[SmokeAndMirrors]

To be honest, I'm not sure going with an ad-supported version is the best idea. If those ads frequently pull in adults, they'll be even more effective on a child. Kids are subjected to way too much advertising these days as it is.

I'd go for a refurb unit. You'd probably pay the same amount for it as you would for the ad version of the K4. And refurb units are as good as new, and sometimes better. It's better bang for your buck, and it's more respectful of a child's mind.

Like the others said, get a good sturdy case, make sure you reiterate that ereaders are delicate and you have to be gentle with them, etc.

Although a part of me thinks this won't be as huge a problem for an 8-year-old in 2011 as it would be for an 8-year-old of any generation previous. I am the oldest of the digital natives. I'm 22 - most of my gen weren't *completely* digital natives, but I grew up with a network admin father and I was using a computer in my toddler years.

And I know that when I was 8, I had more appreciation of the fragility of electronics than, say, my mother (who was not at all tech savvy), or my grandmother. My mother would brick her desktop every couple months, whereas I had a desktop that lasted me from 8 or 9 until I was 15.

I've met some 8-11-year-olds who are even more aware than I was. I may have been a digital native, but the tech I was born into wasn't really portable. Laptops existed, but they were huge - no kid was ever going to carry those around. Cell phones weren't really around then. CD players didn't even come to be until I was 6 or so.

These days, you have kids with smartphones (and rooting them, too), netbooks, MP3 players, etc. And they're more tech-savvy than I am. I don't know if your son personally has handled this sort of stuff, but even if he hasn't, chances are he's been around it and has a better appreciation of how delicate electronics can potential be than you did as a child, or even than I did.

I think kids these days are better with electronics than we might give them credit for. You know your kid better than anyone here - but he doesn't sound excessively careless by your own account. And being of such a tech-immersed generation, and if he loves reading, I think there's a real good chance he'll handle it well.