[6charlong]

Originally Posted by Elsi

I'm afraid I don't understand this statement. Many of the classics written for children use a more complex vocabulary than contemporary books.

I worded it badly. What I had in mind and misspoke as ‘classics’ I was really thinking about the ‘children’s books’ I was given as a child. They were not literature. They were boring and put me off reading anything except comic books for many (lost?) years.

I’ve been surprised at B's reading skill and by the fact that her reading is way ahead of her understanding. She sat down next to me and started reading The Hobbit aloud, with very little help from grandpa, but she didn’t follow the story very well.

She is a bright child and curious about the world, and I hoped to use a book reader to help hold her interest long enough for her comprehension to catch up to her reading skill. We used to take her to a bookstore to choose any book she wanted, starting when she was three. Not surprisingly at first she went for the gimmick books (things with little toys attached, etc.). Her father takes her to the library regularly and her taste in books has improved a lot but it’s still the same problem, basically, as when she was three: she is confronted by too much selection, the books all jumbled together.

I thought it possible that a book reader might act as a kind of database for her so that in ten years she would have her best books from her childhood all under a single cover. Even if she goes through three batteries to get there, or has to load them on a replacement reader, it might give her a way to go back over old favorites.

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions.