Fable

E-readers are now aiming for the kid market. Houghton Mifflin and a start-up company called Isabella have teamed up to make a kid-friendly device.

Next summer, Isabella will introduce the Fable, a combination tablet computer and e-book reader aimed at children. Unlike the black-and-white screen found on Amazon.com’s popular Kindle e-reader, the Fable will feature a full-color, 7-inch touchscreen that can display the colorful illustrations found in most children’s titles.

Sounds like titles will be cheap, between one to four dollars. These days I tend to think about children's toys and devices in terms of what my niece, who's over a year old, would like. She already loves 'DDs' (her way of saying 'DVDs*') and has a pretty good idea of the location of the buttons that work the portable DVD player her parents bought. She also loves reading. I can see this being a big hit with her. I wonder how much opportunity there will be for the e-reader to 'grow' with the child - will older titles (maybe up to pre-teen) be available? Would a pre-teen kid want to read a book on a Fable?


* Of the few kid's DVDs I've been subjected to during her visits here, I quite like Justine Clarke, though her DVDs have region issues.