Are Kindles any good for kids?

[BelindaHogg]

Considering buying one for my eldest son who is 8. Interested in experiences - are they any good for kids? Is it better to stick with printed books? Will an 8 year old break it in a few weeks?

I think they're difficult to break, but I hate mine. IMO books are much more cosy and nicer. And you can't pass any books you buy in kindle on to anyone else once you've finished them.

With a good quality cover, they are very robust. I've got the Kindle brand leather cover (in a very nice apple green) and my 8yo uses it regularly with no problems at all.

Personally, I love a real paper book, but the Kindle is so portable and user friendly that I'd struggle not to recommend it

Not sure about 8, my 13 year old niece loves hers.

Thanks for the feedback.
I'm also attached to paper books especially for the artwork.
It's useful to know that they are an option as we are rapidly filling up with unwanted books. I recycle to charities where I can but it does seem a shame.
I've also heard that for their favourites people buy both paper and ebook.

I bought one for my ten year old, because I was sick of him borrowing mine! He loves it, it goes everywhere with us.he was always a good reader, but reads more now. It is especially good in getting him to read long books that would be heavy to hold, for example he would never read Harry Potter before, but once it was on the kindle he devoured the whole series in about a fortnight! He has loads of paper books too though. I only really buy reference books or illustrated on paper now as the kindle is so handy and portable.

My 10 yr old DD has one. She still reads a lot of paper books as well.
There aren't as many free books or cheaper books for her for her Kindle as there are for me in the adult section so she only really stocks up on books when it's her birthday and christmas and she receives Amazon vouchers.

Thanks again for replies.
I'm thinking of taking the plunge!
I think we'll keep the reference and larger books and try out a few of the Potters etc.
I've checked out the prices and it's true the Kindle books are almost as much as the printed ones! I was shocked.

the range of children's books available via kindle is not very good yet.
Also, the prices can be higher than just buying the paperback 9they always show the discount off the RRP print price but you don't usually have to pay the RRP print price anyway...

My 8 year old uses my kindle to read Percy Jackson but he also likes diary fo a wimpy kid and that's ot available on kindle.

Anice -

Thanks for your reply. I've now bought a Kindle and I'm looking around for books we'll have a look at some Percy Jackson.
Are there any other ebooks the boys age 8 will like?
My son likes space ships and sci-fi.

My son adores my kindle. He is VERY obsessed with computers and it reay appeals to him :) we got roald dahls revolting rhymes for kindle. It's really funny and you can read a poem in a few spare minutes :) he also liked the witches on there. You miss out on the fabulous illustrations though.

Kindles are great, and remember there are lots of free ebooks out there as well, so your son will have access to lots more books.

Although remember there is also the amazon free kindle for computers, so you can still read ebooks on a laptop or normal computer if you download that.

The Terry Pratchett children's range are good - Only You Can Save Mankind, Johnny and the Bomb, Johnny and the Dead.

I got a cheap book too which was really good - The Cornerstone by Nick Spalding.

Anything by Eoin Colfer and Susan Cooper may be worth a try too.