I met with a pair of publishers and former database folks this week to talk about eBooks.  Ben asked me, “What is an eBook supposed to be beyond a PDF?”

I thought this was a great (but hard to answer) question. In School LibraryLand, we’ve had lots of discussion about the value of audio books, but I haven’t had a single conversation on text-based eBooks and how they’re being used in elementary school libraries.

In our discussions, I brought up the International Children’s Digital Library as one example of high-quality digital books.  Of course, there’s also TumbleBooks … but I keep feeling like there’s more out there that we haven’t talked about yet. 

We also talked about the reality that print books remain a cost-effective, one-time investment that’s easily portable, comes in a full range of reading levels, doesn’t break the bank if lost or damaged, and easily shared. 

Has anybody had this discussion about elementary eBooks yet? We’d love to know! (And anything else you’d like us to know about eBooks as well!)

We’re starting to see lots of YA book trailers, but not many for elementary.  So when I saw this one on the Kid’s Lit blog for Michael Hall’s My Heart is Like a Zoo, I got excited!

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, take a look at how many animals Hall creates from hearts.

Enjoy!