With the growth of the internet, and its reputation for increasing chatter and diminishing attention span, how far can you trust children to choose their own reading? Research carried out for World Book Day suggests that a growing number of teenagers are using the new technologies not just to chat to friends but for serious reading. From a sample of 505 teens aged between 13 and 18, 40.8% had read a book on a computer, nearly one in five (17.2%) had read one on a mobile phone, and 13.3% on a Tablet or iPad.
Today (Thursday 3 March) the Guardian launched the first national newspaper books website devoted entirely to young readers. This Children's Books website is an adult-free zone, with contributions from an editorial panel of young people (known as curators) from all over the world. So far, 100 have signed up from as far afield as Peru and Egypt, and have been busily at work deciding which books they want to discuss and how to do it.
The site will be divided into three reading "zones": seven and under, eight to 12 and 13-plus.
Source: www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/mar/01/childrens-books-website