Amazon's Prime Book Box is an affordable and elegantly simple subscription service for kids - here's why parents like me love it

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The author's nine-month-old daughter with books from her Prime Book Box.

• Prime Book Box subscribers receive a box of carefully curated kids books monthly, every two months, or every three months.
• The service saves customers up to 40% off the list price of the books, which are delivered free through the Amazon Prime program.
• The service offers book selections tailored to babies and young toddlers, kids ages 3 to 5, 6 to 8, and 9 to 12 years old.

You're already an Amazon Prime member, right? Ok good.

And do you have kids? Yes?

Do you hope to foster a love of reading in those kids of yours? Ok great!

Now, final question: Is inspiring said love of reading worth $19.99 a month to you? Spectacular. You're the perfect household to sign up for Amazon's new Prime Book Box book delivery service for babies and kids.

If you want to leave the selection of the books that will be delivered to your kids in the capable hands of Amazon's editors, you can probably complete the sign-up process in the same amount of time you've spent reading this article thus far. But in case you want a bit more information about the program, let's go a bit deeper here:

To sign up for a Prime Book Box subscription, you will indeed already need to be a Prime member. If you're not, well, that's an added expense, but just think of all the free shipping, TV and movie streaming, and music benefits that come along with it (and dozens of other perks too).

The monthly price of a Prime Book Box is just $19.99, and you can choose to have books delivered monthly, every other month, or every three months. (So that's $239.88, $119.94, or $79.96 annually, for the record.) Members save up to 40% off the list price of books by using the Book Box, which includes four board books for kids through age 2 and comes with two hardcover books for kids in each of the other three age categories.

Parents can look through a list of books selected by Amazon's editors and choose the books that will be included in each box, but I recommend you leave the curating in the hands of the company's accomplished editors. According to the Prime Book Box page itself:

Each box features books our customers love and our Amazon book editors couldn't forget. Our editors read thousands of books every year to find selections your reader will enjoy again and again. You'll discover new releases, classics, and hidden gems tailored to your reader's age.

If your family's experience is anything like mine so far, that's not just marketing copy, it's accurate.

The two books included in our preschool-aged son's first box immediately became part of our standard bedtime operating procedure, and as far as we can tell, our nine-month-old daughter loves her board books, though that may be more of a tactile and teething thing, to be honest. I'll ask her once she can talk.

It's little surprise Amazon managed to launch such a successful program, of course. The behemoth of a company has its roots as an online bookstore (do you even remember that? It was all about books back in the day! Now it's... everything) and it's pretty good at the whole delivery thing, too. Staffing up with editors who select excellent books was the last piece of the puzzle for this affordable, elegantly simple book subscription program that just might play a major role in helping your kids grow up loving books.

Sign up for the Prime Book Box subscription for babies and kids for $19.99 per month (with an active Amazon Prime membership)

Not an Amazon Prime member yet? Sign up for a free 30-day trial membership here

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