Maryanne Wolf, is a cognitive neuroscientist who has focused much of her research on dyslexia and reading. This book, Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World is a series of letters in which she describes the effects of reading digital content, especially short and fast modes of communication, on the "reading brain."
Much of the book is focused on the impact exposure to digital reading will have on the brain development and reading and analytical skills of children who grow up using digital devices from a very early age. She has chapters devoted to the development of brain function in toddlers, children under five, and five to ten year olds and outlines some ideas of how to develop biliterate children who function well with both print and digital reading. She also discusses the impact on the memory and analytical skills of older readers who were trained to read in print and are now immersed in a digital world. In an era when there is growing concern over a population unable to read critically to discern fake news and have empathy for others, this is a timely book.
Wolf is also the author of Proust and the Squid : the Story and Science of the Reading Brain and Tales of Literacy for the 21st Century. You can find Reader, Come Home in the Hatcher Graduate Library.