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.

Natalia Kucirkova is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Education, University College London. She coedits the book series Children’s Reading and Writing on Screen and the journal Literacy.
 

— Liz Chamberlain, Open University

— Cathy Burnett, Sheffield Hallam University

— UKLA Academic Book Award 2021 judges citation