It can sometimes be a daunting task to get kids to read, especially if the material lacks colorful and vivid illustrations of characters. With that in mind, Amazon has launched a new reading app for kids called Rapids. As you might have probably guessed, the reading app tells stories in a rapid succession through the perspective of characters chatting with one another. It’s not like any other reading app you’ve seen around, as the stories are told in the style of a messaging app and events unfold one message at a time.
Amazon Rapids contains hundreds of original stories, with many more stories planned to be loaded to the app every month going forward. The genres vary, humor, fantasy, adventure, science fiction, and mystery are all available. There are a lot of stories to choose from, including an alien chatting about a planned invasion of Earth and two chickens arguing over crossing the street. As the stories are targeted to young readers, Amazon fine-tuned all content to be age-appropriate and baked a glossary into the app to help kids look up the meaning of any new words they might encounter along the reading process. Each word that a reader looks up the definition for will be added to a personal glossary for quick reference in the future. The app also features a “read to me” mode designed to allow kids to listen as the story presses on.
The new reading app has gone live for multiple platforms including Android, iOS, and Amazon Fire devices. If you are eager to get your kids to read more, you can sign up for a free two-week trial. If you can manage to stimulate your child’s passion for reading during that period, you might as well upgrade to a $2.99 per month subscription. Well, it’s only a special introductory rate, which means Amazon could bump up the price in the near future. If you prefer to grab Amazon Rapids at the retail giant’s brick-and-mortar stores, the company offers the app for the same price as its online listing for Amazon Prime subscribers.
This is not the first time, though, that Amazon tried to get children immersed in reading. The company previously introduced Kindle FreeTime, specifically tailored for kids at a price of $2.99 per month for Amazon Prime members and $4.99 a month for non-Prime subscribers.
