Best device for audio book listening

[Embarrassednamechangeadoddle]

Both my children listen to a lot of audio books and podcasts. Currently theh listen to play always from the library and/or on the Alexa in their rooms. I’d like to get them a portable/personal device to listen to books/podcasts on their headphones, but am not sure what to get.

would a MP3 player be able to play podcasts?

or am I better to get a simple tablet I can lock the functions on?

Yoto mini player

Will play podcasts, audiobooks, has it's one radio stations, you can Bluetooth pair it to use as speaker,or connect headphones.

you could just get any bluetooth speaker and control it from your phone