children, Many E-Book Fans Insist on Paper

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! :)

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 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?

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.

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".

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.

My son (2.5) has quit with books at his bed time and insists on iPad books (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-fantastic-flying-books/id...) and videos (mostly Pixar shorts). We also sometimes compose a Garageband track together.

The first generation iPad is plenty durable for his use. We just handed down one of our older ones when I got a iPad 2.

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.

Until there's password protection for the "buy now" buttons on the Kindle, there's no way I'd let a kid borrow mine.

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.

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.

When e-readers get down to the $10 price point, I'll certainly consider buying a stack for my kids!

Is it perhaps because you aren't allowed to read eBooks to your children ?

http://www.lessig.org/content/standard/0,1902,22914,00.html