Reading an eBook: The Velventeen Rabbit

 The value of the book for education.

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11757)

As a child, I was effectively disheartened by the story The Velveteen Rabbit. I missed the end really, now I understand that.  


In order to review this book, I chose to send it to my Kindle and view it in that format.  I have to say, that the experience was very similar to being read to as a child.  I downloaded the file with the pictures and found that they were just as colorful and vibrant as they would have been in the story.  The only minor issues I had was a little bit of formatting issues (didn't really detract), and the idea that you can't judge how far you are in the book based on how many pages are being moved from the right side to the left side bothers me, but I doubt a student would care.  Also, I am the kind of reader who remembers what part of the page a particular word or phrase is on (like the word "chartreuse" on the bottom left of the left page) which helps me find it later (especially with fictional works) when I need to show someone else.  On a Kindle, you can't have that kind of information.


When I was browsing for a book to read, I found many selections for students.  They are generally classic books, but books nonetheless.  All for free!  I teach students who do not have access to many books in their lives and I just could not get over the amount of books I could get into their hands if they had eReaders.  Instead of buying individual class sets of novels (which can be costly) a class set of Kindles could hold HUNDREDS of novels for novel studies.  My mother was once told that if there were a piano in our house, someone would learn how to play it.  I spent most of my childhood reading (as it turns out, we had lots of books too), so the role of playing went to my little sister.  I feel the same way about books.  Give kids the access and the love will come (kind of like the theory behind arranged marriages :) ).  Our students are at a disservice by not having access to these classics at no cost!