Kindle Kids (2019 release), a Kindle designed for kids, with parental controls - Rainbow Birds Cover.

If I could give the is Kindle Kids edition 10 stars I would! I am an avid reader myself, reading at least a few times a week on my own kindle and wishing I could read more like I used to before kids! I happened upon this Kindle Kids by accident while looking for something else and after reading about it for a few minutes purchased one for my 8 year old. Best decision I have made in a long time! First, the fact that it comes with a case, no ads, and free time (thousands of good well known books and more) is just amazing at this price! And the best part is that when I tell me son he has to read for a bit he’s not distracted by the other features like he is when he’s using his Kindle fire. No enticing games or utube on this baby! Just good ole books! Period! Sure, it’s still a kindle, and the lowest version of the kindle you can get. While I love my kindle no one can say that it’s perfect and it definitely has its quirks and frustrations for something built in this day and age. (Slowness, glitches, and the likes). But this for me was the best thing I have purchased for my son all year! Highly recommend if you want something that is just for books, and only for books!

This is my first time purchasing any actual Kindle e-readers.. I have used the app and the cloud reader for years and didn't see the need, until now. I bought 2 of these -- one for each of my children. They already have tablets with which they could read e-books,, but I am putting those away for a while. I wanted them to get used to using their free time to read without the distraction or temptation of knowing their device can do so many other cool games, apps, videos, etc. My children adapted to tablet-free life in less than 2 days. I like that the cases are practical and cute. (I also like the 2 - year worry free guarantee, knowing my darlings as well as I do.) One thing I'm super grateful for is that these Kindles can play audiobooks from Audible, but you have to use a Bluetooth connected output device. My children love audiobooks but they didn't always remember to use headphones with their tablets so at any time of day or night I would hear strains of Harry Potter narration wafting through the house. Kid gets up to use the bathroom at 3 AM and I'm startled awake to the riveting details of a Quidditch match. (Yes, I'm a bad, bad, technology-dependent parent who sends the kiddos to bed with audiobooks instead of reading them bedtime stories myself. No gold star for me!) With the Kindles, my children have no choice but to keep their stories to themselves. The Free Time/Amazon Kids Plus subscription is very helpful. There's a good variety of e-books and audiobooks within each child's age range to choose from. I can also add to their account selections I have purchased. There's a Goals and Activity feature that keeps track of how much time the child has spent reading that day, how many pages they've read, and what books they've been reading. There are "achievements" that get unlocked the more the child reads. That has been motivational for my younger child who is a little less enthusiastic about reading. The built-in dictionary and Word Wise are such neat features to help build vocabulary. They don't work on the graphic-novel-style Big Nate books, though. My favorite thing is the e-ink display. It is very easy on the eyes and my children have been reading themselves to sleep. So far, I am very happy with this purchase.

I will start this by stating what others have, but which seems necessary as many people are expecting something different: This is an Ebook Reader not a tablet, meaning, yes, it is black and white. One of the things we love in our household about eReaders is how they don't strain our eyes, they feel very close to reading an actual book, because E-Ink technology is amazing at that, and because it's such a nice feeling not having all the distractions we have on our smartphones, tablets and computers daily. I personally spend most of the day in front of a computer screen because of my work, and because I work from home, sometimes it could be even more than one thinks should be healthy! So having said that, we all are used to having Kindle eReaders in the household and figured it would be a fine idea to introduce our 8-year-old to reading for fun -- specially when she's not in school! I love the screensaver graphics which were well thought for kids. Of course, I still like the feature in FreeTime Unlimited that allows you to set up a reading objective before she can go back to the tablet and watch videos or play games in a kid environment. It's really great that parents are able to check progress, what the child is reading and the time they are spending in which activity. It's a bargain that they're giving away the 1-year Amazon FreeTime Unlimited with the reduced price of these and that you can use in on any Kindle Fire tablet or if you don't own one, on an iPad and other Apple and Android devices. Plus, as a parent, if you don't already have your own Kindle, you can use it as a regular Paperwhite, which is great to read even at night with it's backlit screen (adjustable). Battery is really great. The available colors are really nice. We chose the bird cover, which is purple, my niece's favorite color and she was super excited to have her own Kindle! Overall, a success!

My daughter has been an avid reader since she was 2-1/2. As a 2nd grader now, she is required to read 20 minutes every night. She LOVES electronics, but her iPads (she has a mini and a Pro), and even her "Kids Edition" Fire tablet, take her attention away, when her focus should be reading. On her Kids-Kindle there are thousands of books she can read, to accomplish her nightly reading goal. In the "Parental Controls" I can set her "goal," so as she's reading, it tells her when she has reached it (as a % on the bottom of the screen). I love that now, the Audible books that I had previously purchased, can be added to her Amazon Free Time. It's compact size means I can put it in my purse and during waiting times, at the dr's office, etc, she can read. She's in her own world, when she gets into a good book. As she gets older, she can still continue to use this Kindle, as you can exit out of "Amazon Free Time" and it becomes a regular (adult) Kindle. It came with a really cute bird case; the only thing I added was a tempered-glass screen protector. It came with a charge, but I went ahead and fully charged it anyway. After 6 days of active use, it still has 56% power left: even after we listened to a chapter of Harry Potter using her Audible book (the Bluetooth speaker we used however, didn't last through the chapter). She earns "rewards" (badges) on the Kindle for reaching different milestones. I really love this Kid-Kindle and think its perfect for encouraging children's love of reading!

You know what everyone hates about books - especially kids books for growing readers? They're expensive. They take up a lot of space when you read avidly. And you have to go out and buy them or else wait for them to ship. The Kid's Kindle mitigates and eliminates these concerns. Digital editions of texts are cheaper than print - and sometimes free. The digital format makes storage a non-issue. And instant downloads prevent and impatient person like me from balking because of inconvenience. I purchased two Kid's Kindles, one for each of my 4th grade home education students. What I love about this product is that one item can be downloaded on all the kindles attached to my amazon account at once. So I get two copies of the books I purchase for the price of one, which is great for homeschooling as I can now keep my kids on the same schedule instead of rotating them through the material because I purchased only one copy to cut costs. In addition, now I can easily reward my students with affordable, easy and interesting free reading which motivates them to achieve as well as rewarding them with something stimulating and enriching. The product isn't perfect. First, it's black and white. This didn't come as a surprise to me although some of the other users seem to have expected color. Secondly, there was a bit of a learning curve associated with the interface which was quite busy as first. After changing some settings the home screen became much more intuitive for my children to navigate. Lastly, as with most kindles, there's a bit of input lag. It's easier once you get used to it but with most touch screen products being instant response nowadays, it was a little jarring. What I appreciate about the product, however, is the one click purchase from desktop which delivers to both Kindles automatically and prompts them to download provided they're connected to our wifi, which they automatically connect upon wake up. Getting new material couldn't be easier and trust me - I really needed it to be as easy as possible. I would recommend this product. Especially for budding chapter book readers who need a lot of material to practice, but are old enough to not be miffed by the lack of color pictures.

This is our 2nd Kid's Kindle, with our older son using the earlier generation Kid's Edition. I ranked battery life at 4 because of my experience with that older edition needing more frequent charges (it still lasts several days, just not as long as it used to). Compared to the earlier edition, this one has the LED front lighting similar to the old Paperwhite, now standard on even the basic model. The reason I list this as a good deal is that this is essentially a basic Kindle, but it comes with a magnetic closing case and it is not ad supported, a feature that costs $20 to remove from the standard version. To pay for those features in the adult version will be more expensive than this package. I was on the fence about Kindle Freetime, but with the free 1 year subscription, why not try it out. It turns out my boys really enjoy the service and use it frequently, enough so that I’ll probably renew it at the end of the year. The big downside is that a parent password is required every time they exit Freetime, and they must exit Freetime whenever they want to read anything else, such as digital resources that are purchased or checked out from the library. This feature is to protect kids from accessing inappropriate content, but it also means they can’t access anything else. Honestly, of all the places and devices kids might view inappropriate content, a basic eReader is among the least of my worries. My simple solution was to give the kids the password so that they can switch back and forth at will, but not everyone will prefer this solution. Know what you are getting, this is a basic, black and white eReader. No frills, no excitement, no games, no videos, no backlight (but it does have front lighting), no glare, and this is all by design. If you want a Kindle that can play videos and games and has color, get the Fire should be cheaper anyway, or get the App which is free. We have plenty of devices that can do those other things, we want our boys to have a distraction free way to read digital content, the same reason I also read digital content on a Kindle. The main downside that I have found is that some graphic novels and comics do not work on this device, while they would work on other Kindle platforms such as the Fire or the App. A final note, our local library provides us access to a huge selection of compatible Kids content. Between that and freetime, I never really need to buy books for the kids. This has been especially good during the Pandemic, while the physical library has been less accessible.

This is a great kindle! Love that it is backlit, comes with a cover and it doesn’t have games!! Bought for my 9 year old, and the book selection with freetime is excellent. She’s thrilled that she can bring it to school for reading since it’s not a typical tablet. The size is nice, much smaller and thinner than I expected, which is perfect for smaller hands. I do find the Amazon interface to be a little frustrating. It somehow was temporarily synced to my books, which are not age appropriate, when I tried to add a book from our local library, and sometimes needs to be re-synced to her freetime account.. her books occasionally disappear, but. It sure if this is user error. Battery life is not quite as good as the non-backlit variety, obviously, but is otherwise decent. We love it.

UPDATE: Sometime in 2022, Amazon FINALLY added the bedtime parental controls to the Kids Kindles (FINALLY!!!) so as long as you have the kindle locked into one of your Kids+ profiles (be sure to set a PIN code that your kids don’t know), it will adhere to the same bedtime schedule set up for their Kids+ profiles (so the same as their Kids Echo Dots and Kids Fire Tablets). This is a HUGE relief for me as a parent, as now I no longer have to track down their Kids Kindles each night before bed to make sure they aren’t staying up all night reading under the covers. At this point if they want to do that, they have to do it the old-fashioned way with a flashlight and a paper book, but at least it’s not a backlit screen! Bumping up my star rating on this item now. Original review: I agree with many of the other reviewers that this kids version isn’t much more than a regular Paperwhite Kindle. It does have backlighting which I wasn’t sure that it would have, so that is nice. However, I was very disappointed to realize that there is no bedtime option for controlling when the kid has to stop reading at night. I contacted Amazon customer support and spent over two hours with four different representatives waiting for them to figure out an answer. They basically came back and said that there is not a bedtime option. We have a Kids Fire tablet and it shuts off at bedtime so they can’t stay up all night playing. I am shocked that Amazon would offer a Kids device that has screen savers, but Amazon does not utilize those screensavers to lock the tablet after the FreeTime Unlimited/Kids+ profile says it’s bedtime. So basically my kid could stay up all night under the covers reading this backlit reader if he wanted to. I found that very disappointing. It uses the same kids profiles as our Fire Tablet and Echo Dots and FireTV, so I don’t understand why Bedtime doesn’t translate to this device as well. We already have a FreeTime Unlimited (Kids+) subscription that was renewed two months ago, so basically all I got was an extra two months on my subscription, a blue case, and a two year warranty on breakage for the extra money that this Kids version cost over a regular Paperwhite. My daughter has a Paperwhite and it does all of the same things. She can activate her Freetime Unlimited profile on her Paperwhite if she chooses to. I was very disappointed that there are no additional parental controls on this kid’s version. So basically if you already have a free time unlimited subscription that is active from a kids Echo Dot or fire tablet, realize that all you’re getting extra with this kid’s Kindle version is a cover that you could buy separately and the warranty protection. Otherwise it’s the same thing as a normal Paperwhite kindle. :-/