SWEET ON BOOKS BLOG

Coming Soon - Nook for Kids...

Continuing our conversation on e-readers, here's some news from Barnes & Noble.  According to the Wall Street Journal, the retailer will be launching 12,000 e-books geared toward children ages 3 to 8. There will be thousands of chapter books available and by November there should be 100 picture books.  Apparently, B&N also has deals with more than 15 children's book publishers to develop enhanced e-books that will include features like "a page with a sky full of falling blueberries, which kids can pop with their fingers."  They're also thought to be planning the launch of a color Nook with touch-screen features.    

Check out nookkids.com to see some of the book titles and get a sneak peak.  As it says on the website, "Storytime comes to life with enhanced NOOKbooks that invite kids to interact with the text and pictures on the page — allowing them to follow along as their adventures are read aloud to them. With NOOK kids children have a whole new way to immerse themselves in their favorite stories and bond with their beloved characters through the largest selection of eBooks available."

So, here's the question...With all the interaction and the option to have the story read aloud, are these books or video games?  When kids sit down with their "enhanced" Nooks, should it count as reading time? Will these tools help our kids learn to love reading or even to learn to read?

Getting Boys to Read...

There was an interesting article by Thomas Spence in the Wall Street Journal last week addressing the issue of boys and reading, or lack thereof.  The fact is, according to a recent study by the Center on Education Policy, boys score much lower on reading proficiency tests than girls do.  This trend, which began in 1992 (around the same time that video games took off), spans across all ethnic and economic groups.  So, why is this happening and more importantly, how can we reverse this trend?

According to Mr. Spence and many other reading experts, a huge part of getting boys to read well is getting them to read enough.  Now that brings us to the million dollar question - how to get boys to read enough?  

It seems that these days the basic assumption is that boys are bored with most subjects and the only way to peak their interest is to focus on all things disgusting, gross and basically inappropriate.  Apparently a July Associated Press study indicates that experts believe "meeting them where they are" is the only way to get boys to read.  Unfortunately when we meet them where they are, they sometimes don't go very far from that safety zone.

Mr. Spence proposes an alternative strategy to get boys to read more.  He suggests that we reduce the access to and time spent with video games and therefore give books - all books - a fair shot at a boy's attention. He goes on to say that this exposure to books will have a profound effect on the adults these boys will one day grow to be.  A boy who reads and acts civilized too - now that's a winning combination! 

If you click on the link below you'll see the article and then you can click through to see the many comments this topic has inspired.  Don't forget to comment back to Sweet on Books too so that we may hear where you stand on this controversial subject.

Wall Street Journal article