Parents Are Giving Up Ebooks In Favor Of Print

This article is re-posted from my Brad's Reader blog.

Even the most hardcore ebook enthusiast (like myself) might be putting their Kindle down in favor of a print book. Why? Parents are finding that print books are still the best medium for reading to their little ones.

I fall into this category. My son is a young toddler and he's still at the age where he likes to explore things by putting them in his mouth. That's what toddlers seem to do, put stuff in their mouths. They also throw, bang, drool on and have numerous other destructive methods in their arsenal. This means toddlers and eReaders don't mix.

According to this NYT article, I'm not alone:

This is the case even with parents who themselves are die-hard downloaders of books onto Kindles, iPads, laptops and phones. They freely acknowledge their digital double standard, saying they want their children to be surrounded by print books, to experience turning physical pages as they learn about shapes, colors and animals.

Tactile exploration along with a lot of different colors are important learning tools for young kids. Ebooks just can't compete with print.

Adult books are making a quick transition to ebooks, but this is not the case with kids books:

As the adult book world turns digital at a faster rate than publishers expected, sales of e-books for titles aimed at children under 8 have barely budged. They represent less than 5 percent of total annual sales of children’s books, several publishers estimated, compared with more than 25 percent in some categories of adult books.

I guess I'll be waiting a few years before I can buy my son his first shiny new eReader. Until then, we'll stick with print.