Josh Gad Helps Launch Kindle Kids Backseat Book Crew to Help Kids Read

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Josh Gad has joined the Kindle Kids Backseat Book Crew to encourage kids to read more this summer.

The Frozen actor and self-proclaimed “road trip expert” knows this sentiment well, given he’s always on the go. With summer travel plans made, kids wrangled and bags packed, sometimes the last thing on our minds is curling up with a good book. As a dad of two, Gad knows a thing or two about keeping kids entertained on a road trip. With Kindle’s help, his little ones and children all around the world will be able to cultivate a love of reading wherever their travels may take them, thanks to this virtual book club.

“I remember probably up until the age of 14, dreading reading,” Gad tells Billboard. “It was like work and I didn’t want to do it … and then something clicked, and I fell in love with reading.”

To start your family’s reading journey, you can sign up now at kindlekidsbackseatbookcrew.com. Upon signing up, you will receive a members-only Backseat Book Crew Bundle filled with reading-themed stickers, a “Kindle Kid On Board” bumper sticker, reading recommendations for the summer, a patch and a 10% off promo code for your next Kindle Kids or Kindle Paperwhite Kids purchase on Amazon.com.

Gad explained that his kids are voracious readers, able to breeze through multiple stories quickly. Who has the space or time to carry six different hardcovers on a road trip? Certainly not Gad. Thus, the beauty of the Kindle. “Having a device like this, which my wife and I joke, is like screen time we can actually get behind, is amazing. Kids sit in the back seat. When we’re on a road trip, they will either read or listen to their books.”

Don’t have a Kindle? Right now, Kindle Kids is available for $129.99 on Amazon in whimsical Ocean Explorer, Space Whale and Unicorn Valley designs. You can also grab the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Kids in Cyber City and Starfish style for $179.99, also on Amazon.

Kindle’s library features more than 10,000 books for children, available at their fingertips. No matter how fast of a reader your little one is, you’ll never run out of reading material. “The kids curate their own selections of authors and books and share with each other … and on average … kids who are using a Kindle will read at least one hour a day that, to me, is like manna from heaven,” Gad says. “Incentivizing kids to read. I’m like, yes, yes, yes, Sign me up.”

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

A hardcover book that reimagines Homer’s enduring masterwork, The Iliad

I know you’re all dying to know: What does a busy celeb read on his time off on set? The answer might surprise you. “As of late, books that I’ve read that I’ve loved, James by Percival Everett,” the actor shares. “I’m obsessed with Madeleine Miller, who wrote both The Song of Achilles and Cersei … Erik Larson remains one of my favorite authors..In the Garden of Beasts or The Splendid and the Vile are great.”

Interestingly, Gad is also reading a lot of books about World War 2 and fascism to prep for his role in the upcoming project that takes place in that period. “None of these books I would call very entertaining, and none of these books are by choice,” Gad jokes.” As for music he’s currently bumping, Gad says he’s been going through a Kendrick Lamar phase: “My music is really defined right now by my children. So it’s lots of Sabrina (Carpenter), it’s lots of T-Swift, it’s lots of Kendrick, it’s lots of Beyonce … Charlie XCX. It’s it’s all the usual suspects.”

Watch Josh Gad’s Kindle Kids Backseat Book Crew Campaign below.