I have been doing a bit of a post mortem analysis on how each of her previous kindles were done in. I figured that would help me find the most appropriate solution. It turns out the death toll is actually at five kindles and she has yet to claim the sixth as a victim. Still five dead kindles is a pretty impressive kill streak.
The first victim was done in via carelessness and not realising how fragile a kindle glass backed screen really is. She tossed/dropped it onto the fluffy bed and had a cracked screen. Secretly I think this is where she developed a taste for kindle murder, but she wont admit to it.
The next death was attributed to her erroneously, she took the blame for my 6 year old nephew. The details are fuzzy but he either knocked it off something or into something even though he was not supposed to touch it. That is the story anyway, though I think there might be something fishy going on.
The third kindle corpse was the result of an "accident" where the kindle was knocked off the bed onto the carpeted floor. The two foot drop was enough to crack yet another screen, taking another kindle from us prematurely.
The fourth kindle death is a bit of a mystery. The details of this gruesome crime are lost to the fog of time and poor memories. I think someone tampered with the evidence and is engaging in a coverup, but alas I have no proof. I do have some vague memories involving an accident in the car. It might have fallen out of a car or from the seat to the floor...but that is all unconfirmed rumors.
The latest and fifth confirmed kill is also a bit of a mystery. She has one of the amazon brand leather cases for her kindle, her past made that percolation[*Protection - lol @ spellchecker] seem prudent. It did not prove up to the task of saving the screen. She put the leather encased kindle touch into her pocketbook. She did a little shopping and has no recollection of anything untoward happening. She does not think she was overly rough with it and the story she is sticking too is that she has been taking extra care of her kindle to prevent any more premature deaths. My theory is that her wallet or some other hefty pocketbook dwelling item must have pressed on the kindle at a bad angle to fracture the screen through the leather case.
Her sixth victim...err kindle is one of the new gen paperwhites and should be delivered tomorrow. She is looking forward to the screen lighting feature as her old kindle touch didn't have that. I love it on my 1st gen paperwhite and suspect she will love it too. I half wondered if perhaps the previous kindle might have met it's demise to pave the way for an upgrade, but I am pretty certain that isn't the case.
I spoke with her about some of the suggestions and I think we are going to go with a combo approach. The first thing is for her to start using a different pocketbook, one with more pockets. I think it is a great idea to dedicate a pocket for the kindle and hopefully that will help. I am pretty sure her kindle touch leather case will not work with the new paperwhite, and it is mostly protection from being scratched rather than physical trauma. I am not sure I will recommend getting a new leather case as I am not sure it would help with the problems she tends to have.
I was very impressed by the otterbox case, that looks like it could withstand a solid amount of pocketbook style abuse. It is a little pricey though for a case and it is also not actually available yet so it is a less desirable solution. The expense would be worth it if it would protect from dropping destruction but I suspect that is not the case.
I think for the short term the best style of case for her would be one of the Timbuk2 style memory foam sleeves. I think that would go a long way to protecting it while it is traveling. I think she is just going to have to de-butter her fingers and avoid dropping it through being cautious.
I still have hope that one day her murder spree will he halted by non-glass screens that aren't so fragile. Those plastic bendable displays give me hope.