Special Issue of the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy

Guest Editors: Kathleen Roskos and Adriana Bus

The surge of e-books and storybook apps into the early childhood world is rapidly changing the traditional early book experience and thereby the way literacy is promoted in early education. What the dynamics of e-book reading (solo or shared) mean for early literacy development and learning is emerging along several fronts from e-book design to impact on children’s engagement and learning to instruction with e-books. As e-books increasingly replace print books on an array of devices, the need to understand their impact on children’s early literacy development and learning grows more urgent. Children spend an increasing amount of time alone with books presented on electronic devices at the expense of parents and teachers sharing books with them. The consequences of this 21st century trend need to be examined. When and for whom do e-books change early literacy experience and to what effect? What are learning analytics revealing about early reading processes and engagement in the screen environment? What kinds of collaborations and partnerships are essential to produce high-quality e-books for the early literacy curriculum? What pedagogical skills do teachers need to provide effective early literacy instruction with e-books?

To address these fundamental questions of e-book reading in early childhood and also to spark scholarly debate, we propose a Special Issue on the role of e-books in early literacy experience and education. Based on an enthusiastic response to an eBooks in Early Literacy conference recently held in Tempe, AZ, it is clear that there is high interest in e-books for young children from many sectors, including early childhood researchers, teacher educators, app developers, e-book authors, educational technology reviewers, publishers and librarians. Communication across sectors converges on the need for quality information, evidence and research that enlarges our understanding of this powerful newcomer to the early literacy field – the e-book.

In this Special Issue, we invite articles that describe original research, critically review research studies, or otherwise discuss issues of theory and research, and essays that examine issues, critique perspectives, or present arguments on the following topics:

Contexts for eBook Research