58% of Children Still Prefer Reading Physical Books

For every Christian author out there that has considered writing a children's book, here is some good news...The Bookseller reported that 58% of children STILL prefer reading physical books. Why is this good news? Well, sometimes it's difficult to imagine putting a children's book into a digital format and while children are going to the digital formats a survey of 1,074 children ages 6-17 by the Scholastic Inc's Kids and Family Reading Report found the following:

*58% of respondents aged 9-17 said they will always want to read books printed on paper even if there are e-books available.  

Do children like to read for fun?

* Among the children who have read an e-book, 21% said they are reading more books for fun

*48% of boys aged 6-8 are most likely to read for fun 5-7 days a week, 37% of Boys aged 9-11, 28% aged 12-14 and 18% aged 15-17

* 47% of girls aged 6-8 are also most likely to read for fun 5-7 days a week,  40% of girls aged 9-11, 28% of girls aged 12-14, and 30% of girls aged 15-17.

Why do Children & Parents like e-books?

*Children and parents identified convenience as the most popular benefit to reading e-books, with 57% of children and 50% of parents choosing this reason. Having a read-aloud option was only chosen by 31% of children, and was therefore their least popular benefit, and 22% of parents.

* Children prefer e-books when they don't want their friends to know what they are reading, and when they are traveling, the survey found, but value print books more when they are reading at bedtime and when they want to share a book with friends.

So...what's so great about an ebook?

* Meanwhile, 72% of children cited a dictionary as the most important attribute of an e-book, with 70% choosing note-taking, highlighting and commenting features and 67% choosing built-in activities to make a child a better reader and/or build vocabulary.
 

So what does this mean for us as authors? Well, I believe it shows that we need to change with the times. While children are still reading printed books, having our books available in a digital format will be a great thing to expand our reach with children, parents, and schools.  This also lets us know that if we continue to produce great content there are children who want to read it.