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How and Why to Read and Create Children’s Digital Books

A Guide for Primary Practitioners

1st Edition

How and Why to Read and Create Children’s Digital Books outlines effective ways of using digital books in early years and primary classrooms, and specifies the educational potential of using digital books and apps in physical spaces and virtual communities. With a particular focus on apps and personalized reading, Natalia Kucirkova combines theory and practice to argue that personalized reading is only truly personalized when it is created or cocreated by reading communities. Part I suggests criteria to evaluate the educational quality of digital books and practical strategies for their use in the classroom. Specific attention is paid to the ways in which digital books can support individual children’s strengths and difficulties, digital literacies, and language and communication skills. Part II explores digital books created by children, caregivers, teachers, and librarians and offers insights into how smart toys can likewise enrich children’s reading for pleasure.
 

200 pages | 6.14 x 9.21 | © 2018

Free digital open access editions are available to download from UCL Press.


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Reviews

“This is an exciting and innovative book—not least because it is freely available to read online but because its origins are in primary practice. The author is an accomplished storyteller, and whether you know, as yet, little about the value of digital literacy in the storymaking process, or you are an accomplished digital player, this book is full of evidence-informed ideas, explanations and inspiration.”

Liz Chamberlain, Open University

“At a time when children’s reading is increasingly onscreen, many teachers, parents, and carers are seeking practical, straightforward guidance on how to support children’s engagement with digital books. This volume, written by the leading expert on personalized e-books, is packed with app reviews, suggestions, and insights from recent international research, all underpinned by careful analysis of digital book features and recognition of reading as a social and cultural practice. Providing accessible guidance on finding, choosing, sharing, and creating digital books, it will be welcomed by those excited by the possibilities of enthusing children about reading in the digital age.”

Cathy Burnett, Sheffield Hallam University

Table of Contents

"1. Introduction
2. Summary of research on children’s digital books
3. Children’s digital books: where to find them and how to
evaluate them
4. Using digital books to support children’s language
and literacies
5. Using digital books to support individual children
6. Children as authors of digital books
7. Teachers as authors of children’s digital books
8. Parents as authors of children’s digital books
9. Digital libraries and library management systems
10. Innovative approaches to support personalised multimedia
story-making"

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