NYPL Panel Discussion Explores E-Books for Kids
RSSBy Rocco Staino
What impact does the Kindle, iPad, and other e-readers have on children's books? The Sesame Workshop book publishing group and namelos, a publisher of children and young adult books, have both warmly embraced e-books, realizing that the end product of words and pictures remains the same regardless of the format. More than 60 librarians, publishers, authors, and illustrators recently attended the panel discussion "Brave New World: Digital Books for Kids" at the New York Public Library to hear representatives from both companies talk about how they've incorporated digital books in their offerings. For Jennifer Perry, the assistant vice president and editorial director of Sesame Workshop's book publishing group, the focus was always on reaching preschool children-both in print and digitally. "Seeing content on a screen is not new to our readers," says Perry, explaining that Sesame Workshop began publishing digital children's books this year-and will offer readers and their parents a set of five free digital books on its website, including the Jon Stone's classic, The Monster at the End of the Book (Random, 1971), which has sold more than three million copies in its 39-year history. The books are narrated by Sesame Street characters and words on the screen are highlighted as they are read so kids can follow along. The Sesame Street eBookstore also offers electronic access to more than 100 titles from the expansive Sesame library of books, including Sarah Albee's Elmo's ABC Book (Sesame, 2005) and Naomi Kleinberg's Grover's Guide to Good Eating (Random, 2007). Titles are offered in a variety of formats: e-books that allow kids to read along at their own pace; audio books that contain narration, sound effects, and music; animated e-books that bring beloved Sesame Street characters and stories to life in full-color animation; and interactive e-books that invite children to play along and learn. The annual subscription cost for access to the site is $39.99 for individual use-and the plan is to introduce a similar plan to schools and libraries in the near future. Meanwhile, Stephen Roxburgh, the president and publisher of namelos, says his company is offering free e-books of new titles, including four novels from the Front Street imprint of Boyds Mills Press: According to Kit (2009) by Eugenie Doyle, City of Cannibals (2010) by Ricki Thompson, The Dog in the Wood (2009) by Monika Schröder , and Warriors in the Crossfire (2010) by Nancy Bo Flood. The reason? To develop a readership for these debut authors. "A lot of publishers are resisting e-books and are "windowing" (or delaying the release of an e-book edition)," says Roxburgh. "While they figure it out, we are publishing and delivering compelling new titles to the fastest growing segment of the reading public and the book market." Roxburgh says while there were 1,000 downloads of the four books from his company's site, there's no way of calculating how many people have shared them with their friends. Roxburgh adds that today's kids don't have the same emotional attachment to printed books that older adults have-and as a result, once a "juice proof tablet" is available for sale, the e-book market will take off for little ones. The panel discussion was a part of the New York Public Library's Children's Literary Salon, a monthly gathering of adults who are fans of children's literature, and was moderated by librarian and SLJ blogger Betsy Bird. I think e-books for kids is a great idea! Many kids are technology savvy, and are very interested in these types of things. Having a Kindle or similar item to read on will make it that much more fun to them.
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Posted by Consumer Reviews on September 9, 2010 10:19:23AM
