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Four,” a paranormal romance by Pittacus Lore; and “Before I Fall,” a novel by Lauren Oliver. (Some sales, publishers noted, are from older people crossing over to young-adult fiction.)
11 Jon Anderson, the publisher of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, said some titles, like “Clockwork Angel” and books in the “Night World” series, nearly doubled their e-book sales in the four weeks after Christmas, compared with the four weeks before. *
12 “We had an instant reaction—‘Boy, a lot of kids got e-readers for Christmas,’ ” Mr. Anderson said, adding that another significant bump in sales occurred over the three-day weekend that included Martin Luther King’s Birthday. “If it follows the same trend as adults, it’s the start of an upward curve.”
13 Digital sales have typically represented only a small fraction of sales of middle- grade and young-adult books, a phenomenon usually explained partly by the observation that e-readers were too expensive for children and teenagers.
14 Another theory suggested that the members of the younger set who were first encouraged to read by the immensely popular Harry Potter books tended to prefer hardcover over any other edition, snapping up the books on the day of their release. And anecdotal evidence hinted that younger readers preferred print so that they could exchange books with their friends.
15 That scene may be slowly replaced by tweens and teenagers clustered in groups and reading their Nooks or Kindles together, wirelessly downloading new titles with the push of a button, studiously comparing the battery life of the devices and accessorizing them with Jonathan Adler and Kate Spade covers in hot pink, tangerine and lime green.
16 “The young adults and the teenagers are now the newest people who are beginning to experience e-readers,” said Matthew Shear, the publisher of St. Martin’s Press. “If they get hooked, it’s great stuff for the business.”
17 It is too soon to tell if younger people who have just picked up e-readers will stick to them in the long run, or grow bored and move on.
18 But Monica Vila, who runs the popular Web site The Online Mom and lectures frequently to parent groups about Internet safety, said that in recent months she had been bombarded with questions from parents about whether they should buy e-readers for their children.
19 In a speech last month at a parents’ association meeting in Westchester County, Ms. Vila asked for a show of hands to indicate how many parents had bought e-readers for their children as holiday gifts.
20 About half the hands in the room shot up, she recalled.
21 “Kids are drawn to the devices, and there’s a definite desire by parents to move
books into this format,” Ms. Vila said. “Now you’re finding people who are saying: ‘Let’s use the platform. Let’s use it as a way for kids to learn.’ ”
22 Some teachers have been encouraging, too, telling their students that they are allowed to bring e-readers to school for leisure reading during homeroom and English class, for example.
23 “I didn’t buy it until I knew that the teachers in middle school were allowing kids to read their books on their e-readers,” said Amy Mauer-Litos, Eliana’s mother, adding, “I don’t know whether it’s the device itself that is appealing, or the easy access to the books, but I will tell you, we’ve had a lot of snow days lately, and
9 times out of 10, she’s in the family room reading her Nook.” *
my Notes
Unit 3 • Changing Perspectives 199
trend: general direction
phenomenon: unusual fact or situation that is difficult to explain
anecdotal: based on personal accounts rather than facts
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