Kindling the Fire With Children’s Books

The Kindle Fire has a plethora of features to play games, watch TV shows and movies and share pictures that put it in a league with leading tablet devices. Add these to its affordable price tag and the Fire poses a serious threat to the iPad. But Amazon’s latest move shows that it is returning to its roots to give the Kindle even more of an edge over competitors.

The company recently acquired more than 450 titles from Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books, and it plans to digitize all of the works through Amazon Publishing, making them available solely on the Kindle.

Up until the release of its tablet, Amazon was at a disadvantage in the young reader market. Older versions of the Kindle could not compete with the graphics and interactive capabilities of the iPad. But the new device’s full-color touch screen is now capable of handling all the special effects that make children’s books standout on tablets.

And Amazon is using its influence in the publishing industry to enter the market at full force. Some of the titles include, The Night Before Christmas, illustrated by Gennady Spirin, Three Littles Tamales by Eric A. Kimmel, Chalk by Bill Thomson, Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy and National Book Award finalist My Name is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson. Most of these titles have never been published digitally.

“This is our first attempt to get organized around a children’s books strategy,” Jeff Belle, the vice president of Amazon Publishing, said. “This is a case where there’s a great list of books that have not been digitized.”

Do you think by tapping into its popularity as a bookseller Amazon’s Kindle will overtake the iPad?