That’s the title of a press release from children’s publisher Scholastic and the Harrison Group. This is an biannual study, based on a survey of kids ages 6-17 and their parents. You can find the link here.
Here are some of the key points:
The percent of children who have read an ebook has almost doubled from 2010. It’s now 46% versus 25%
Half of children ages 9-17 says they would read more books for fun if they had greater access to ebooks. A 50% increase since 2010.
72% of parents show an interest in having their kids read ebooks.
One in four boys who has read an ebook say that his is now reading more books for fun.
58% of kids ages 9-17 say they will always want to read paper books even though there are ebooks available.
The report also notes that the gender gap in reading frequency and attitudes towards reading is narrowing; however, the narrowing of the gap is driven more by decreases among girls than it is by increases in boys.
Among girls since 2010, there has been a decline in frequent readers (42% vs. 36%), reading enjoyment (39% vs. 32% say they love reading), and the importance of reading books for fun (62% vs. 56% say it is extremely or very important).
Among girls ages 12-17 there was an increase in the amount of time they spend visiting social networking sites and using their smartphones for going online.
Among boys since 2010, there has been an increase in reading enjoyment (20% vs. 26% say they love reading), and importance of reading books for fun (39% vs. 47%). Reading frequency among boys has stayed steady, with 32% being frequent readers.
Paul Biba is a retired corporate international lawyer who has worked in 53 countries. Since he is a very fast reader he came to ebooks out of self-defense in order to avoid carrying a suitcase of books on his travels around the world. An early ebook adopter, he has read on Palms, Pocket PCs and practically every device that has been out there. After being a frequent contributor to TeleRead.com, the oldest ebook/epublishing blog on the net, Paul became TeleRead's Editor-in-Chief, a position he recently resigned. Send Paul an email to paulkbiba@gmail.com
