Amazon has launched a new book subscription box for kids! Amazon Prime Book Box is a children’s subscription box exclusively for Amazon Prime members offering books tailored to your child’s age with the goal of helping families inspire a love for reading.
Amazon Prime Book Box provides hand-picked books for kids 12 and under and offers boxes for different age groups: baby-2, ages 3-5, ages 6-8, and ages 9-12.
This is a review of a box for a 3-5-year-old.
Story time just got better with Prime Book Box, a subscription that delivers hand-picked children’s books every 1, 2, or 3 months. Discover new favorites that inspire a love of reading—new adventures await in every box!
Prime Book Box saves you up to 35% off List Price, and provides the best value on books sold by Amazon.com.
My Subscription Addiction paid for this box. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
About This Kid's Book Box
The Subscription Box: Amazon Prime Book Box for Kids
The Cost: $19.99 every 1, 2, or 3 months + free prime 2-day shipping.
The Products: Each box contains 2 hardcover books or 4 board books.
Ships to: The Contiguous US, APO/FPO, Alaska, and Hawaii
January 2019 Amazon Prime Book Box Review
Here are examples of books for different age ranges:
When you sign up, you fill out a little bit of information about your child and your frequency preferences. You'll then get an email about Amazon's selections for your child's age range that month and you can swap and select the ones you want to receive.
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (75th Anniversary Edition) - Retail Value $17.05
One of the first books I got in my Prime Book subscription was Corduroy, a great classic. When I saw this book in the selection options, I felt the same way about it and picked it. I remember this book from my childhood (though rather vaguely) and knew Gideon would probably love it, too. It has the vintage illustrations and classic story. The premise is Mike Mulligan has a good ol' steam shovel he's taken great care of over the years named Mary Ann, but steam shovels are being replaced with power shovels and diesel shovels, etc. Eventually, they feel unwanted and obsolete. But when they hear there's a new town hall being built, Mr. Mulligan puts in his bid for the job by saying he and Mary Ann will get the hole for the cellar dug in one day or they won't take pay. Suspense builds as they dig and the day carries on, and people gather to watch which only fuel them and makes them dig faster and faster. Eventually, they finish the cellar, but in their hurry, they forget to include a way out. A boy suggests a solution to just build the town hall on top of them (??) and let Mary Ann be the furnace for the new building and Mike Mulligan can be the janitor. Which happens, and it's a happy ending, though an odd one. But it's very cute.
Just a word of warning, parents: this is NOT a hurry-along-bedtime book. It is quite wordy. There are almost full pages of text in some parts. This is a good book but it's not a quick read.
The Friend Ship - Retail Value $16.99 (found here for $11.89)
This book is so sweet. The first thing I noticed was the beautiful illustrations. The story is precious - it's about a hedgehog that starts out curled up in a spikey ball and lonely. A couple of animals pass by saying "poor hedgehog... friendship is out there; he just has to look." The hedgehog gets excited and runs to set sail to find the Friend Ship! A ship full of friends! Along the way, he asks other animals if they've seen the Friend Ship and they all say "no, but can I join you?" The answer is always yes. There's one point where he starts to feel sad and wants to curl back up into a spiky ball, but the other animals surround him and encourage him. Then, he asks an elephant if he's seen the Friend Ship and he says, "isn't that it over there?" And the hedgehog is surprised to find that he had been sailing on the Friend Ship the whole time, and friends had been right there by him. I love it, and I think there are a lot of good conversations to be had here, regarding things like feeling lonely/like you want to "curl up into a spiky ball," saying yes to including others when they ask, how potential friends are everywhere, and how to support and lift up people when they're feeling discouraged.
The Verdict: This was my fourth box from Amazon Prime Books Kids, and I really like the selections I got this month! (SO much better than last month....) I chose the 3-5-year-old option for my 3-year-old. I really appreciate that I can swap out and select which two books to get each month, and I trust Amazon's customer service if I have any issues (like last month). This really helps to make sure we get books I know we'll like, and having new books to read has helped bedtime go much more smoothly because Gideon looks forward to it with a fun, fresh, new story. For $19.99 a month plus free Prime shipping, we received two books with a total value of $34.04.
To Wrap Up:
Can you get this box if you sign up today? I'm not sure of exactly when Amazon swaps out their selection choices for the month, but if you sign up today it's likely that you'll get the selections for December.
Value Breakdown: This box costs $19.99, so you're paying about $9.99 per book.
Check out all of our Amazon Prime Book Box reviews and more kid's subscription boxes for ages 3-5 in the Kids Subscription Box List!
Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!
What do you think about the Amazon Prime Book Box for Kids?
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