Kobo for kids?

CatherineStewart · 02-24-2018, 08:48 AM

I have the KA1 for myself and love it. I would like my 7 year old to have an e-reader for himself as he is starting to consume more and more books. He is not an advanced reader so he still enjoys pictures books and books like Dog Man (comic style). I do NOT want him to have a tablet with apps. We have those. I want a black and white e-reader (e-ink not back lit) that encourages reading only (no fancy options) but that will display pictures and comics nicely without having to zoom. Any suggestions? I would prefer a kobo but open to other brands.

Question Mark · 02-24-2018, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CatherineStewart

I have the KA1 for myself and love it. I would like my 7 year old to have an e-reader for himself as he is starting to consume more and more books. He is not an advanced reader so he still enjoys pictures books and books like Dog Man (comic style). I do NOT want him to have a tablet with apps. We have those. I want a black and white e-reader (e-ink not back lit) that encourages reading only (no fancy options) but that will display pictures and comics nicely without having to zoom. Any suggestions? I would prefer a kobo but open to other brands.

I suspect that a 6 inch ereader is not really going to cut it for most picture books and comics. The KA1 might suffice. You could download a few books from the library and see.

However, the Onyx Note 10.3" ereader which should be available in the next month or so would probably be ideal for that type of reading. The problem is the price. If it is just for reading while at home, it might be fine in the hands of a 7 year old. To carry about daily, maybe not so.

meeera · 02-25-2018, 02:03 AM

If you want to display comics nicely (I assume these are black and white comics, since you're talking eink) you're going to want a large screen device. The problem there is that large eink devices are both expensive and fragile. Unless you're super cashed-up, I think it's a bad idea for a seven year old, and it would be better to explore tablet reading with good parental controls in place. It should be pretty simple to just install reading apps and not allow your child privileges to install other apps.

I managed to teach my kid to keep a small six inch ereader unbroken (in a good case and with lots of training) once he was nine or ten, but it was a cast-off and it would not have been a disaster if he broke it.

ekbell · 02-25-2018, 05:24 PM

The first time I gave ereaders to my children who were over eight years of age they were promptly broken. The replacement ereaders (that they had to contribute money towards) were were properly encased and have been better treated and they've lasted so far. The iPad that they received from a family member a few Christmases ago is currently demonstrating how cracked a tablet's screen can be and still function.

I've set up a Kid's mode/restricted account on my tablet for my six year old that only allows access to reading apps both because she still reads picture books and also because experience states that she's not ready to care for an ereader. My tablet is also encased in a silicon case that has already been proven to protect against corner drops onto a tile floor just to be on the safe side.

Larken · 02-26-2018, 03:01 PM

My six and seven year old's both have iPad minis. I've locked them down with parental controls. Then I installed the Kobo app. I purchase books that are age appropriate from Kobo and sort them into a Kids folder. The app isn't the most intuitive, so they haven't figured out that they can view more books than just theirs.

Dryhte · 02-28-2018, 08:00 AM

My 9YO has been reading (voraciously) on an elderly Touch for about a year and a half (it broke recently and got replaced by a second hand Glo, to which he had to contribute some money).
His 7YO brother has been reading on my Aura for a few days now, and on his birthday in april it will become his property

Pictures are displayed OK (depending on how well the epub is formatted, IME) but these things are definitely not suited to reading pdf formatted comic books (zooming, panning,...) due to their low res and small screen.

If you really want the device to read comic books, you may want to buy something with a higher resolution (which does NOT necessarily equal bigger screen). I'm not going to do that though - the e-reader's for books, comics will have to be consumed some other way (maybe someday on a tablet, or just on paper).

You may want to look into the higher res 6" devices: Tolino 2 HD has 1448 x 1072 pixels (that's double the current Aura v2 resolution, and similar to the current H2O (but at a much lower price)). Higher resolution is better I think if you need to display PDF (or anything at full page size)

ZodWallop · 02-28-2018, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CatherineStewart

I have the KA1 for myself and love it. I would like my 7 year old to have an e-reader for himself as he is starting to consume more and more books. He is not an advanced reader so he still enjoys pictures books and books like Dog Man (comic style). I do NOT want him to have a tablet with apps. We have those. I want a black and white e-reader (e-ink not back lit) that encourages reading only (no fancy options) but that will display pictures and comics nicely without having to zoom. Any suggestions? I would prefer a kobo but open to other brands.

I don't understand the aversion to tablets. A PDF of The Cat in the Hat or similar picture book will look and work better on the cheapest tablet than it would on the highest end e-ink reader.

you could always set up a kid's account on the tablet and turn off internet.

For a novel, yeah, an e-reader is better suited, but not so much for comics and other image heavy books.

geek1011 · 03-05-2018, 07:21 PM

I would personally suggest just going with an android tablet and locking it down. As for e-reading apps, I personally prefer Lithium over Moon+ and the other alternatives. A tablet would be much better for image-heavy books, and less delicate. Also, the slight lagginess of e-readers may become annoying for a 7-year old.

Dryhte · 03-06-2018, 02:46 AM

... on the other hand, whey they get used to reading real books, you can't beat an e-reader (preferably with front light like Glo and other recent ones).

One 'use' I never thought about ('cause I don't do it myself): I noticed that both my boys look up words in the dictionary really often. Which is, of course, really good for their vocabulary

02-24-2018, 08:48 AM	#1
CatherineStewart Mom, Wife, Reader! Posts: 235 Karma: 530706 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Ontario, Canada Device: Kobo Glo, Kobo Aura One	Kobo for kids? I have the KA1 for myself and love it. I would like my 7 year old to have an e-reader for himself as he is starting to consume more and more books. He is not an advanced reader so he still enjoys pictures books and books like Dog Man (comic style). I do NOT want him to have a tablet with apps. We have those. I want a black and white e-reader (e-ink not back lit) that encourages reading only (no fancy options) but that will display pictures and comics nicely without having to zoom. Any suggestions? I would prefer a kobo but open to other brands.

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02-25-2018, 02:03 AM	#3
meeera Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,670 Karma: 66420972 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Libra 2, iPadMini4, iPad4, MBP; support other Kobo/Kindles	If you want to display comics nicely (I assume these are black and white comics, since you're talking eink) you're going to want a large screen device. The problem there is that large eink devices are both expensive and fragile. Unless you're super cashed-up, I think it's a bad idea for a seven year old, and it would be better to explore tablet reading with good parental controls in place. It should be pretty simple to just install reading apps and not allow your child privileges to install other apps. I managed to teach my kid to keep a small six inch ereader unbroken (in a good case and with lots of training) once he was nine or ten, but it was a cast-off and it would not have been a disaster if he broke it.

02-25-2018, 05:24 PM	#4
ekbell Guru Posts: 605 Karma: 12345678 Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Canada Device: none	The first time I gave ereaders to my children who were over eight years of age they were promptly broken. The replacement ereaders (that they had to contribute money towards) were were properly encased and have been better treated and they've lasted so far. The iPad that they received from a family member a few Christmases ago is currently demonstrating how cracked a tablet's screen can be and still function. I've set up a Kid's mode/restricted account on my tablet for my six year old that only allows access to reading apps both because she still reads picture books and also because experience states that she's not ready to care for an ereader. My tablet is also encased in a silicon case that has already been proven to protect against corner drops onto a tile floor just to be on the safe side.

02-26-2018, 03:01 PM	#5
Larken Where's the backlight?? Posts: 52 Karma: 2089116 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Indianapolis, IN Device: Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and Kobo Glo HD	My six and seven year old's both have iPad minis. I've locked them down with parental controls. Then I installed the Kobo app. I purchase books that are age appropriate from Kobo and sort them into a Kids folder. The app isn't the most intuitive, so they haven't figured out that they can view more books than just theirs.

02-28-2018, 08:00 AM	#6
Dryhte Crow Posts: 133 Karma: 10808 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Where The Sun Don't Shine (much) Device: (Vivlio) Pocketbook Touch HD3	My 9YO has been reading (voraciously) on an elderly Touch for about a year and a half (it broke recently and got replaced by a second hand Glo, to which he had to contribute some money). His 7YO brother has been reading on my Aura for a few days now, and on his birthday in april it will become his property Pictures are displayed OK (depending on how well the epub is formatted, IME) but these things are definitely not suited to reading pdf formatted comic books (zooming, panning,...) due to their low res and small screen. If you really want the device to read comic books, you may want to buy something with a higher resolution (which does NOT necessarily equal bigger screen). I'm not going to do that though - the e-reader's for books, comics will have to be consumed some other way (maybe someday on a tablet, or just on paper). You may want to look into the higher res 6" devices: Tolino 2 HD has 1448 x 1072 pixels (that's double the current Aura v2 resolution, and similar to the current H2O (but at a much lower price)). Higher resolution is better I think if you need to display PDF (or anything at full page size)

03-05-2018, 07:21 PM	#8
geek1011 Wizard Posts: 2,762 Karma: 6990705 Join Date: May 2016 Location: Ontario, Canada Device: Kobo Mini, Aura Edition 2 v1, Clara HD	I would personally suggest just going with an android tablet and locking it down. As for e-reading apps, I personally prefer Lithium over Moon+ and the other alternatives. A tablet would be much better for image-heavy books, and less delicate. Also, the slight lagginess of e-readers may become annoying for a 7-year old.

03-06-2018, 02:46 AM	#9
Dryhte Crow Posts: 133 Karma: 10808 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Where The Sun Don't Shine (much) Device: (Vivlio) Pocketbook Touch HD3	... on the other hand, whey they get used to reading real books, you can't beat an e-reader (preferably with front light like Glo and other recent ones). One 'use' I never thought about ('cause I don't do it myself): I noticed that both my boys look up words in the dictionary really often. Which is, of course, really good for their vocabulary

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