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Kids like to collect stuff. They also like to be able to carry a lot of their stuff with them. They will see the value of e-books in making it easy to carry their collections of e-material with them, and take to them accordingly. They will also grow up to be the first programmers to grow up with e-books (and PDAs, and cellphones), thereby having a lifetime of experience to apply to improving them. The e-books designed by those kids will hardly be recognizeable by the likes of us!
As today there is room for hardback and paperback books, in the future there will be room for hardback, paperback, dedicated e-readers and multipurpose PDAs.
There is no doubt but that paper-based books will always be around... they will simply change their role in the overall scheme, with hardbacks largely remaining popular as "treasured" or "gift" products, and paperbacks being replaced by e-books as "the cheap version" of books. Hardback textbooks and possibly high-end magazines may disappear eventually, possibly replaced by specially-dedicated "e-textbook readers," high image quality readers with powerful search and cross-referencing engines. (That reader will be kick for comics too, kids!)
Kids are just like adults, in that they will go with the thing that makes their lives easier. E-books and e-book readers will eventually do that for them, and when they do, watch out!
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