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Amazon's Kindle for kids: 5 takeaways from an 8-year-old reader (and his mom)

Michelle Maltais, Christopher Gurdal
USA TODAY

When Amazon announced it was launching a Kindle for kids, in my house, we cheered, "Finally!" 

My 8-year-old son, Christopher, is an avid reader who devours huge books in what has become an expensive and space-gobbling habit.  We cried "uncle" around Prime Day and bought an entry-level Kindle for him to earn – by reading.

Our choices were to either give him a reading device with unfettered access to all that Amazon and the open internet offered or go the route of, say, a Fire tablet that is a walled garden and doubles as a reading device. The tablet has the option for time-sucking distractions like Netflix and games on it, so no dice.

Now there's another option for a pure portable reading device. Amazon just launched its Kindle Kids Edition. 

The Kindle Kids Edition by Amazon costs $109.99 and comes with a two-year replacement guarantee.

What you get for $110 

The Kindle Kids Edition, priced at $109.99, is a 6-inch, e-ink display and adjustable front light tucked safely inside a hard-shell case (available in four options: pink, blue, Rainbow Birds and Space Station) and wrapped in a two-year guarantee that Amazon will replace a broken unit for no extra charge. The bow on this is the one-year subscription to Amazon's FreeTime Unlimited service, which usually goes for $2.99 a month for Prime members ($4.99 for nonmembers) and gives you password-protected access to a selection of more than 2,500 age-appropriate e-books. The device is eligible both for Prime free delivery and Amazon Smile donation. 

Unlike all-ages versions, it's an ad-free environment, and Amazon says it won’t share your kids' reading data with advertisers or third parties.

Christopher spent about a week using Amazon's new kids' Kindle

To better understand whether it's worth dropping real cash for a kids' reading device, we put it in expert hands. Here are five takeaways a third-grade Kindle user has to offer after spending about a week using the device, with some parental guidance: 

1. It's basically the same as a regular Kindle – but those cases...

Kid perspective: I like having a wide selection of books whenever I go. And overall, the kids' Kindle and the one I have are basically the same. You can read anytime you want; I never worry about battery life. In my Kindle, the battery basically lasts forever, and you barely have to charge it. This new one lasts just as long. 

One downside is, you can download graphic novels like “Jedi Academy” and “Big Nate.” But if they’re in color, you're missing out a bit because the Kindles show only black and white. 

The cases look pretty sturdy. I accidentally dropped the kids' Kindle. My mom froze, but it was OK. I’d pick one like the birds or the blue because that’s my favorite color. (We were sent the Space Station design.)

Parent perspective: The big difference, from my perspective, between the Kindle my kid uses and this new device? Remote parental control and peace of mind. 

I do like that the device has all the bells and whistles of the regular Kindle. With the case it comes in, it wakes automatically to where you left off as you open the case, just like a regular book. No swiping or tapping needed. 

Amazon Kindle Kids Edition

When I saw the two covers with designs, I thought, eh, this is really for a younger crowd, not so much the ages 7 and up it claims to be targeting. And these days, having just pink and blue solid color options doesn't cut it anymore. If we're paying more for the device, there should be more appealing options. 

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2. Both kids and parents can track progress

Kid perspective: I feel like I am a confident reader. But some books have very hard words, like “antidisestablishmentarianism.” I really like that the Kindle gives definitions and hints on what it means. You can adjust how much it helps and even build a vocabulary list you can revisit and test yourself on until you can mark the words off as "mastered." 

Word Wise feature helps kids with definitions.

The Kindle tracks your reading and gives progress awards, which I think will inspire kids to read because who doesn’t like getting an award – and who doesn’t like getting the top award?

The progress tracking on the kids’ Kindle can expose you to stuff you don’t know about your reading habits, like that you’ve read a hundred pages. For me, it was in such a short period of time, I didn’t believe it. 

Parent perspective: You can set daily reading goals on the device. You can also see more stats, such as progress made in the book, total time spent reading per book and how many words your young reader looked up. Yes, it's a bit of gamification of reading, but that's often what resonates with kids (and adults) to affirm good habits. 

There are three sections for insights: Books, Activity and Achievements. I can see that, as of Oct. 31, Christopher moved up from "Just Getting Started" and "Book Worm" levels to make it to the "Over Achiever" and  "On a Roll" achievement levels for surpassing his daily goal and reading 100 pages. 

If I can't wrest the Kindle from his grip to see these on-device stats, I can see remotely on the Parent Dashboard (also available for activity on Amazon's Fire tablets).

3. You can listen to books, but who gives kids wireless headphones? 

The Kindle offers support for listening to Audiobooks, but it, like the iPhone, has no headphone jack

Kid perspective: Well, not my mom and dad. That's for sure. They would definitely not buy me any wireless headphones or earbuds because they are expensive and too easy to lose. Really, listening to books is not something I could see using very much anyway. But I can see this being something my sister might use – she's 6 and still building her confidence in reading. But I might use it for things that I feel should be read to me, say, if my mom didn’t have time to read it to me. I could just connect the wireless headphones to the Kindle and listen to a book. Also for kids who have dyslexia like some of my friends, this could be helpful.

Parent perspective: In our house, we've learned it's better to spring for headphones at the dollar store – because we're talking about kids who kill things, regularly. We have to replace headphones often and, no, not because they are cheap. 

Being able to listen to audiobooks or follow along on the Kindle is a great idea (which is also available on the every-age versions of Kindles), it's not altogether practical unless you trust your little readers with your pricey new AirPods. I'm not willing to give my Galaxy Earbuds to them, so this feature is mostly a nonstarter for us. You could actually put it on Bluetooth speaker instead.  

Emerging readers can enjoy independent reading with the Kindle Kids Edition, including features such as audio support and Word Wise, which teaches new words.

4. Great, I can share it with my sister

Kid perspective: I’m not a big fan of this idea because I believe my sister could break it, and it would break my heart. I could just pick up a book and start reading it, but the Kindle has a very large selection right in my hand. But I still have to remind myself that you can always go to the library and check out a book. (Reading checked-out e-books from the library also works on the kids' version of the Kindle.) 

Parent perspective: One device to rule them all. It's more appealing than the idea of spending $100 times two since we probably wouldn't spend that much on paper books for them in a year. (Even with Amazon's offer of 25% off the second one, it's still edging up close to a total of $200.) Plus, in a house that already has too many devices, this could give us the flexibility to hand the same Kindle to either of our kids and have it know right where each left off. 

5. Putting boundaries on boundless reading

Kid perspective: I think it's important to set boundaries, even if I don't like them. Because sometimes you can read for a very long time and kind of get cranky or sleepy. I'm not always very responsible about when to read and when it's time to stop. So I think having boundaries built into the Kindle will help me to read more responsibly. 

Also, you are limited when it comes to explanations from Wikipedia, though – during the FreeTime your parents have set, you cannot do Wikipedia look-ups. 

Parent perspective: You can't read a book in bed after lights out without a flashlight – but, we have learned, you can read a Kindle for hours and fool your parents. (It doesn't take a whole lot of backlighting, apparently, to read the screen in the dark.)  After a few sleepy/cranky school days, we have learned to check more attentively for sneaky post-bedtime Kindle reading. With the FreeTime software that's on the Kids Edition, we can set the device to shut off access at a specific time for our voracious reader. 

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Should we get Kindle Kids Edition?

This is a tricky question. As Black Friday and Cyber Monday come up, you can probably expect deals on everything, perhaps including Kindle e-readers, as there were during the Prime Day sales in July. The device is, essentially, a more protected entry-level Kindle, which already costs $20 less. That's without a cover or coverage. 

Add to this that Amazon says it will release the very software as an update in January. That means you can convert current and selected previous-generation Kindle e-readers to a kid-friendly reader with the FreeTime interface. In other words, you can make your own kid Kindle – sort of.  

Still, the greatest selling points for the Kindle for kids are the year of FreeTime Unlimited with thousands of books they'll want to read, such as the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson series, and that two-year, kid-proof warranty. 

There's definitely comfort in knowing a crunched or cracked Kindle would be replaced without added cost. 

Follow USA TODAY consumer editor Michelle Maltais on Twitter: @mmaltaisLA
https://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/story/tech/gadgets/2019/11/06/amazon-kindle-kids-tablet-review/2500711001/
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