After reading children's book, Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert this week, just wondering if we have a need for some children's authors who can keep up with our changing digital learners? The book references ordering seeds from catalogs and waiting all winter long for them to come. What? You used to order bean seeds from catalogs and have to wait months to get them? Try to explain this concept to three through five year olds who don't speak English as their first language. Lois Ehlert is a famous children's author along with many classic children's book I have in my classroom that I need to retire to a closet. The concepts are out of date and don't have meaning for children in the twenty-first century.
What is the future of the book? Will children just read books on iPads, Nooks, Tablets, or whatever the latest hand held device might be? This sounds a bit daunting to consider the idea that children wouldn't actually hold a book. Never have a need to go to a library, or even a book store.
Would it be so bad though? Children could carry hundreds of books around with them all on their hand held device. Read any book they wanted at anytime, anywhere! Sounds fantastic to me! Right now for a high price we could purchase one of these new devices. A few years from now, they will become much more affordable I believe because everyone will need one.
What is the content like, that is the real question I am asking here. It seems as though we have just created an electronic version of the literature that has been around for years. I think we need some new authors and illustrators that can produce books fast enough to keep up with the demand of an ever changing world and the need for relevant information. What do you say, write a children's book today, upload it tomorrow, make millions! Change the way children learn and what they learn about!
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