PW recently had an article, "What Do Children's Book Consumers Want?" It summarizes surveys done by some of the top publishing houses in the country.
In this rush towards a digital age, the findings were somewhat surprising. For instance "books ranked number one over all other media for the youngest ages." Yay! And 68% of children's get the books they read for fun from their school library and 64% from public libraries. (And yet our libraries are facing closes all over the country???)
Even more good news - 58% of children 0-6 read for fun. Granted, that goes down as they get older - 39% by the time they hit their teens. But even so, we're talking Print books - not eBooks.
Yes, the future of eBooks is HUGE, but it's heartening to read that our beloved print books are still going strong as well.
8 comments:
That is good news!
Yay for good news! (And books!) :)
M
Elizabeth, I always enjoy reading your posts, especially the good news ones. My little grandson Konnor, almost two, loves books, also stories on the Ipod. But at night he really loves to cuddle up with a book, nothing else compares.
For a long time to come I think print books will be appreciated and loved by kids and their families. There's something special about actually turning a page in a book, especially a picture book.
Great news!
Yup to all. As much as I find eBooks exciting - I should hope we never lose the love of a traditional picture book. (I've based my career on it!) :) e
I'm currently in school to become either a children's librarian in a public library or a school media specialist in an elementary school so this news brightened my day. While I do not have children yet, I can't imagine that a child could find a digital picture book to be as exciting as the actual book. I hope/think that picture books will be around for a long time!
Me too LibKid! :) e
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