Chances are your middle or high schooler is already lugging around a laptop, so no need to add another (single-use) device.

Firstly, electronic readers, like any other technology developed in a free market economy, will get better and less expensive over time. Perhaps after the initial phase of early adopters are saturated, Amazon will eventually treat this much like printer manufacturers treat printers; they sell them cheaply and make their money on inks. So perhaps, electronic readers will become loss leaders or small profit makers to get the book sales.

Secondly, electronic readers will have a hard time catching on in academia until they include some of the features books present to every good student. Imagine if the screen were interactive. The student could highlight passages, make notes, "bookmark" pages, have the reader compile his notes, and have the reader provide a table of highlighted content that could be individually named by the student for quick reference. The reader would also have to enable easily accessing those highlighted passages in the book. Now that would be an academic tool worth having.

Thirdly, don't always assume that not using paper is good for the environment. I used to think that way until I actually researched how lands by various owners are managed. Paper & forest products companies have been some of the most responsible stewards of the environment for decades. They plant multiple trees for every one harvested, responsibly manage the land by selectively cutting trees, and cut the underbrush to prevent forest fires from spreading. Most catastrophic forest fires take place on "public" land that is left to overgrow and not managed, so when fire does come, it spreads...... well, like wildfire.
When you own the land, every day is Earth day.

Cheers!