Young Readers, e-Books, and the Public Library

Like Clifford the Big Red Dog, interest in e-books has grown exponentially over the past year. Figures from June show e-book sales rocketing 167 percent, to $80.2 million, at the 15 houses that reported figures to the Association of American Publishers monthly sales report. And according to Publisher's Weekly, for the first half of 2011, e-book sales were up 161 percent to $473.8 million.

This red-hot streak should continue as new reading devices continue to enter the market and consumers turn on to digital books. So as e-book sales reach the stratosphere, dotMomming was wondering what's happening at the public library. We reached out to Andrew Medlar, Youth Materials Specialist for the Chicago Public Library, to find out.

Numbers for trade paperback sales dropped off in June, down 64 percent, according to Publisher's Weekly, while children’s hardcover sales fell 31 percent. And for the first half of 2011, sales in all the trade segments were off by more than 10 percent. So the trend seems to be clear in bookstores -- digital books are on fire. Is the library seeing the same spike in e-book demand?

"In a word: yes.  In four words: yes, very much so," Medlar says. "Interest, requests, circulation, and budgets for e-books continue to grow exponentially.

"The subsequent challenges then include balancing this with continued strong demand for the many other formats CPL provides, and working with publishers and distributors to make more e-content available to the library market in the first place."

So where are the kids? The adult market seems to be out ahead of children's books, which makes sense as adults have the buying power to make use of reading tablets. But as more schools try out e-reader technology, demand for kids e-books will rise. Are Kindles, Nooks, iPads, and beyond capturing tween and preteen attention?

"Ten percent of e-book requests placed on our website are for teen titles," Medlar says, "and about 1 percent are for materials for kids up through age 13."

So what are the trends Medlar is seeing at the Chicago Public Library?

"Well, in the interest of user privacy, of course, we don’t track who is checking out what," he says. "But it is clear that many whos are checking out a lot of whats.

"Circulation of e-books has been consistently rising, and leading the charge is teen-directed literature, such as series by Meg Cabot, James Patterson, Maggie Stiefvater, Kristin Cast, Suzanne Collins, and more."

And what's ahead?

"Regardless of the age of the reader selecting these titles, this is definitely where the bulk of youth e-publishing and use is," Medlar says.

"This will continue, and the production of e-titles for tweens and younger will certainly grow itself, especially as more schools embrace e-readers. Interestingly, many of the tween titles immensely popular in paper (authors such as R. L. Stine and Erin Hunter, to name just two) are not seeing the same demand in e-formats, so this is likely still to take a while to catch up."

How e-Books Can Save Your Marriage

DotMomming is celebrating a glorious alignment of stars over here, and we want to share the joy. It has to do with a few of our favorite things -- the public library, the iPad, and our Spousal Unit (in no order of preference).

Many readers already know the ins and outs of checking out e-books from the library. But for those who do not, we're going to help you get into gear with OverDrive, the library's e-book vendor. And in the process, perhaps we'll restore harmony to your household just as we did at our own.

• No more fighting over the bedside lamp being on all night, since you can read books in the dark using your e-reader's black screen and white type! 
• No more enduring your darling's cranky sighs at the sound of your pages turning, since your e-reader's digital pages turn noiselessly!
• And need we remind you? These books are free!

What's not to love?

And for Kindle users out there, OverDrive is now available for use for the first time. Until last week, digital lending was limited to iPad, smart phone, Sony Reader, and Nook.

To help explain the process, dotMomming contacted Andrew Medlar, Youth Materials Specialist for the Chicago Public Library, to talk about e-books, the library's digital bookshelf, and where the kids are. We'll devote the next handful of posts to our conversation.

But first, the basic mechanics of how to check out an e-book through the public library.

"Patrons are invited to visit the Library’s downloadable media catalog at OverDrive to search and/or browse through our rich e-book collection," Medlar says. OverDrive offers several e-book formats, such as EPUB, PDF, mobipocket, and now Kindle Book. Before attempting to download a book, however, iPad users need to download the free OverDrive app. If you're using a Nook, you'll need to download the Adobe Digital Editions software.

"Once you find a title in which you’re interested, you’ll either be able to add the title to your cart or put the title on hold if all of CPL’s licensed 'copies' are checked out to other users." This step is intuitive, as a button to the right of the book information sits waiting for your click.

"If you place it on hold, you will be asked to provide an e-mail address where you will be notified when the title becomes available," Medlar continues. "If it’s currently available you’ll be able to add it to your cart and proceed to checkout, at which point you’ll need to enter a library card number in good standing and your ZIP code."

And there's more. Can you handle it?

No late fees. The book just "disappears" from the e-reader when the checkout period expires. While we love this feature, dotMomming does realize that we are single-handedly supporting the CPL system through our endless late fees. Will e-books put a dent in the library's revenue stream?

"While the automatic return of e-books does result in fewer late fees for the Library," Medlar says, "we actually see it as a great marketing point for potential patrons."

He's talking about you. Good luck -- in your reading and your marriage.

Part 2: Digital Literacy and Learning to Read

This is the second in a series of posts in which we'll hear from Patrick Cox, a Ph.D. candidate in the childhood studies program at Rutgers University. Patrick taught a summer course on learning to read in the digital age, and he will repeat it in the fall and spring. In exploring how digital readers are impacting early literacy development, Patrick is engaging his students in better understanding technology and how young children are learning about it and with it.

DotMomming: The digital natives born into the iPad world are experiencing reading and learning in a whole new way. I don't mean this as a plug for Apple, just in the sense that books are a fluid thing now. Kids can toddle over to the bookshelf to sit down with a paper book, or they can tap their fingers on a reading tablet and read a digital one. Is one experience better than the other?

Patrick Cox: Of course not! Certainly the experiences are different from each other, but it gets a bit sticky to ascribe words like “better” or “worse” to one experience over another. Apart from whatever text is being read in each medium, both media also teach valuable skills to young readers. “Book awareness” starts very young, and the book is itself a technology anyone in the United States really needs to learn how to use.

We don’t really think of it, but at some point we had to learn the difference between the cover of a book and the back of a book, or which direction to turn the pages, or that we read from left to right. These are all skills that are developed from a very young age and will serve us throughout our lives . . . unless books completely disappear, which I don’t think is likely at all.

Similarly, reading tablets and other hi-tech manifestations of books teach other useful skills we might call “tech awareness.” As unromantic as it sounds, these days we need to learn a connection between pushing buttons and things happening on a screen, or “swyping” a screen to move an image. In my state of Pennsylvania, naming and having some understanding of how to use computer parts like keyboards, a mouse, a touchpad, and a cell phone is part of the pre-kindergarten education standards. The fact is, like it or not, it behooves us all to learn how to use these new devices.

I’m very interested in this phrase “digital native.” I’ve heard it before and understand what is meant. But there’s an implication about it, it seems, that there’s something natural about kids’ connection to technology that people who aren’t “natives” can’t ever fully learn or become a part of. “Native” means some people are “not native,” so there’s a separation being made in the phrase between children and adults. “You grow up with it or you don’t; you’re a part of it, or you aren’t.” Children and adolescents have been classed as “separate” in different realms before. (There’s actually a book about teenagers called “A Tribe Apart,” another term that both primitivizes children and separates “them” from “us” – the presumably less primitive adults.)

I’ve heard children’s picture book apps on iPads described as perfect for young children because “kids these days are wired differently.” I think there’s a growing belief that children “just know this tech stuff” as if it’s not learned but natural to them, as if children are somehow at one with technology and its accompanying gadgets; “wired differently” as if part of the computer’s circuitry.

What’s troubling in all this is the perception that using reading tablets and other techie gadgets is somehow not reading. And that the gadgets – the digital books and apps and so forth – are cutting us off from “the natives.” We often hear a critique of e-readers along the lines of, “Yes, but it’s just not the same as curling up with a book and turning the pages.” People talk about the feel of paper, the smell of books. Indeed, a Kindle is not the same. But I’m not sure the difference is such as to affect a young reader’s comprehension or engagement with the story being read or their connection with the characters. In other words, reading hasn’t changed; just the device has changed. But that seems to be fraught with a lot of other meanings for people.

Rutgers Scholar on Reading in the Digital Age

As we explore the role technology plays in early literacy development, we’re always on the lookout for cool happenings in the realm of kids books. Imagine our surprise when dotMomming stumbled across an undergraduate course being taught this summer at Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey, about learning to read in the digital age.

Titled simply Children’s Literacies, the coursework examines how literacy has expanded beyond the basics of reading and writing to include technological literacy as well. We reached out to Patrick Cox, who taught the summer course, is a Ph.D. candidate in the childhood studies program at Rutgers, and is clearly passionate about digital books and their effect on early literacy.

We'll devote the next many posts to exploring digital books and learning with Patrick.

DotMomming: Can you talk about the Rutgers course? Who was your audience? What were your topics? What did you hope to accomplish with the program?

Patrick Cox: The course is taught in the Department of Childhood Studies at Rutgers. Previously, the only children’s literature courses taught on this campus were offered through the English department, a discipline that takes a particular approach to literature. My department wanted some sort of children’s literature course that approached the literature in a Childhood Studies sort of way, which meant, first, it had to be a multi-disciplinary course, and second, it had to keep “the child” at the center of the study in some way.

So in a very important way this course is a children’s literature course that deliberately includes media other than books: e-readers, toys, CD-ROMs, websites, transmedia texts, cell phone novels, vooks [combination of books and videos] – we even looked into stories told through clues on T-shirts! People are really doing some amazing things with how they tell stories. And children’s and young adult literature is leading the way.

I wanted students to end the course with a greater awareness of and appreciation for some of these other forms. But we also read novels, short stories, picture books, comic books, graphic novels, because none of these things have been replaced; they’re part of children’s literacies too.

On another level, the course is about literacy itself: how it has developed, why it’s been taught, what has the spread of literacy meant for our culture, how has it been used as a “gatekeeper,” and what has it meant for those who have been left out. So my students also read about cognitive development as children learn to read, pedagogical approaches in classrooms, educational theory, ethnographies conducted in schools, scholarly work on incorporating popular culture into literacy instruction, and popular writing from newspapers and magazines to get a feel for the general cultural discourse and controversies around these new forms of literature. We also spent a good deal of time discussing the role of the marketplace in new literacies.

The course is open to any undergraduate student at Rutgers, and I hope those majoring in Childhood Studies find it fits with the rest of their courses: a one-of-a-kind course in a one-of-a-kind department. That to me is very important: it should be a course people can’t find anywhere but here.

I always hope for a certain number of students to come from the Teacher Prep program as well, to bring their expertise to the classroom and, hopefully, think in a different way about their role and approach as literacy instructors. Also, the undergraduate population is not a bunch of 18-year-olds anymore. Most of them are older (some quite a bit older), and half of my students have kids of their own.

I love teaching parents, as a parent myself, exchanging new ideas and materials and hoping they leave the course with an understanding that there are multiple forms of literacy, multiple ways to teach children to read, that literacy instruction these days begins at home and at a very young age, and that it’s OK to have fun while doing it. Also that not having the latest technological device will not doom your child to a life of illiteracy.

I’ll be teaching [Children’s Literacies] again this fall and then again in the spring. Enrollment for the fall session is already at capacity!

What Pottermore Spells for Readers, Writers

J.K. Rowling's announcement yesterday that Pottermore.com will be the clearinghouse for all things wizardly has been met with mixed response. The Washington Post yawned. Publisher's Weekly said it's "not a gamechanger." Pottermore will offer games along with more writing around Harry, wands, and other aspects of the best-selling books. So what?

Well, for readers, writers, and illustrators, this news is magical. And here's why:

It opens the ebook door for younger readers. Currently, the YA and adult markets have been swept up by ebook revolution. And the introduction of picture book apps has pulled in parents and preschoolers to the world of digital books. But what about the middle-grade market?

This is it. The Harry Potter craze that caught fire with preteens and tweens -- think midnight bookstore release parties with 11-year-olds in capes and round glasses -- and pulled them into stores to buy the latest copy will be happening again. Only this time it will be happening online. And once they've downloaded these ebooks, they'll be hungry for more. Pottermore's ebooks will send them and their parents looking for more middle-grade fare. Anywhere they can get it.

It sets up a new publishing model. And not just the idea of tossing a manuscript on Amazon and seeing what happens. For authors and artists with talent and tenacity, Pottermore.com demonstrates a new route to readers. While the risks of bypassing the publishing houses are clear, there are plenty of benefits.

Say you have written a series of books (middle-grade fantasy with trolls, a killer skateboarding ninja, whatever niche you see for yourself), why not build your own clearinghouse like J.K.? Sell your books in e-format for all major e-readers for $2.99. Post bonus material and back stories sure to thrill your readers. Include a place for fan fiction and interaction with your adoring audience. Offer discussion questions for a curriculum connection with teachers. One-stop shopping for your work.

Sure, you're not J.K. Rowling. But at a $2.99 price point, you're certainly attractive. And in this model, your profit margin is crazy good compared with the traditional publishing formula.

For the risk averse, team up with your colleagues. Perhaps your killer skateboarding ninjas appeal to a similar set of readers who also like surfing samuri. You can work collaboratively to sell your books on your website. Kids learn that your site is the place to go for ninjas and samurais. They tell their friends and  return time and time again to see the new books and authors you've brought onboard. You've got an online community, your connecting directly with your readers, you're blowing wizards out of the water.

Who does not come out on top in this model? Clearly it's the publishing houses -- they seem to be caught flat-footed in this change. But of course, when Harry Potter first apparated on the scene 13 years ago, who could have imagined this whole world of ebook rights? But just as newspapers suddenly became unwieldy behemoths, unable to adapt to the fleet-of-foot news websites that emerged overnight, the same seems to be happening with the major publishing houses. Think namelos and a host of other nimble digital publishers.

Armed with a laptop, anyone can be a journalist. The notion that writers and illustrators can be publishing houses as well is not too far-fetched.

The others left behind in this model are the bookstores. Again, beaten up by the market. And this is a real shame. Those midnight book release parties helped stoke the flames of Harry Potter mania, helped ignite a passion for reading for many kids. With Pottermore.com and this new formula, bookstores are nowhere in the picture.

Read this bookseller's lament in Time online:

"It's one thing if an individual sells book on her own, I can understand that," says Ann Seaton, manager of Hicklebee's Children's Book Store in San Jose, Calif. "But it did sort of surprise me that the publisher would cut us out of the loop. That makes it hard for us. We have sold a huge amount of Potter books. And we were one of those stores that had the midnight parties when a new Potter book came out. I don't think we'll be having a party for the e-books."

E-normous Milestone in Book Publishing: E-Books Beat Out Print on Amazon

This just in. . .

Amazon.com has just announced that it is now selling more Kindle e-books than print book ones—and that is paperback and hardcover combined. The day that seemed to be somewhere off in the future, when we would be hanging our jetpacks on the peg by the office door, has arrived. And sooner than anticipated.

Various news reports quote Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and CEO, addressing the speed at which this change is taking place. “We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly—we've been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years.”

Amazon is reporting that since April 1, it has sold 105 Kindle books for every 100 print books. The figures do not include free Kindle titles. Amazon's Kindle first debuted on the book scene in 2007. By 2010, e-books sales for the Kindle had passed hardcover print titles. Then by January-ish of 2011, Kindle e-book sales had surpassed paperback titles.

Some book traditionalists are in mourning over this development, fearing the death of the printed book. As a former newspaper gal, I totally get that. I interviewed for a job at The San Francisco Chronicle in 1997 and was asked if I actually believed readers would prefer to get their news on some "digital device" than by the beloved ink-and-paper form. I wanted the job pretty badly, so I said what I knew this editor wanted to hear (and what I wanted to believe) -- that people would always love the printed page. And now here we are. . . You can read more about the development online.

Others are cheering that reading is up and books -- in any format -- are being devoured.

For our kids, this might not register as much of a milestone. But for those of us on the fence, with a foot in either format, it's a moment to pause.

E-Book Author Megg Jensen Skips the Big Six

The changes in publishing have altered the equation for every aspect of the business, for marketers, editors, agents, and bookstores, as well as authors themselves. Taking a break this week from picture book apps, DotMomming got ahold of Megg Jensen, author of the young adult fantasy Anathema (February 2011, DarkSide Publishing), to talk about e-publishing.

But first a little background on Megg. She has worked as a freelance parenting journalist since 2003 and began writing YA novels in 2009. Along with a few other writing rebels, she runs DarkSide Publishing, a sort of authors' collective that produces e-books. She blogs about writing while juggling freelancing, volunteering, and family life, and lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, two kids, and a miniature schnauzer.

DotMomming: Anathema is your first novel, and instead of going the traditional route of approaching the Big Six* publishers, you published a paperback book through CreateSpace that retails on Amazon for $11 and an e-book for Kindle & Nook that sells for $2.99. Can you tell us about that decision?

Megg Jensen: Anathema is the first novel I've published, not the first I've written. But it is the first novel I felt was worthy to send to agents. I queried it for six months, had multiple fulls requested, but failed to nab an agent. I was told YA traditional fantasy (no vamps or werewolves) wasn't popular and it would be impossible to sell the novel. A few agents even said, "But if you write another novel, please query me again."

When The Sleepers (coming out January 2012, DarkSide Publishing) was done, I sent it out to those agents who'd expressed interest in Anathema. Even more fulls were requested, and there were many more sleepless nights as I waited for a response. In early fall, I attended a conference in Naperville with fellow SCBWI member Karly Kirkpatrick. We skipped the final session and instead had a frank talk about e-publishing. She told me she was seriously considering taking the leap into self-publishing. I thought she was completely insane.

She e-pubbed her novel Into the Shadows in November 2010 and kept encouraging me to join her. I told her "no" so many times! I was set on getting an agent. The Sleepers was still with two agents, and I had sworn to myself I would not consider e-publishing until I had exhausted all of my "real" options. Over Christmas break I started reading more and more about e-pubbing. Then I read a blog post by LJ Sellers where she chronicled her decision to pull her books from a traditional publisher and e-pub. I talked to Karly more, and one day I had a lightbulb moment.

I wanted to choose my own destiny. I'd been told repeatedly that my writing was solid. I'd had agents offer to rep me if I switched genres. One agent even said, "You're a damn good writer." You know what? I finally believed what they'd been telling me. Maybe the market was too small. Maybe I really
was a great writer. If those two things were true, then it was time for me to take my career into my own hands.

I emailed the two agents who still had my full and pulled The Sleepers from them. (Insert gasp here.) One never responded, but the other spent an entire day emailing with me about my decision. She was sweet, helpful, and encouraging. She told me I was making the right decision because she knew that no matter how much she loved The Sleepers, that she'd never be able to sell it to the Big Six.

It's been nearly six months, and I have not regretted my decision once.

DM: While hitting with one of the big houses might make an author feel like she is set, there are countless authors who have received NO PROMOTION from the big guys. So the Big Six is no guarantee of big promotion. How have you promoted the book as an indie author? How is it being received so far?

MJ: Sometimes I feel like I promote 24 hours a day. Other days I take a break from promoting. Really, who wants to be bombarded with ads about my book? No one. What I have done is run contests on my blog, Facebook, and Twitter. I sent Anathema to book bloggers for reviews (yes, there are TONS of bloggers who will review indie novels). I met a lot of authors, particularly on Twitter, started a Facebook fan page, posted on my blog, attended book signings, and told everyone who's ever known me that I published a novel. However, I have only purchased one ad. Everything else has been 100 percent free.

Anathema has been very well-received. All of my sales outlets (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords) have averages of four stars or higher. I have hit multiple bestseller lists on Barnes & Noble and Amazon - lists where Anathema appeared next to authors like Alyson Noel and Maggie Stiefvater. My
Goodreads average is 4.26. I can't complain.

DM: The digital book frontier feels wide open right now. But the quality is mixed. How did you go about the editorial process before releasing Anathema? How did you try to ensure a quality book with
real literary merit?

MJ: My editorial process is the longest part of producing a novel. I wrote a blog post about my editing process, but I'll break it down quickly: My novels run through at least five drafts. I have an SCBWI critique group, no less than four beta readers, and no less than two proofreaders. DarkSide Publishing, the group formed by Karly Kirkpatrick, Genevieve Ching, and myself early in 2011, is known for
its tough critiques - especially with the addition of West Coast author Angela Carlie. We all have mad editing skills. I utilize beta readers from my critique groups (some with MFAs in writing). I also have a children's librarian who beta reads for me. Her insights are invaluable.

DM: Amanda Hocking is on every author's mind right now. (Amanda is a self-published author who, as of March 2011, has sold about 1 million copies of nine books and earned more than $2 million in sales.) What made her books a success, in your opinion? And why does this route appeal to authors?

MJ: I'll be honest, I've not read any of Amanda Hocking's books. I do read her blog, though, and chat with her on Twitter occasionally. She's awesome. What made her books a success? I think it's a combination of things. She has quite a few books out, taking up a lot of virtual shelf space. She blogs
frequently about her life, not her books, which makes her accessible to readers. Word-of-mouth really helped her books skyrocket. Isn't that always the way it works? I heard about Twilight from multiple people. Same with Harry Potter.

This is why e-pubbing is so attractive. You can make a product, package it yourself, and sell it - knowing that what really sells is word-of-mouth. Is quality important? Of course it is! A book won't spread from reader to reader if it stinks. Some people cite full control as their reason for e-pubbing. I think that's a bad reason because if you take full control over your book and don't allow input, then it probably won't be as good. I take input from beta readers, proofreaders, and from my cover designer.

DM: Can you speak to book pricing, profit margins, and trying to make a living as a writer?

MJ: If an e-book is sold at $2.99 or above, it's a 70 percent profit margin. I liked the sound of that. However, 99 cent books and paperbacks make very little in profit. People need to understand that traditionally published authors have much lower royalties because they are paying into that amazing machine that puts out books like The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. There is nothing wrong with it; traditional publishing simply has high costs due to the agent's cut, publicity, promotion, editors, etc. This is the nature of the beast. It does not make it wrong. It's only different.

There is a TON of debate over the long-term financial ramifications of e-publishing vs. traditional publishing, but it's believed that with a higher output (three to four books a year) and consistent sales, an indie author will make more money in royalties over time. So much depends on whether a book hits it big. I will say that I easily cleared my investment in producing Anathema and am making nothing but profit now. According to a recent blog post by Mandy Hubbard, in 2011 I can expect to easily clear
a midlist author's first advance. Easily.

I am not the main breadwinner at my house. I'm blessed to be married to an engineer with a stable job, and we budget solely off his income. So every dollar I make is frosting. We like lots and lots of frosting. I wouldn't recommend publishing a book (traditionally or e-publishing) and trying to make a living off it. That's reserved for those few authors whose names everyone knows: James Patterson, J.K. Rowling, and Jane Yolen. Can that happen? Absolutely, but I don't think it's the norm, and no one should expect
it.

DM: The summer reading season is upon us, and I anticipate a surge in e-book sales as more young people devour books on reading devices -- despite the risk of sand ruining their iPads, Nooks, and Kindles. What is your take on e-reading, traditional books, and the shape of things to come?

MJ: E-books will only increase in popularity. My kids, ages 5 and 9, beg to get their hands on my Nook Color and my iPhone. They can manipulate technology better than some adults. E-books are the future. I'm not a book burning radical though. I love my paper books. I'm reading a hardcover right now (The Dark and Hollow Places . . . okay, so I'm obsessed with Carrie Ryan). I can't imagine ever fully giving them up, and I don't want to. Is the book world changing? Of course, that's the nature of society. Technological advances shape our world.

DM: Do you feel committed to this route into publishing? Or if a big house came knocking, would the traditional publishing routine lure you back?

MJ: Wow, if a big house came knocking tomorrow, would I give up e-publishing? They'd have to offer me an awful lot of money and really good royalties. Haha, so I guess the answer is no. (Insert another gasp here.) I really have no interest in giving up everything I've worked so hard for. I don't think authors who choose traditional publishing are wrong. This is my personal choice and path to follow.

However, I would love to have an agent, and while I've actually spoken with some recently, no decisions have been made. No, I haven't sent one query since last year. Yes, agents are interested in indie writers too.

* For those of us who love lists, here are the Big Six publishing houses. Keep in mind there are approximately a gajillion imprints within each house, but still. The going is tough. We wish you well.

Hachette Book Group
HarperCollins
Macmillan
Penguin Group
Random House
Simon & Schuster

Teens Are Reading, But Just In a Different Way

The kids are all right.

At least, that's what I took away from a recent Washington Post story about young people's reading habits.

The article looks at recreational reading in the age of Wii and XBox and real-time Tweeting. And what it says was a bit of a comfort to the part of me that wants to write books for this audience: They are reading.

And it confirms what many of us are beginning to wrap our brains around: They're reading books in digital forms.

"It's not that they're reading less; they're reading in a different way," Kim Patton, president of the Young Adult Library Services Association, says in the Post article.

The story refers to a detailed analysis into the trend on reading for fun - in books, newspapers and magazines. Researcher Sandra Hofferth of the University of Maryland has looked at the daily time-use diaries of a nationally representative sample of children 12 to 18.

The Post reports the following: Pleasure reading dropped 23 percent from 2003 to 2008, from 65 minutes a week to 50 minutes a week - with the greatest falloff for those ages 12 to 14.

So where's the bright side? The Post gives Patton's answer:

"They could be reading on the cellphone, in games, on the Web, on the computer. It doesn't mean they're not reading, but they're not reading using the printed page."

MeeGenius and Picture Book Apps: An Interesting Story

I had picture book apps on my mind after attending a meeting up at my kids' school last week. A learning counselor was talking about summer activities parents could do to keep kids' math and reading skills alive. One mother said her daughter wanted to read books on the Kindle, just like Mom and Dad. But she was worried about her daughter learning to read in an electronic format. What about the act of turning the page? Basic literacy skills? Engaging with a real book?

I contacted David K. Park who, along with Wandy Hoh, is founder of MeeGenius, a publisher of digital picture books for the iPad, iPod Touch, and the iPhone. MeeGenius has been listed on the New and Noteworthy section of iTunes, the What’s Hot section, and a staff favorite for the iPad.

“We launched our beta site and introduced the iPhone and iPad app on April 1st of this year,” says David in an online interview with dot.momming. Remember that the iPad hit the market on April 3, so they’re off and running.

“We’re ultimately creating these beautiful works to be read and enjoyed by children, so whatever medium they enjoy the most, we should adapt and provide it for them,” says David, who is the father of two young boys. “Furthermore, a digital platform will allow so many more talented authors and illustrators to get their works out there in the hands of children.”

Okay, sure, but let's get to the point: Change is bad. Everybody knows that, right?

What does an app publisher like MeeGenius have to say to calm parents and authors who are quaking in our collective boots? For authors and illustrators, we want our books to stand the test of time – in a library, on a bookshelf, under Junior’s bed! What are we supposed to do with all these changes in book publishing?

“We think you should embrace it and will be pleasantly surprised by it.”

I can see what it means for parents like me: I’m driving on our annual 11-hour roadtrip to Grandmom’s house, only this time, instead of toting a bag full of bulky picture books to keep the troops happy in the car, I download an entire library of them. In app form, those picture books are accessible at all times – whether we’re waiting in line at the St. Louis Arch, waiting for lunch at yet another Cracker Barrel, or trying to fill the endless miles.

As parents, we want our kids reading and engaging with books. So as iPad and other platforms enter the market, are parents ready for this new medium? Will they believe that their kids are getting the same out of this new experience as they are from traditional books?

Have you hugged your screen today?

I’m done apologizing.

My days of hiding my kids’ Wii remotes when unexpected guests knock at the door are all behind me. The era of ushering the little darlings away from the computer screens when the neighbors stop by is history.

I’m now embracing technology, that 2.0-pound gorilla in the room. I’m getting more comfortable with the place it’s found in my home. While I used to cringe at how tech-savvy my five-year-old was (“He should be reading more books!”), now I’m all right (and a little impressed) with the way he can move so fluidly from beating his big brother at basketball on the Wii to downloading a free game on the iTouch to picking up where he left off playing Spore on the laptop.

What’s made me stop apologizing for all this tech play at my house? It might have something to do with a recent job I started, working with an academic whose area of research is digital media and urban schools. Or maybe it's from reading stories about serious institutions like the MacArthur Foundation’s commitment to digital media and young people’s learning.

But most likely it has to do with a talk I heard Thursday night at 57^th Street Book Store in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. The speaker was Stephen Roxburgh, a former children’s book editor and publisher who is at the forefront of the e-book revolution. Having recently founded a new publishing venture called namelos, which can deliver a children’s novel in the click of a button, Stephen talked to us about the current convulsions in the book publishing industry. He likened it to Gutenberg’s arrival on the scene back in the mid-1400s.

“Screens are the future of content delivery, not ink on paper.”

Stephen (pictured here at 57th Street Books) says this on his blog, but it was also the essence of what he discussed with the bookstore audience, made up mostly of SCBWI-Illinois writers and illustrators who have an enormous stake in the conversation. When I heard Stephen – legendary editor of such distinguished children’s authors as Roald Dahl, Madeleine L’Engle, Carolyn Coman, and Uri Shulevitz, to name a few – talk about embracing the book delivered via computer screen as closely as the one bound in leather with gilt pages, I began to question my own thinking.

Technology is changing so rapidly, every day offers tremendous change from the one before. It’s all a bit dizzying. But there is no mistaking that products like Apple’s iPad are revolutionizing the way we live, work, and enjoy our leisure time.

Says Stephen, “. . . a powerful tablet computer with a high-resolution screen and intuitive operating system is the face of the future of reading. . . .”

And when I look at my kids – my five-year-old especially, who has used his daddy’s iTouch like a pacifier, tucking himself into a big chair in the corner of our family room when he needs a little quiet time – I couldn’t agree more.

They are perfectly content to enjoy a picture book delivered by one of the many screens in our house as from the glossy pages of the hardback book they pluck off the shelf. They are equal opportunity consumers of media right now, but I have a feeling that they are going to prefer their books online soon. Because that’s where they have been going for information and entertainment since they could toddle over to a chair, clamber up at a desk, and click the mouse to bring up the Sesame Street website. PBS Kids’ online games have been as crucial to their reading development as the dog-eared copies of Dr. Seuss’s ABCs.

So it’s official. As of Thursday – which was Earth Day, I might note – I am done apologizing for my kids’ screen use. Though we still love paper books in our house (they are everywhere, even wedged beneath the cushion where I am sitting), I am comfortable with my kids reading new ones as well as the classics via a screen.

And if it means we save a few trees in the bargain, all the better. It’s one less thing I have to apologize for.