“Mommy, can you download me a story?”
Ah, the bedtime story. The little ones in their pajamas, all tucked into bed, getting ready to listen to yet another telling of a kidlit classic like Goodnight Moon… on their iPods?
Donna Vickroy, a columnist for Chicago-area newspaper Southtown Star, takes issue with AudibleKids.com, a new offshoot of audiobooks site Audible.com, which offers kids’ books for download.
There’s a popular children’s book that bears the title, “Let’s Talk About Being Lazy.”
How convenient that it may very soon be available in audiobook form.
Look, I agree that followers of attachment parenting can take that 24/7 lovey-dovey stuff too far.
And I believe that audiobooks are a refined arm of the technology craze.
But to expect parents to welcome the automation of their bedtime story reading duties is just plain cold.
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And yes, something must be done to combat the reluctant reader phenomenon.
But when Audio Publishers Association president Michele Cobb says, “I hear lots of people talking, saying that when they put their kids to bed, they put them down with an audiobook,” you have to wonder whether virtual parents - today’s version of barbarians - aren’t knocking at the gate.
