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In the past five years, there have been significant changes concerning the material and design properties of digital books, with an impact on children's enjoyment and learning from reading on screen. Despite the rapid advances in technology, research on children's digital books is disjointed. This is because of no consistent approach to the study of interactivity, an under-theorised relationship between print and digital books, and a binary design focused on either learning or playful engagement with digital books. Drawing on the discourse reminiscent of digital game designers, some developers, scholars and professionals celebrate interactivity in digital books as a possibility to motivate and engage children in reading, while a body of experimental research documents the negative impact of interactivity on children's story comprehension and vocabulary learning. This paper presents an integrative framework based on a comprehensive literature review and a content review of the hundred most popular children's digital interactive books. The framework offers: (1) methodological guidance and a definition of interactivity based on five key categories; (2) theoretical guidance based on the third-space theory; and (3) innovative design and evaluation models based on a 'method assemblage'. As such, the integrative framework provides new tools and perspectives to advance the field of children's digital books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital personal(ized) books are a relatively recent addition to the rich repertoire of literacy resources available to pre-K and elementary school teachers. This article summarizes the key ways in which personal(ized) books can enrich the language arts curriculum, drawing on a series of empirically based examples. The value of personalization in the digital stories is explained theoretically using the framework of five As: autonomy, authorship, authenticity, attachment, and aesthetics. The five As apply to personal(ized) stories created for, or by, young students and are used to generate some practical suggestions for future use of touchscreens in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a great deal of research has been undertaken in media literacy, early bilingual instruction, gender, and critical thinking, nothing has been documented about the intersection of these four areas. This interdisciplinary study explored the transformative potential of early critical media literacy practices as a medium to prompt authentic discussions about gender with young bilingual children. Adopting a qualitative case study approach, the current article focuses on kindergarten-age Korean-English bilingual children at the Korean Language School in a city in the Midwest United States. Multi-modal data were collected for a semester through classroom observations, one-to-one interviews with the parents and teacher, and the children’s artifacts. The findings suggest that critical media practice can offer young bilingual children a wide range of opportunities for critically examining gender representations in online storybooks and questioning dominant gender ideologies. The practical implications for early-years’ teachers and educators in the twenty-first century are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a discussion of electronic books for young children, adapted from the book "Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in a World of Screens" by Lisa Guernsey and Michael H. Levine. Electronic books are designed to promote children's learning and captures children's interest on games, toys, and animations.

The article discusses the educational application of "Inanimate Alice," a transmedia online novel and storytelling project developed by author Kate Pullinger, digital artist Chris Joseph and producer Ian Harper, that is being used as a literacy tool. Topics include the use of the series as a literacy and thematic tool and tips for aligning the novel with learning standards in the U.S. including the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) and the Common Core State Standards.

ABSTRACT Early experiences with books predict later reading success, and an interactive shared reading style called 'dialogic reading' is especially beneficial to emergent literacy. Electronic console ( EC) books, CD-rom books, and e-book apps are designed to teach preschoolers preliteracy skills, but research has yet to systematically explore the impact of these types of books on established predictors of positive literacy outcomes. This research fills that gap with two studies investigating dialogic language and children's story comprehension in a total of 165 parent-child dyads reading battery-operated, touch-sensitive children's electronic console books or traditional books. Results revealed that parent-child dialogic reading and children's story comprehension were both negatively affected by the presence of electronic features. Ways in which e-books may be altered to better serve as educational tools in this new era are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how online storybooks can improve reading comprehension for children. The author reports that websites such as Starfall, Magic Keys, and Book Pals provide readers with interactive opportunities to help them understand text, build reading fluency, and learn vocabulary. The author shares strategies for parents and teachers to help children develop reading comprehension, such as making connections, text coding, and reciprocal teaching.

We examine the effect of direct and indirect teaching of vocabulary and word reading on pre-kindergarten and kindergarten children following use of an electronic storybook (e-book). The children in each age group were randomly assigned to an intervention group which read the e-book or to a control group which was afforded the regular school program. The e-book included words with meaning support and words with no support. Children who read the e-book exhibited progress in the meaning and reading of the words supported directly by the computer compared to the control group. No such progress was observed for words without direct support. No differences appeared in the progress between the two age groups and no interaction was found between age and type of word support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a conceptual framework for exploring multi-modal stories for children using the children's adventure series, The 39 Clues. The framework is accompanied by concrete examples of student learning experiences, in the form of student reflections on issues related to the convergence of media and the nature of reading and children's library service in the 21st century. The article begins with a look at the series, The 39 Clues, describing its history and its format. It then provides a framework for exploring some of the issues related to reading The 39 Clues, first by introducing concepts from the literature associated with reading in the digital world and then by outlining some practical concerns librarians might have in relation to The 39 Clues. The article then presents the reflections of five students -- one MLIS student and four PhD students -- who considered multi-modal stories in light of their future practice, research, and teaching in LIS. The article concludes by summarizing five over-arching themes that emerged from the students' explorations: reading as a two-track experience, questions about authorship, evaluation skills needed to review multimodal stories, opportunities for information literacy instruction, and access and equity issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly children's educational reading material is presented in a screen-based environment. This includes a range of interactive learning tools, interactive whiteboards, on-line standardized testing material, digital books including CD-ROMs and E-Books, as well as digital reference books such as encyclopedia and dictionary. With this increase in on-screen educational reading material and use of on-screen reading material in the school, it seems clear that the quality of material intended for children's on-screen reading requires careful consideration to ensure that it is of a high standard and that it will facilitate children's learning. This investigation case study's digital books intended for learning through reading as found to be available to students of New Zealand Primary Schools. The writer analyses a selection of the products of the two publishers that were found available to primary and intermediate school children at two different schools in two different socio-economic school regions. The writer outlines specific consideration of typographic presentation with respect to eye movements that will aid in the development of material for children's on-screen learning including CD-ROM, E-Book, and web-based reading material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including the impact of electronic books on the vocabulary of learning disabled children, virtual reality (VR) technology, and the efficiency of assistive technology to children with special needs.

The article presents a speech by Wendy Lukehart, Youth Collections coordinator at the District of Columbia Public Library, delivered at the 2010 Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) Preconference, held in Washington, District of Columbia, June 2010, in which she discussed the impact of pictures, absence of color, and electronic books in the picture books for children.

The article focuses on the use of e-books and e-book readers in elementary education settings. The author suggests that e-books can be used by reading teachers to teach literacy skills to students, particularly reading and response. Particular focus is given to children's interaction with and response to digital book readers such as Kindle from bookseller Amazon, Sony Reader from electronics company Sony, and Nook from bookseller Barnes & Noble. The article provides details of a research study done in a second-grade classroom and discusses the interactive elements of e-readers including searching for key words and phrases, changing font size, and listening to portions of a book using text-to-speech features.

The effect of reading an electronic storybook (e-book) on Israeli children’s language and literacy was examined in kindergarten children (N =40; age 5:2–6:3) compared to first graders (N =50; age 6:3–7:4). The children in each age group were randomly assigned to two groups: an intervention group which read the e-book five times and a control group which was afforded the regular school program. Pre- and post-tests included vocabulary and word reading measures. Post-tests included story comprehension and production. Children who read the e-book exhibited significant progress in word meaning and word reading compared to the control group. Kindergarten children progressed in word reading more significantly than first graders across treatment groups. This could be explained by the ceiling effect of the first graders’ word reading level which did not leave much room for progress in this skill compared to the kindergarten children. No interaction was found between age and treatment groups. Kindergarten children exhibited a good level of story comprehension, similar to first graders, although their story production was lower. Implications for future research and education are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Transformational learning requires real experiences and reflection. These basic components can empower pre-service teachers involved in learning new technologies. For the sixly-six participants of this study, learning how to use HyperStudio®, a multimedia authoring software, was the event which led to frustration, tension, challenge and for many a transformation and shift of their preconceived ideas about teaching and technology. These teachers specializing in early childhood and bilingual education created an electronic Big Book that merged their learnings on multimedia authoring and predictable text patterns used in early literacy. While the students engaged in the project, the instructor provided a tutorial to aid their learning, and they were subsequently involved in an online discussion where they discussed their comfort levels before and after the tutorial was completed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Toward the goal of better e-book design to support early literacy learning, this study investigates analytic tools for examining design qualities of e-books for young children. Three researchbased analytic tools related to e-book design were applied to a mixed genre collection of 50 ebooks from popular online sites. Tool performance varied across design categories (e.g., multimedia) and administration revealing comparative strengths and weaknesses. Results inform researchers and educators who are engaged in designing and evaluating e-books as material resources in early literacy teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the benefits of using electronic books to enhance student retellings and provide specific instructions for using electronic books to support struggling readers. It is noted that e-books are an effective instructional strategy for students with disabilities. As a form of assistive technology, they give students greater access to classroom materials, fostering fluency and comprehension. They also boost students' self-esteem while providing access to texts that were previously out of reach. Some tips in developing a teacher-made e-book are presented.

This study investigates the differences in children’s comprehension and enjoyment of storybooks according to the medium of presentation. Two different storybooks were used and 132 children participated. Of these, 51 children read an extract from The Magicians of Caprona, about half reading an electronic version with an online dictionary, and the rest reading a printed version with a separate printed dictionary. The remaining 81 children read an extract from The Little Prince, 26 reading an electronic version, 26 reading the same but with narration and 29 reading a printed version. No dictionary was supplied with this storybook. The type of medium did not significantly affect the children’s enjoyment of either storybook, and while it took them longer to read the electronic versions, this difference was only significant for The Little Prince. For both storybooks, comprehension scores were higher for retrieval-type questions than for inference ones. The use of the online dictionary in the electronic condition of The Magicians of Caprona was significantly greater than that for the printed dictionary in that condition. The provision of narration in the electronic version of The Little Prince led to significantly higher comprehension scores than when narration was absent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including race in relation to children's literature, promoting resilience through reading aloud, and electronic books for children to get smart.

A call for papers regarding the use of electronic books (e-books) as primers and digital storybooks for the early literacy development and learning of children is presented.

The article discusses the Digital and Traditional Storytimes Research Project, which compares the way preschool children listen to and view digital picture books from the International Children's Digital Library (ICDL) with that of a print copy of the same picture book during group storytime in Chicago, Illinois. The books used in the project are "Axle the Freeway Cat" and "The Hunterman and the Crocodile: A West African Folktale." It explains the impact of picture size on story understanding and the advantages of using digitized books.