The primary focus of ebook titles to date has been adult fiction and non-fiction.  As a result, no one ebook system has a childrens' and young adult collection of any great depth or variety.   What follows is a summary of ebook titles available for younger reader, categorized by ebook system.  

As of April 23rd, there were 149 Gemstar titles in the category "Kids & Teens" at BN.com.   Approximately 40% of the titles are classics, such as Aesop's Fables and Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows.  Many of the remaining titles are publications from independent e-publishers such as YellowCreek Publishing, MountainView Publishing, Wordbeams and Hard Shell Word Factory.  Prices at BN.com range from $1.95 to $19.96, with the majority listed under $5.00

Gemstar titles are predominately text, having few, if any, graphics and no color.  This is dictated by the monochrome screens of the Rocket, SoftBook and REB1100 devices and the necessity to keep the file sizes small for quick downloading over modems.  As a result, the books lack the color and pizzazz that one might expect from a children's book.

BN.com lists 75 titles under the "Kids & Teens" category for the Microsoft Reader format.   There is very little overlap of titles between Gemstar and Microsoft.  The majority of Microsoft titles come from Storytellers Ink Publishing Company or iBooks, Inc.  The more popular titles in the Microsoft format come out of a partnership between Sesame Workshop and Random House Children's Books.   These books, based on the characters of Sesame Street, a popular, educational children's program, are also available as hardcover books, but are not available in any other ebook format.  Starting with a trilogy of titles based on the Elmo character, there are now approximately ten Sesame Workshop ebook available. 
 

Prices for the Microsoft Reader children's books range from $1.99 to $12.95 with the majority being in the $5.00-range.   Unlike the Gemstar titles, the Microsoft Reader titles include very colorful images. 

84 titles are listed under "Kids & Teens" at BN.com.  Adobe's children's titles come primarily from ipicturebooks.com.  Although an affiliate of Time Warner, ipicturebooks.com creates very colorful ebooks for children, ages 6 months to ten years, for a wide range of publishers.  Some of ipicturebooks.com's content is "born digital" while other is digitized paper-based books. ipicturebooks.com plans to release enhanced ebooks later this year with animation, music and customizable features. 

Adobe/Glassbook format titles range in price from $2.99 to $12.80, with the vast majority (from ipicturebooks.com) priced at $3.99. The Adobe/Glassbook format better lends itself to the children's book format than does the Microsoft or Gemstar format because of Adobe's optional two-page display which can support a story-line that extends across two pages.

Peanutpress.com does not have a children's section in its online bookstore, but there are about 75 public domain classics, many of which, such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, would be appropriate for young teens.  In addition, a "teen" section has 9 titles, including two based on the popular TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."  Also, there are approximately 58 titles from various Star Trek series.   The price of most titles are between $4.00 and $6.50.

The Palm Reader software is available for devices running on Palm OS or Windows CE.
 

netLibrary recently introduced 35 collections of educational ebooks for children and young adults as part of its partnership with Rosen Publishing Group.  Categorized by reading and interest level, these collections average approximately 24 titles each and cover a broad range of topics and issues.  For example:
 
 

Collection	# of Titles	Reading Level	Interest Level
Helping Kids to Stay Safe	26	Grade 3	Grades K-4
Inspirational Biographies	24	Grade 3	Grades K-4
In the Zoo or In the Wild	24	Grade 3	Grades K-4
Steering Clear of Drugs	24	Grades 4-6	Grades 7-12
Exciting Career Opportunities	19	Grade 8	Grades 7-12

The average cost for a single collection is $413.  As with all netLibrary copyrighted titles, an Internet connection is required to access the titles and use is limited to one patron at a time.  Click here for descriptions of the 35 ebook collections.

If your children want more than just text and images from their books, then check out TumbleBooks, Inc.  TumbleBooks take full advantage of the digital medium by adding colorful animation, sound and interactivity to their books.  TumbleBooks are read on a Windows or Mac computer using Tumblereader software.  The software is free and takes only a few minutes to download and install. 

At present there are only 15 TumbleBook titles available-- a few are free and the rest cost either $3.99 or $4.99.   Most of the stories include colorful animation, music and optional narration. When the narration is turned on, key words in the text are highlighted with color and images as they are reached in the storyline.  The user controls the speed of the story and can easily go back to repeat a page. 

In mid-April, TumbleBooks expanded its website to include interactive puzzles and games.  In addition, a free Pocket PC version of the software, TumbleBooks To Go, is now available.

There are numerous other small collections of ebooks for children available on the Internet.  Here is just a small sampling:
 

• Antelope E-Books- 11 children's ebooks on CD-Rom, which are read on your computer using a web browser.  Each ebook has 2 versions-- one with sound and animation and the other without.  Prices are $12.95 or $14.95 each.
• Bookmice.com - its collection of ebooks includes 46 titles for "kids" and "teens."  The titles are available in HTML, PDF (viewable on Adobe Acrobat) and PalmDoc (compatible for any Palm Pilot device).  Prices are around $4.95.
• Editec Communications- approximately 70 antique children's books from the 19th and early 20th century scanned into JPG files, viewable with a web browser.  

Do you know of a good source for children's ebooks not mentioned here?  If so, please send me an email and I'll add it to this list.