PureWow editors select every item that appears on this page, and some items may be gifted to us. Additionally, PureWow may earn compensation through affiliate links within the story. All prices are accurate upon date of publish. You can learn more about the affiliate process here.
Total: 90/100
Learning to read was magical for me. I couldn’t wait to race home and climb into another world—even ones as unpleasant as the Trunchbull’s chokey in Matilda or the wacky hallways of Wayside School—and I assumed, oh so wrongfully (and naively) that my daughter would share this passion.
Dear reader, she did not.
“Can you just read it?” she’d grumble, as we settled in for a bedtime story. She loved storytelling with dolls and world building with Lego and Toca Boca games, but reading? It felt like drudgery, even as her literacy skills improved.
So, when I heard that Amazon was releasing a new kind of Kindle—the Kindle Colorsoft Kids, an e-reader with a soft color palette and special features designed to help foster a love of books—I was skeptical but open-minded. After using it for a month, it’s become a go-to that rivals dressing up Labubus and listening to the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack on repeat. Here’s why.
Under 12 ounces with a 7-inch display, this little e-reader is boasts a decent-size screen but is still very lightweight and slim—roughly the size of Ready-to-Read paperback books. Like the classic Kindle Kids and Kindle Kids Paperwhite, it’s waterproof (!) and features a glare-free screen, 16 GB storage, parental controls and a two-year warranty. But where it really stands out is that it’s not just designed for black-and-white reading; it features a muted color palette, making it more suitable for comics, graphic novels and illustrated stories. It also comes with a full year of Amazon Kids+ access, whereas the others just include six months (a $36 value), giving you access to thousands of kid-friendly books, rather than having to buy them individually.
The other standout is the price—at $269, it’s twice the cost of a Kindle Kids. Which begs the question…
Honestly? If your kid’s fully into chapter books with zero interest in comics or graphic novels, save yourself the money and opt for Kindle Kids ($130) or Kindle Kids Paperwhite ($170). However, for younger readers or the more reading-averse, color can make a surprising difference. “An e-reader with color built-in makes reading more engaging for children, increasing their focus and overall enjoyment,” literacy advocate and former professor Dr. Molly Ness told me. And while yes, she partnered with Amazon for the launch, it was an effect I could see firsthand with my daughter.
She was psyched to power up the device. “Wait, there are no games on this? Just books?” she asked, a bit glumly, when she realized this wasn’t the iPad her classmates had.
“Yes, but look at all of the books you could read,” I urged, showing her the Kids+ library, which I had set up advance. Creating a profile for her took mere minutes and curated books targeted to her reading level. I pre-downloaded a few based on her interests, running the gamut from twisted fairytales to Barbie to snarky-looking kittens.)
Soon, she clicked on a title, thumbing through its pages. Then, another. Before long, she curled up and started reading book after book, then searching every interest she could dream up, to see what the Kids+ library would deliver.
“Okay, this is pretty cool,” she admitted.
It seemed like no time had passed before she hit her reading goal—30 minutes a day, programmed on the device—and surpassed it willingly, just to take in one more tale (after all, we needed to know why Pink Is Not a Color).
"It’s easy to search for books, and there are a ton of stories to choose from, including books we’re reading at school and new books, like What If You Had Animal Teeth,” my almost-7-year-old says. She also loves the protective screen cover, creating more of a book-like experience, and that it never seems to need a charger. (After a month’s use, ours is still going strong on its initial charge. Amazon says it should last eight weeks.)
Given that this e-reader is designed for kids, durability is crucial, so I appreciate how it’s handled drops without issue and that it’s waterproof. Hopefully we won’t need to take advantage of the two-year warranty—during which the company will replace or repair the device—but I’m glad that’s in place, too.
Even more so, I like that the Parental Controls Dashboard has an age filter, so I can introduce her to a range of age-appropriate books (since some apps, like YouTube Kids, often feel like the Wild West, even with filters applied). You can also set bedtimes for the device and view your kid’s reading progress.
Dr. Ness also introduced me to the Word Wise feature, which offers quick definitions for words as kids read. “A rigorous body of research shows that children’s understanding of text is highly dependent on their vocabulary, so this feature moves students away from struggle and closer to success,” she explained.
This is a key step in orthographic mapping—a "cognitive process in which the appearance, the pronunciation and the meaning of a word are bonded together to make the word instantly recognized and retrieved,” Dr. Ness added, noting that it’s more effective than using flash cards “because the context of their reading adds to their understanding of the word’s meaning and appearance…The more words children instantly recognize, the more fluently they read, and the more cognitive energy they have to devote to comprehension.”
So, while my daughter was finding the content entertaining, behind the scenes, her reading comprehension’s been growing.
While setup is easy—as is downloading books—there’s a bit of a learning curve to, uh, going back to the main screen. You have to tap the top half of the screen, being careful not to swipe, as that will pull down the device settings, to make the “home/back” button appear. I actually had to Google it, because it felt like we were always stuck tapping and swiping like raccoons digging in a trash can, rummaging for that elusive button. (The buttons can also be a bit laggy at times.)
But if that’s the biggest hiccup incurred, so be it. It’s very minor compared to how nice it’s been to slip the little Kindle Colorsoft in her bag and access all kinds of stories everywhere—without worrying about a charger, either.
I can see us keeping the Kids+ subscription after the year runs out; at $5.99 a month, it’s less than the cost of one new book, and the library itself is quite impressive. (You can also add books you’ve bought—or ones you’ve checked out from the library, via the Libby app—to the tablet.)
At $269, the Kindle Colorsoft Kids is no impulse buy. But, if you’re looking for a major birthday or holiday gift, it can be a great tool to help foster (or continue) a love of reading, at least in my experience.
