As good as it is to read with children, parents might not always be there when they want to open a book. Amazon thinks it can fill in that gap.

With the new Reading Sidekick, children can say “Alexa, let’s read” to an Amazon Kids-enabled Echo device or the Amazon Kids+ app on a tablet and the artificial intelligence-powered assistant will take turns reading with them.

After asking Alexa to read with them, the AI assistant will ask how much they want to read: a little, a lot, or taking turns. If a child responds “a little,” Alexa will read most of pages and ask the child to read one of the shorter pages. If a child chooses “a lot,” the child will get to read four sentences, paragraphs, or pages, depending on the book, with Alexa reading one. If “taking turns,” the child and Alexa will alternate paragraphs or pages.

Parents can create a voice profile for up to four children in the Alexa app and they’ll get parental controls, kid-appropriate responses as well personalized Alexa skills, games and media.

An Amazon Kids+ subscription (US$2.99 monthly) is required. Children can choose from hundreds of physical and digital books that are supported, with more being added monthly. Over 700 titles will be available for children aged 6 to 9, and Amazon is promising “hundreds more” every month. (SD-Agencies)