What kids think about ebooks?

[crich70]

What kids think
I came across this page by chance today. It's dated Feb. 12, 2013 so it should be fairly current.

[teh603]

But is that how they really feel, or what they figured the adults wanted to hear?

It's hard to say. Kids get excited when I pull out my ereader (e-ink based), but that may be because of the novelty.

[pwalker8]

I gave my niece a kindle fire for her birthday and my nephew the same for Christmas. Both really seem to like them. As part of the gift, I am giving them 1 audiobook and 2 ebooks a month. Both are 11. My niece is especially interested in the combination audio/ebook where the ebook is highlighted as the reader reads. Oddly, both wanted Les Mis. this month for both the ebook and audiobook. We will see what they think about it.

[ProfCrash]

My nieces and nephews use e-readers and read regular books. They all like the e-readers and prefer reading on them. When my son is old enough, he will have an e-reader.

My son is 9 months old, he reads board books. And by reads I mean he enjoys flipping the pages and eating the books, although the eating has greatly dminished. We try and point to things in the book and comment on color, the sun, moon, birds and the like. Soon enough he will start pointing to thing in the books when we ask him to. We ask now, but he just turns the page.

There is a place for e-readers and kids. I am doing my best to limit his exposure to screens at this age. I want to limit TV time, iPad time, and the like. There are reports that say that those things effect a childs persception and attention from 0-3 years old.

I don't see him using an e-reader for many years. It has nothing to do with enjoying paper or teaching him to love the page but more that the books that he needs and how he will treat them tends toward the paper book. He is going to be hard on books for a while and I would rather replace a book then an e-reader.

[Pookeysgirl]

My oldest daughter is 12 and she has a Kobo, but seems to prefer reading paper books. My youngest daughter is 8 and she could care less about it unless she sees her big sister reading on it. My sons are 9 & 10 and both are not the biggest fans of reading but they both prefer reading on the Kindle instead of a paper book. My oldest son has very poor eye sight and being able to enlarge the text makes it much more comfortable for him to read...when I can get him to read .

[QuantumIguana]

My daughter is 6, and she doesn't have much interest in reading from my Kindle. She reads from paper books, and has just started reading chapter books. She does like to have my kindle read to her via text to speech, she expects it every night, after I finish reading it to her. When she was 5, she called my Kindle a "brainbook", because it has so many books on it.

[sakura-panda]

My nine year old has an ebook reader because he reads books like the Percy Jackson series (Rick Riordan), Warriors (Erin Hunter), and other long or large book series. I had to put a three-book limit on what could be carried in his backpack because it was so heavy from his books! He enjoys his ebook reader a lot, although he reads paper books too that he gets from the library and from an independent book store in the next building from his guitar lessons.

(Note that his dad takes him to guitar lessons, bought him the Kindle because he was tired of all the space books take up in the house, and continues to buy *and order* books from the same bookstore!

We are both VERY big on supporting small town businesses, but the irony still kills me! )

He (my son) thinks ebook readers are cool. He likes that he can get books almost as soon as he asks for him and that if I pre-order a book, it will show up automatically. He likes that it is easier to carry than two or three books and I think he even likes that he always has his light with him.

He has an iPod too, but I have not installed any reading apps on it. I've been thinking of asking him if he wants one, but he normally just carries both devices around; I like that he can still read his Kindle if his iPod battery runs out.

My husband bought a Kindle for my six year old, but she doesn't know it yet. (She thinks she is borrowing mine.) We have been reading a book on it, and she likes the Kindle, but not that particular book.

She is into The Magic Treehouse right now and has the first 42 of them in paperback. I asked her if she would prefer to finish the series in paper or ebook and she chose paper. As a first grader, she takes those books to school with her and she knows she would not get to take a Kindle; I don't know if that factored into her choice, but I think she may be too young for an ebook reader, which is why I haven't officially turned it over to her. My husband likes to buy gadgets -- but I don't know why he didn't keep this one for himself.

I have a four year old too, but no electronic books for him yet -- I have a Kindle app book on my iPad for him that he likes, but he still prefers sitting with a book in his lap and flipping the paper pages. I'm in the camp that thinks that ebooks readers are best for chapter books with few illustrations, and he is definitely too young for those.

[forgottenbooks]

Originally Posted by Pookeysgirl

My oldest son has very poor eye sight and being able to enlarge the text makes it much more comfortable for him to read...when I can get him to read .

This is one of the advantage of ebook reader over the text books. You can't make the text bigger in the text book.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by forgottenbooks

This is one of the advantage of ebook reader over the text books. You can't make the text bigger in the text book.

You can't just highlight a word with your finger and get a definition for it (if unfamiliar with the word) with conventional books either.

[Andiry63]

My kids prefer to read ebooks instead of the usual paperback books. It's very sad that they do not appreciate reading books, so to make them interested I have to buy Kindle fire and get interesting ebooks for them to read. So far, things are doing and even my youngest son (6 yrs old) is starting to enjoy reading ebooks.

[NickyWithNook]

My 10-year-old has had one for close to a year and a half now and still loves it. She always read a reasonable amount, but since getting the e-reader, she is a voracious reader. She reads frequently and, now that she's had so much practice, pretty quickly so she reads a great number of books.

I got her the e-reader because piles of books were showing up all around her room, and now she is reading much more and her room stays neat.

My younger one (4) likes the e-reader to some extent but really prefers paper books. I think when they are read to, they like paper, but when they read to themselves, the e-readers are a great option.

[crich70]

young kids do seem to like being able to touch things as they explore their world so I can understand some like paper when young. Ebooks do have advantages over paper though I think. In the end though it's a personal choice of preference.

[Ryvyan]

Originally Posted by crich70

You can't just highlight a word with your finger and get a definition for it (if unfamiliar with the word) with conventional books either.

I am so used to reading on my Nook that I subconsciously pressed on a word when reading a physical magazine before realising that nothing was going to pop up

[VaultBoy]

I tried explaining to a nephew how ebooks worked. He brought me a stack of his Berenstain Bears books to put into a Kindle.

I felt bad telling him that I can't just put them in the Kindle like that.