E-books with extras

The flow of e-books for children into the market continues unabated. The iPad has unleased a flood of creativity and publishers are offering not only facsimiles of printed books and illustrations, but also variations. Warren Buckleitner, writing in the N.Y. Times, discusses some of the new products that parents and librarians can c hoose from. These include a new presentation of Alice in Wonderland (condensed) in which with a shake of the e-reader a child can change the picture presentation. It's not only the iPad, the iPhone and the Kindle that offer interesting new ways for children to enjoy books. Other platforms will no doubt come up with other variations. Should libraries purchase these versions? That's hard to say. How many will remain accessible and desirable for more than a year or two? With very view guidelines in this area, librarians may want to turn to Friends of the Library or other philanthropic groups to provide some of these possibilities to children. As time winnows out the ones that have less appeal, libraries may consider using some of their precious budget funds to provide the winners. The important task at this point is to remain aware of possibilities.