Nook vs Kindle (for kids)

[Daisy]

My daughter wants to buy one. She has $150 saved up, but would be willing to wait and save more.

 

What is best for kids? She's 11yo and very responsible but is only going to use this for reading books so I don't think we need anything fancy.

 

We don't have Wi-Fi at home so I think we are better off getting one with 3G (or whatever that is).

 

If you buy a Nook can you only buy ebooks at B&N? Same with a Kindle. Can you only buy at Amazon?

[kokotg]

I'm interested in the answers to your last question. I just ordered a Nook (largely because they had refurbished ones for sale at overstock.com, but I was also leaning that way)....I was doing a little reading today, and I think the deal is that you can buy from other sources with the Nook (like Borders, etc; anywhere that uses epub?), but you can't put Kindle stuff on there. But I really don't know, so I'm lurking on your thread :)

[sparrow]

If you're/she's going for simple, I'd recommend a Kobo. It is just an e-reader with no distracting bells or whistles. You don't need wi-fi or 3G. Just download the books to your computer and plug the USB cord into the computer and the Kobo. That's it. I also love the feel of mine. That's what sold me. Physically handling it. It has a quilted rubber backing that is wonderfully soft to the touch.

 

Despite the Nook's claims of being glare resistant, I did not find it to be so when I tried one out. The white plastic around the Nook glared and I found it too distracting. I liked Kindle, but there were too many buttons and I couldn't use it for ebooks through our library.

 

ETA: Kobo comparison chart: http://koboereader.com/usd/Kobo-ereader-comparisons/

Edited December 29, 2010 by sparrow

[Daisy]

If you're/she's going for simple, I'd recommend a Kobo. It is just an e-reader with no distracting bells or whistles. You don't need wi-fi or 3G. Just download the books to your computer and plug the USB cord into the computer and the Kobo. That's it. I also love the feel of mine. That's what sold me. Physically handling it. It has a quilted rubber backing that is wonderfully soft to the touch.

 

Despite the Nook's claims of being glare resistant, I did not find it to be so when I tried one out. The white plastic around the Nook glared and I found it too distracting. I liked Kindle, but there were too many buttons and I couldn't use it for ebooks through our library.

 

Hmmmm, going to check out Kobo. I've never heard of it. My computer is pretty ancient, but maybe this will work.

[Amira]

My children are very happy with their Sony readers. They've both had them for a year. You can get the older model pocket edition for $99, and you can pick up a case for it for 99 cents at Sony Style. That's the model my 10yos has. It does not have a touch screen, but I think the design is more user friendly than the Kindle. All the new Sony models have touch screens, but only the most expensive has wireless access. Since almost all our ebooks are checked out from the library, we don't need wireless access at all. For the few that we've purchased, it's very easy to transfer books from the computer.

 

No matter what reader you go with, you'll be able to buy books from a lot of places. The biggest limitation is that you can't put library books on a Kindle very easily, and it's not easy to put Kindle books on other readers. That matters because Amazon easily has the largest collection of unique ebooks that aren't available elsewhere.

[sparrow]

Hmmmm, going to check out Kobo. I've never heard of it. My computer is pretty ancient, but maybe this will work.

 

I edited my previous post to add the Kobo comparison chart. Kobo is the e-reader from Borders and/or Chapters in Canada, from what I understand.

 

Mind you, it does have wifi, but if your computer is up to it, you don't need it. We DO have wifi at our house, but I prefer browsing books on my laptop!

 

I got mine in black, btw. I just like that it is simple and streamlined :001_smile:.

[Susan in KY]

What is best for kids? She's 11yo and very responsible but is only going to use this for reading books so I don't think we need anything fancy.

 

We don't have Wi-Fi at home so I think we are better off getting one with 3G (or whatever that is).

 

If you buy a Nook can you only buy ebooks at B&N? Same with a Kindle. Can you only buy at Amazon?

 

I got a Nook for Christmas and am not as enthralled with it as I had hoped to be. It's fun, but I am just not impressed with B&N and their selections. They say "thousands" of free books on their homepage, but when I click the link for free books, it shows only about 60, and the vast majority of them look filthy. I don't need to have that in my face when I go to B&N.com, it's just not enjoyable. I would not let my eleven year old do it, either.

 

HOWEVER, I must say that downloading from other sites has been a snap. If you get Calibre, you can download from Amazon and convert it to epub format, which Nook accepts. So all free books are indeed available to you on the Nook, whether you get them from B&N, your library, Amazon, or Project Gutenberg.

 

That being said, I bought the Nook thinking that I would load a lot of books from Ambleside on it and let my dc use it heavily for school. Now I think if I have enough money in the school budget, I will get them SonyEReaders. The only thing that gives me pause about it is that I *THINK* you have to send it in to Sony to change the battery—which is what tipped the Nook in my favor in the first place. It may have changed now, though.

 

Hope that helps a little.

Susan

[nukeswife]

I have a kindle as does my 11 y/o (just got it) and he loves it. My library doesn't do ebooks so that wasn't a factor. I know on the amazon site it says you can get books from project gutenburg and they do have tons of free classics as well. The book prices if you buy new books are similar but amazon seems to have more titles available. The reason we went with Kindles is because they've been out much longer so many of the bugs have already been worked out. I also have no problems putting PDFs on my kindle. Downloading to you computer is really simple through amazon and then you can just plug in your Kindle and sync it up. I don't notice any glare on my kindle and the new 3rd generation e-ink screen is even better than the 2nd generation one was (more crisp IMHO)

[suzf242]

Dd8 uses our Kindle more than I do and loves it. We only download free books.

 

Take care,

Suzanne

[GypsieFamily]

We originally bought a kobo each for myself and DS9 and DD8. I like it being preloaded with a hundred free books (all straight from Gutenberg; and acknowledged as such). While the kids are very good at reading, I don't want them exposed to a romance novel (Jane Austen is overly conservative, and is one of my favourite authors, but I just don't want my kids exposed to romance stories). Even though I haven't read Dracula, I was hesitant about the kids getting scared about it (we don't have a TV; but they were shown ten minutes of Nemo and had a major meltdown).

 

We found the kobos to be slow and cumbersome to load books on to. It was just frustrating. We sent them back for a refund.

 

We purchased 2 of the kindle 2s. I then later purchased myself a wifi+3G kindle 3. We all love them. We had a minor incident a few months ago when DS9 bought himself a few new books, but I expect this not to be repeated. Jury is still out if DD5 will get mine (or one of the older kids will get mine, and she will get the k2), or if we buy a new one for her.

 

If we buy a new one, I would only buy the wifi version for $139. I don't think the 3G is value for money. In Australia, the k2 gets 3G reception in so many more places than the k3. As soon as we leave a capital city, I have no reception on the k3, but if the phones have reception then the kids will on the k2.

[Lizzie in Ma]

My Nook review with free resource list.

http://www.aworkinprogress.net/p/nook-review-and-ereader-resources.html

[JudoMom]

I love my Kindle. That said, I think if I was going to be objective, the Kindle & the Nook are pretty equal. I would take her to Best Buy and let her try them out to see what she prefers.

[Vanna]

My Nook review with free resource list.

http://www.aworkinprogress.net/p/nook-review-and-ereader-resources.html

((subbing)):bigear:

 

And thank you, Lizzie, for the resources! :thumbup:

[Sasharowan]

I got the Nook for Christmas and it has been easy enough that my 9yo can use it. Anywhere that has epub can supply books for the Nook. www.baen.com has Scifi ebooks. www.gutenberg.org has lots of classics for free.

[sparrow]

www.baen.com has Scifi ebooks.

 

Nice! Thanks for this link! I hadn't seen it before.

[Guest]

I got a Nook for Christmas and am not as enthralled with it as I had hoped to be. It's fun, but I am just not impressed with B&N and their selections. They say "thousands" of free books on their homepage, but when I click the link for free books, it shows only about 60, and the vast majority of them look filthy. I don't need to have that in my face when I go to B&N.com, it's just not enjoyable. I would not let my eleven year old do it, either.

 

HOWEVER, I must say that downloading from other sites has been a snap. If you get Calibre, you can download from Amazon and convert it to epub format, which Nook accepts. So all free books are indeed available to you on the Nook, whether you get them from B&N, your library, Amazon, or Project Gutenberg.

 

That being said, I bought the Nook thinking that I would load a lot of books from Ambleside on it and let my dc use it heavily for school. Now I think if I have enough money in the school budget, I will get them SonyEReaders. The only thing that gives me pause about it is that I *THINK* you have to send it in to Sony to change the battery—which is what tipped the Nook in my favor in the first place. It may have changed now, though.

 

Hope that helps a little.

Susan

 

 

Same here. I got the Nook Color and, apparently, I just can't read books on a backlit screen. I like the book I am reading, but have to put it down after a little bit because it bothers my eyes. I know this doesn't happen to everyone, and I know it's the same as using a computer, but I don't sit and read on the computer for hours like I do with books. I am trying to decide if I should return it and get the regular Nook or just return it completely. It's a hard decision because I love all the other features of the Nook Color. I like that is is like an i-pad (basically does the same thing, for much less). If I had it my way, I would keep for it's internet and magazine capabilities, and get the regular Nook for reading books, but I don't like that I would have to spend so much to get tow when just the Nook Color should have been enough.

 

Also, I wanted to add that if you haven't already, when searching for free books, type in 0.00 and then hit search. It will pull up hundreds of free books. I agree that some are trashy, and you should not let your children do this. You will have to find the free books for them instead.

[Susan in KY]

Also, I wanted to add that if you haven't already, when searching for free books, type in 0.00 and then hit search. It will pull up hundreds of free books. I agree that some are trashy, and you should not let your children do this. You will have to find the free books for them instead.

Ah! Thanks for sharing! :)

[SailorMom]

Here's the Calibre software:

 

http://calibre-ebook.com/

 

It's great - and free :)

 

We haven't had any issues reformatting all ebooks to our Nook.

We prefer the Nook, and have three of them. We do have wi-fi, so do not need the 3-G, however, the 3-G may come in handy in other ways...

 

Other pros: Can replace the battery, can add storage capacity, B&N constantly upgrades the Nook software based on requests from users

 

There are rumors of a software upgrade in January that will allow Nook users to download and use Android applications. I am really hoping this is true!

[Sasharowan]

Nice! Thanks for this link! I hadn't seen it before.

There is also http://backlistebooks.com/ with mostly $5 and under books covering many genres.

[katilac]

For someone that young in particular, I would insist on a reflective screen, as opposed to backlit. Any backlit screen will be like reading on the computer, which is not good for the eyes. A few more things to consider:

 

Will she be reading outside? This pretty much calls for a reflective screen as well.

 

Will she be borrowing library books? That's a concern with the Kindle, but our library has so few it wasn't worth worrying about.

 

What about buying books? The free public domain books are available for any reader, so that's not a concern. We don't purchase tons of books, but we like the variety that Amazon offers - they have far, far more available than other retailers.

 

Battery: we like the long battery life of the Kindle. Some people don't like that you can't change the battery yourself, but we've not had to do that, and we've had it since it came out. My m-i-l has the Kindle 1, and I don't think she's ever changed her battery, either. Not a dealbreaker for us.

 

Try to get your hands on each type you are considering; "feel" is very important. You can see the Kindle at Target, the Nook at BN, and I'm not sure about the others.

 

fwiw, we have had the Kindle 2 since it came out, and have used it extensively. dd11 got the Kindle 3 for Christmas, and it's b-yoo-t-ful! If you don't have Wi-Fi, then yes, I would get 3G. It's "easy" to transfer books via a usb cable, but also a "pain," kwim? particularly if you like getting sample chapters of books; I don't want to get up and find a usb cable and do a transfer each time I think, oooh, that book looks interesting! I want to go clicky and have it waiting for me. It is quite possible that other, less lazy people are not as bothered by this :D

[Abigail4476]

I got a kindle for Christmas, and I LOVE it. It's very easy on the eyes, lightweight, and easy to use. I don't have any complaints.

 

I tried the nook out before Christmas, and it has too many bells and whistles, IMO. If I was going to buy the nook, I'd just go ahead and splurge and buy an iPad.

 

If I had to choose between the kindle and the nook for one of my kids, I'd definitely choose the Kindle.