Perth, Oct 15: Children are now more likely to own a tablet than a shelf of print books, according to a new book from University of Melbourne researchers.
Between Reading and Screens: Navigating Changes in Children’s Digital Lives, by Sybil Nolan, Wonsun Shin, Katherine Day and Xin Pei, draws on national surveys and interviews with families and librarians. It looks at how digital devices have changed the way children grow up.
The authors argue that the story is more complicated than the familiar “screens versus books” debate.
They examine how pandemic lockdowns and remote learning intensified children’s media use and changed many parents’ attitudes.
For some families, being more involved in their children’s digital lives led to understanding rather than fear. For others, especially those with limited support or resources, the challenges were much greater.
The book places children’s reading and screen time within everyday family life. It uses survey data and portraits of individual families to show how reading and digital media now overlap, and how parents’ own habits shape the media culture of their homes.
Nolan and Shin are associate professors at the University of Melbourne and co-lead its Child and Family Mediascape Research Group. Day is a senior lecturer in publishing and communications, and Pei is a lecturer in media and communications.
The book raises questions for parents, teachers and librarians about the future of children’s literacy and imagination.
Between Reading and Screens: Navigating Changes in Children’s Digital Lives (Melbourne University Publishing) was released on 15 September 2026. It is available in paperback (208 pages) for A$29.99.
Editor’s Note: A copy of this book was provided to DailyStraits by Melbourne University Publishing for review. A full review will follow.
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