Abcarian: Does it matter if our kids won't pick up a book?
LA TimesBooks await readers at Once Upon a Time Bookstore in Montrose, the country’s oldest children’s bookstore, on Oct. 24, 2020. It was bedtime and we were reading “Make Way for Ducklings,” the children’s classic about the mallard couple who waddle around Boston trying to find a safe place to raise their brood. “They may not love books like ‘The Secret Garden’ or ‘Nancy Drew,’ but our kids aren’t wired that way.” Playing video games is reading, she said. :: Online you can find oceans of information about how important reading is to a child’s developing brain and tips for making reading more attractive In her latest book, “How We Read Now: Strategic Choices for Print, Screen, and Audio,” the linguist Naomi S. Baron cites a British survey in which secondary students said they preferred reading e-books over printed books because books are “boring.” “Print can tire you out really fast and get boring no matter how interesting the book is,” said one student. Also, “today’s students subliminally feel that when reading in print, they’re supposed to go more slowly and expend more effort.” And finally, since teachers often tell students that print and digital are “educationally equivalent … students believe them.” How, she wondered, “can we fault students for making the choice between ‘equals’ that’s.
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