E Reader for a 9 year old

[jazzpiano]

Hi -

I want to buy an e reader for my 9 year old grandson, who is an advanced reader and has good technical computer skills. I figured that the Nook and the Kindle are the two top of the line competitors and that the most important factor in deciding is to go with the one that has the most free e-books within my grandson's reading universe (but this isn't easy - - when I stopped at Barnes & Noble today with him and he tried a key word search on its Nook devicer for "Gregor and the prophecy of Bane" it didn't even come up). Trying to figure out which "free" e books come with either reader is intentionally made next to impossible - at least for me, so far

Any ideas would be warmly welcomed.

Thanks.

Jazzpiano

[Worldwalker]

Well, if you don't need your free ebooks to be currently in copyright, check out the ones here on MobileRead, plus Project Gutenberg, ManyBooks, the Baen Free Library (gratis but not libre), etc. I know when I was 9 I would have gone ape over the complete original Tom Swift series (I'd already read all the modern ones, which weren't nearly as cool) along with classics like Treasure Island, Ivanhoe, Tom Sawyer, Sherlock Holmes, and, well, tons of other stuff. That's right around when I discovered Tarzan, too, and pretty much everything Burroughs wrote is available. And Conan ... what 9-year-old (or 19-year-old, or 90-year-old) boy (or girl) wouldn't like the real REH-written Conan stories, which make all the later pastiches look lame?

That frees you from the tyranny of DRM and of the proprietary bookstores, and lets you buy any ebook reader you happen to like. As to which one that might be ... well, that's what the whole rest of this section will chime in on.

Personally, I have a Sony PRS-505 that I wouldn't trade for any other reading device out there, but it's discontinued; you might want to look at the PRS-300.

[AgentBEATS]

Originally Posted by jazzpiano

Hi -

I want to buy an e reader for my 9 year old grandson, who is an advanced reader and has good technical computer skills. I figured that the Nook and the Kindle are the two top of the line competitors and that the most important factor in deciding is to go with the one that has the most free e-books within my grandson's reading universe (but this isn't easy - - when I stopped at Barnes & Noble today with him and he tried a key word search on its Nook devicer for "Gregor and the prophecy of Bane" it didn't even come up). Trying to figure out which "free" e books come with either reader is intentionally made next to impossible - at least for me, so far

Any ideas would be warmly welcomed.

Thanks.

Jazzpiano

By Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane I am assuming you meant the Underland Series by Suzanne Collins, if you are looking for free books in the young adult/children category like that would be I don't really think you will find much difference.

Most completely free ebooks are the older series that are no longer copyrighted, so classics really. Of course there are also times when different ebook sellers offer free books and such, but in general I don't think any would have more or less free ebooks in that category.

That being said, you should problem then go with the e-reader who's market has the largest number of young adult/children books, both free or not. Although maybe a reader that can support many formats from any market would be best.

The Nook and the Kindle both have large market support and easy access to those markets. I think either of those would have quite a bit of the books your grandson would be into, just maybe not free.

[boswd]

Gregor and the prophecy of Bane did not show up under the free e-books because it isn't free. But it is available as an e-book from Barnes and Noble but not from Kindle Books.

A quick tip in searching for free e-books is to search by price and type in $0.00.

as far as which one to get him? Being a 9 yr old in this day technology I think he was enjoy and would feel more at home with the color touch screen navigation and the finger swiping capabilities of the Nook.

The kindle with it's archaic little joystick navigation I think would make him look at you with the "What will you do for an encore, give me a Commodore 64?" The navigation of The Kindle is something to be desired in terms of technology, it is very 1980's hand held electronic game feeling to it.

Between the two I think he'll enjoy the color touchscreen alot more..

Also The Nook does have e-pub so he'll be able to check out books from his local library as well. And epub he would have a wider range of stores to choose from without having to convert them.

good luck and I hope this helps

[jazzpiano]

I want to thank every one of you for the quick turnarounds and very valuable feedback. I am a real rookie when it comes to e-books and wouldn't have known where to turn without your input.

I will probably now go with the Nook - and I think I will download a number of the free classics before giving it to him (I myself read all of the Edgar Rice Burroughs books at about that age, so thanks for reminding me about those - and thanks for the tip about inputting "0.00" in the price category when searching for titles).

Jazzpiano

[rebarnmom]

Originally Posted by jazzpiano

Hi -

I want to buy an e reader for my 9 year old grandson, who is an advanced reader and has good technical computer skills. I figured that the Nook and the Kindle are the two top of the line competitors and that the most important factor in deciding is to go with the one that has the most free e-books within my grandson's reading universe (but this isn't easy - - when I stopped at Barnes & Noble today with him and he tried a key word search on its Nook devicer for "Gregor and the prophecy of Bane" it didn't even come up). Trying to figure out which "free" e books come with either reader is intentionally made next to impossible - at least for me, so far

Any ideas would be warmly welcomed.

Thanks.

Jazzpiano

Welcome to MobileRead jazzpiano! Your grandson is a lucky boy! And you are a generous & thoughtful grandpa!
Personally, I love my Sony, though Kindle may be reigning king of ebook choices and they do offer a lot of free ebooks. The Nook looks pretty cool! But, I haven't tried either though. Sorry, not much to offer by way of suggestions. but again- Welcome! You're in the right place! I'm sure you'll get some more well-informed answers! So I leave it to the experts!

BTW- are you going to get yourself one too?

[neilmarr]

Good to have your company, Jazzpiano. Your grandson's a lucky wee chap. Best wishes. Neil

[stargazertony]

You might also want to look at Pocketbooks. They aren't connected to any bookstore so books have to be loaded via computer however, they support virtually all formats.

[omk3]

Congrats for a great gift for your grandson, Jazzpiano.

There are a lot of free classics out there that you can load on any reader, and the best formatted ones are arguably right here on MobileRead.

Just my two cents though: do you want your grandson's reader to be linked to a shop? That would mean that he can order books directly from the device. I'm not exactly sure of the details, and maybe you can lock this feature, but I believe it's easy to buy books using the Kindle, even by accident, and that's probably the case for the Nook as well. I would probably get him a reader with no wireless connectivity, to be used just for reading and not for buying or browsing, like the sony prs-300 or the pocketbook 360.

[Worldwalker]

Here's my standard list of free ebook sources that I post for newbies:

Public Domain

MobileRead - best formatting, limited selection (hand-built by MobileRead members)

ManyBooks - PG scraper, but sometimes has books from other sources, good formatting

Feedbooks - mostly scrapes PG, improves formatting

Project Gutenberg - the granddaddy of them all, phenomenal selection

Munseys - painful to use, but has books nobody else does

the Internet Archive - generally only the scans are readable

Google Books - most of the time, what's good isn't free, and what's free isn't good

Free non-PD

Baen Free Library - amazing selection; also, they will tempt you into buying books

5th Imperium - Baen CD collections

Other Things

Search: Inkmesh. Sadly, it's not a very comprehensive search engine, at least when it comes to free ebooks - it misses a lot of them - but as far as I know, it's the only ebook-specific one out there.

If you're using free ebooks, it's only right to give something back: proofread a page a day at the Distributed Proofreading Project.

P.S.

I almost forgot: get calibre. Its support forum is a few boards down from here.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by jazzpiano

I want to thank every one of you for the quick turnarounds and very valuable feedback. I am a real rookie when it comes to e-books and wouldn't have known where to turn without your input.

I will probably now go with the Nook - and I think I will download a number of the free classics before giving it to him (I myself read all of the Edgar Rice Burroughs books at about that age, so thanks for reminding me about those - and thanks for the tip about inputting "0.00" in the price category when searching for titles).

Jazzpiano

I think that's a great choice. besides enjoying the color touch screen navigation. It sounds like he'll love the "In-Store" feature as well. That is when you walk into any Barnes and Noble the Wi Fi will automatically connect to Barnes and Noble's Wi Fi hot spot.
From there he'll be able to read any book he wants up to an hour. There is a "More In Store" section that gives Nook only owners special deals and coupons, more un-advertised Free E-Books and usually something from the StarBucks Cafe, right now they are giving away their 7 layer Bar to Nook owners.
Sure it's something of a gimmick, but it's a very good gimmick. If it gets people to continue to come to the Bookstore's then I'm all for it. Especially our Children, they don't need any other devices that keeps them locked up inside all day and If this gets people and our children to the bookstore then this a great thing. My wife and do the In Store experience very often and make date nights out it. We just love it. We really do.

I think all this combined with being able to check out books from the Library as well make the Nook a wonderful choice for him.

Good luck

[tvpupsik]

Originally Posted by omk3

Congrats for a great gift for your grandson, Jazzpiano.

There are a lot of free classics out there that you can load on any reader, and the best formatted ones are arguably right here on MobileRead.

Just my two cents though: do you want your grandson's reader to be linked to a shop? That would mean that he can order books directly from the device. I'm not exactly sure of the details, and maybe you can lock this feature, but I believe it's easy to buy books using the Kindle, even by accident, and that's probably the case for the Nook as well. I would probably get him a reader with no wireless connectivity, to be used just for reading and not for buying or browsing, like the sony prs-300 or the pocketbook 360.

In addition PocketBook 360 has hard protective cover (which I think might be important for a reader you are buying for a 9 year old), G-sensor and pretty cool look

[omk3]

And let me add that if he has "good technical computer skills", a pocketbook might encourage him to further develop them, if he feels like it. Pocketbook has a very open platform and is very customizable, from changing the fonts and startup logos to writing your own apps.

[zsmomma]

Hope it's okay to tag on this thread. If not, my apologies.

I'm also looking for a reader for my son (5th grade reading level). He's not that interested in reading the classics yet, and his bookcase is already full of current DTB. And while there are tons of books for adults in many formats, I'm finding that only B&N and Amazon have a good selection of age-appropriate books and are competively priced. Am I correct?

Of primary importance (besides being able to find books that he'll read), is a good dictionary.

Which would you recommend? And I would definitely consider readers that aren't nook or Kindle, iff there are books available and a dictionary. Thanks!

[rebarnmom]

I think Sony has a pretty large selection of children's books. I haven't compared it to Kindle or B & N though. And their newer (current) devices have the dictionary feature, that I soooooooooooo wish my PRS-700 had!
(My apologies to all of you who've heard me whine about this lack of dictionary for the 700 at every chance I get!)