There’s been a lot of discussion on the news and on the web lately about the influence of e-books on our brains, and on how we read and how we learn.  And the net is so ephemeral, that I can’t find, now, an article that I read and found fascinating just a couple of days ago (I’m going to keep looking).

But, recently, I started downloading electronic books to read to the kids.  Scholastic books has a proprietary app called Storia, which I have used, but have some issues with.  It’s clunky, bookmarking is difficult and not really intuitive, and the font is not modifiable, like most e-readers.  Particularly for picture books, at least on an iPad, the page becomes too small to see the pictures well, or read the text easily.

I have recently downloaded some kids’ books from NetGalley, which I have joined as part of my membership in the blog www.fromlefttowrite.com. I’ve been delighted to receive books to read for the club, but, particularly if i’m not sure I’ll want to reread the books, if I have the option to get an e-book version, I’ll take it.  And, as I was browsing around, I noticed that NetGalley has a lot of kids’ books.  So, I’ve downloaded and few, and I’ll likely be reviewing them here, both from the perspective of me, the mom, and the responses of the kids.

The first book we read struck me as appealing and educational:  “Where Do The Animals Go When It Rains?” by Janet S. Crown with illustrations by Daron Rosenberg.

And then we read: “Speeding Down the Spiral: An Artful Adventure” by Deborah Goodman Davis, illustrations by Sophy Naess.