Publishers Launch Children's e-books

Although electronic books have not been particularly popular, Random House and Scholastic have each launched ambitious campaigns to put e-books on young people's computer screens. While the initial titles are priced to sell—in Scholastic's case, several of the e-books have been available for free—they are not suitable for lending. Once they are installed on an individual computer, the files must remain there.

Last month, Random House launched Random View Books (www.randomhouse.com/kids/randomview), its line of e-books for young readers. Available in Microsoft Reader, Palm Reader, and Adobe eBook Reader formats, the initial e-books include popular middle-grade and young-adult titles, such as Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis and Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, available for as little as $3.99. Scholastic has been releasing a few e-books experimentally from its Web site (www.scholastic.com), such as Kathryn Lasky's new A Time for Courage , to be released in print in February. The publisher plans to release 20 e-books soon, at prices lower than their print counterparts. The selections will include reference, nonfiction, and picture book titles.