My 6-year-old reviewed Amazon's Kindle Kids – is it actually the best way to get your kids reading?

Amazon might now have a stack of products under its belt in its popular Echo range, making up some of the best smart speakers and smart displays around, but its journey started with the Kindle.

The mother of all e-readers, the Kindle was first introduced back in 2007 – and it sold out within 5.5 hours of being released. It evolved the way people read books and is a landmark product that's still super-popular to this day.

It took over a decade for Amazon to launch a Kids version of Kindle, though, despite its Fire Tablets being popular with little ones.

We're now on the third generation of the Kindle Kids – and my 6-year-old has loved having the Kindle Kids around. So is it the Kindle to buy for the younger generation?

How much does Kindle Kids cost?

Amazon refreshed its Kindle line up in October of 2024, with a reimagined Kindle Scribe, the first ever colour Kindle in the Kindle Coloursoft, the fastest Kindle Paperwhite ever, and a new standard Kindle.

The company also announced a Kids version of both the Kindle Paperwhite and the standard Kindle, with the latter being the one we are reviewing here – me and, importantly, my 6-year-old!

The Kindle Kids costs £114.99 / $129.99. You can buy it at Amazon or from many other retailers. The Kindle itself is black, with no Matcha option like the non-Kids version, but it does come in three cover options – including Ocean Explorer, Unicorn Valley, and Space Whale (pictured).

The Kindle Kids also comes with a 2-year worry-free guarantee from Amazon, where if your child was to break it within that time, Amazon would replace it for free.

A 6-month subscription of Amazon Kids+ is also included with the Kindle Kids, somewhat justifying the extra £10 / $10 compared to the standard Kindle.

What's new in the latest Kindle Kids model?

The Kindle Kids, released in 2024, doesn't make huge changes compared to its processor, though there are a couple of improvements to note.

Faster page turns, a sharper resolution, and a higher contrast ratio are all on board, which altogether make for decent overall display enhancements.

There is also a 25% brighter front light, making reading outside or at bedtime easier on the eyes. Otherwise, the 2024 model is pretty much the same as the 2022 one, with the same battery life, same dimensions and weight, and the same interface.

How's the Kindle Kids designed for kids?

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it". It's a statement that couldn't be truer for the Kindle Kids 2024 edition. Amazon has played it safe for this generation – in that there are no new cover options and no improvements to the design.

But that's no problem, as the design remains great. It's slim, lightweight and there's very little to complain about. At 158g, it's light enough for little hands to hold – and lighter than the Paperwhite too.

The cover offers protection on the sides and corners, whilst leaving the charging port at the bottom and the power button easily accessible. The cover will also automatically wake up the screen and send it to sleep when opened and closed, making for easy use.

I'd love to have seen waterproofing added to the Kindle Kids, like the Paperwhite model offers, and having some new cover options would have been welcomed, but honestly, neither omissions are deal-breakers.

However, the absence of waterproofing means you probably shouldn't let little ones use their Kindle by the pool, or in the bath. If that's your intention then you'll want to opt for the Paperwhite version for kids instead.

When it comes to features, the Kindle is about reading and discovering books – which is refreshing compared to tablets. My 6-year-old was also excited by it, which in turn made reading more exciting.

The Kindle Kids needs to be set up with an adult account initially, with a PIN set to then activate (and deactivate) the Amazon Kids mode. When in this mode, the tablet is effectively 'locked down' – so access to settings are limited and only age-appropriate content is shown in the recommended and Kindle Store search results.

The Amazon Kids+ subscription is great in that it offers a range of included books and audiobooks for kids to explore, from A Bear Called Paddington to Harry Potter, though the options aren't limitless.

Not all book series are included as part of the subscription though – The Diary of a Wimpy Kid isn't, for example – so the bookworms out there might get through what's available for free fairly quickly.

If you have a particularly keen reader, be prepared to get download requests on your devices – depending on what your kids are searching for and looking to read. In the Amazon Kids mode, kids can't buy books or content without approval from a parent, and the Parent Dashboard gives you control and data.

The Parent Dashboard is great for seeing what your kids have been reading and monitoring their progress, and it's also possible to share books to your kid's Kindle too. It's probably the easiest way to share books, as the Kindle interface is a little clunky and it could definitely be improved.

That said, my daughter found her way around and accessed all the books she wanted. Plus, the beauty of the Kindle Kids is that when your little people grow out of the restrictions, the tablet can just be used as a normal Kindle.

How good is the Kindle Kids display?

While the design of the Kindle Kids remains in the 2024 edition as it did before, there have been some improvements to the display. Those include a higher resolution, meaning a pixel density of 300ppi compared to the 167ppi of 2022 model.

That matches the Kindle Paperwhite – and while your kids may not notice, it does mean text is sharper and easier to read. That's further enhanced by the higher contrast ratio, brightness boost, and speedier page turns.

All those improvements might seem relatively minor, but the result is an excellent screen and a lovely reading experience on this latest Kindle model, even if I'd love to see a coloured Kindle version for kids in the future.

Also worth mentioning: there are also no lock screen ads on the Kindle Kids by default – which is something you will find on the standard Kindle (unless you pay extra to swerve that).

When it comes to performance, the E-ink display will always feel slow compared to an 'normal' OLED or LCD touchscreen display – the latter of which you'll find on the Fire Tablet Kids.

This Kindle Kids model is a little more sluggish than the Paperwhite model too. That said, you don't need the same kind of speed on an e-reader as you do when you're browsing the web or playing a game on a tablet, so it's not an issue.

The battery life is said to be around 6 weeks – yes, weeks, not hours – which I found to be accurate in my experience. My daughter read for around 30- to 45-minutes per night and we got just over 6 weeks use before I needed to recharge it. Keep in mind that you get a charging cable in the box, but you will need a power adapter.

The storage on the Kindle Kids is 16GB, which was plenty for what my daughter needed – though audiobooks do take up a little more space, so you may find you need to occasionally remove some books and redownload them later.

It's also worth noting that there is no headphone jack here, so if your child wants to listen to audiobooks they will need to use bluetooth headphones.

Kindle Kids (2024) review: Verdict

The Amazon Kindle Kids is more expensive than its predecessor and it doesn't bring any huge changes with it – the covers, designs and interface are all the same as the 2022 release.

That said, there are some welcome improvements – with a higher resolution display, higher contrast ratio, brighter screen, and faster page turns. All of which make a difference to the overall reading experience.

So if you're looking to get your kids into reading and you want a device that can grow with them, the Kindle Kids has gone down a treat in my home – it gets the 6-year-old approval stamp.

Also consider

It's a bit of a shame that there isn't a Kids version of the Kindle Colorsoft, because while it would be very expensive as a child's device, the coloured screen would lend itself well to children's books, where the pictures are more important than many adult's books.

As an alternative to the Kindle Kids though, consider the Kindle Paperwhite Kids, which comes with faster performance, better battery life, and its waterproof makes it more durable.

You could also look at the Apple iPad mini, as it's not too dissimilar in terms of size, but it's more versatile in terms of what you can do it on it – and you can still use the Kindle app for reading. It'll cost you more, though.