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I've posted here before about my 11 year old niece's persistence in having me buy her a Paperwhite, and her love of it. I had a conversation with her recently where she was telling me her mother had bought her the latest in Andy Griffith's Treehouse series for children, which she has been reading for years. I remarked that it was probably better that her mother had bought her the print book and not the ebook, observing that there must be many illustrations which e-ink readers often don't render well. She did not agree with me, saying that an ebook would have been fine. She actually brought me the book to show me that the illustrations were all black and white in any event and expressed her opinion that they were not important to her anyway.
I also bought her sister a Paperwhite for her 8th birthday. I am told whilst she has used it a little she has not embraced ebooks as enthusiastically as her older sibling. I am thinking that perhaps as a general rule 8 is a bit young for an e-ink reader, though of course there are also exceptions. However, for those children who are enthusiastic readers I think about age 10 is probably a good time for their first ereader. Above all, however, we should remember that the right choice is a very individual one, and there is absolutely no reason why a preference for ebooks over print or vice versa need be an exclusive one.
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