I had stayed away from electronic kid's books thus far because I wasn't sure how I felt about them. I feel like kids need that authentic experience of touching the books, physically holding them and turning the pages. I think that it is easier to engage in the book by having it physically in their grasp and feeling the pages and you just don't get that same feeling from holding an iPad. I didn't want to start an iPad addiction for my toddler too early in life, or have to share my iPad with him!!
Then, the other day I decided to try out some electronic kids books and made a couple of purchases. I pretty much only read books on my phone or iPad these days, I can't remember the last time I bought a hardback, and so it got me thinking about kids books again. I thought because we were going to be going on another plane trip this week (a 5 hour one eeeek), it might be worth investing in some. So, I looked up one of my favourite kids authors, Nick Bland, the guy who wrote
The Very Cranky Bear (my favourite kids book!!!). I found that there are some really cool versions of his books as iPad apps. I bought
The Very Hungry Bear, and
The Wrong Book. I love that they are narrated by Aussie comedians, they are interactive, Ezra spends most of the time touching the screen to make things happen and he really loves them too. You can also record and play back your own voice (handy for FIFO families), and they are just fun. They are easy to pull out at a Dr's waiting room to subdue a wild toddler, or if you are travelling and don't have lots of room for books, I read Fox in Sox twice a day for a week when we were in Broome, because it was the only book we brought, and it drove me batty.
So, I guess the E-books have won me over. I still don't want to use them exclusively, I love real paper books. But, I definitely see the value in E-books for kids, and the cost savings is also massive. The electronic age that we are living in probably means that when Ezra and kids of his generation are older, they wont be reading physical books, or writing very often on paper. They will be relying almost entirely on a device that hasn't even been invented or imagined yet. So, teaching them young to use electronics is not a bad thing, as they will need to be able to adapt and be prepared to use them when they are at school, I feel it is just another part of adding value to their development.
Have you gotten into Electronic books for kids yet, or how do you feel about them?
If you have any good recommendations I would love to hear them too!
