Amazon Kindle Facts for Kids

Amazon Kindle 2

The Amazon Kindle is a special device made for reading digital books, also known as e-books. It's like having a whole library in your hand! The Kindle was created by Lab126, a part of the Amazon.com company. The very first Kindles were sold in the United States on November 19, 2007.

Over the years, many different Kindle models have been released, like the Kindle 2, Kindle 3, Kindle 4, Kindle Touch, and Kindle Fire. Besides the physical devices, you can also get Kindle apps for your smartphones and computers to read books there.

Most Kindle devices (except the Kindle Fire) have a special screen that looks like real paper. This "electronic paper" screen is easy on your eyes, even in bright sunlight. You can download books and websites using Amazon's special network called Whispernet. You can also use regular Wi-Fi. What's cool is that you don't need a computer to get books, and Whispernet often lets you download books without extra fees. Many Kindles also give you free internet access to Wikipedia!

The First Kindle: A New Way to Read
Kindle 2: Faster and Thinner
- What Was New with Kindle 2?
Kindle 3: Wi-Fi and 3G Options
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The First Kindle: A New Way to Read

The original Kindle

When the first Kindle was launched, Amazon's Kindle Store had over 88,000 digital books ready to download. That number kept growing quickly! The first batch of Kindles sold out in just five and a half hours. It was so popular that Amazon couldn't keep it in stock for several months.

The original Kindle cost $399 at first, but Amazon later lowered the price to $359. This first Kindle could hold about 200 books without pictures. You could even add more storage with a memory card.

Kindle 2: Faster and Thinner

On February 9, 2009, Amazon announced the Kindle 2. It became available for purchase a couple of weeks later. This new version had some great improvements.

What Was New with Kindle 2?

Better Battery Life: You could read for longer without needing to charge it.
Faster Page Turns: Pages refreshed 20 percent faster, making reading smoother.
Read Aloud Feature: It had a text-to-speech option, so the Kindle could read the book out loud to you!
Slimmer Design: The Kindle 2 was much thinner than the first one, making it easier to hold.
More Storage: It came with 2 GB of internal memory, which Amazon estimated could hold about 1500 books.
No Memory Card Slot: Unlike the first Kindle, the Kindle 2 did not have a slot for memory cards.

To help promote the new Kindle, famous author Stephen King even released his new book called "UR" only for Kindle readers!

Kindle 3: Wi-Fi and 3G Options

The Kindle 3 came out with two different models to choose from.

Wi-Fi Model: This version could only download books when it was connected to a wireless internet network.
3G Model: This Kindle was more flexible. It could download books using both Wi-Fi and 3G cellular networks, meaning you could get books almost anywhere!