well, I went with the Nook. I went to Best Buy and they had a Kindle Fire on display and I was actually impressed with the look and speed, however, it was only in "demo" mode, so I'm betting it runs slower when it's in the full mode. The first guy that came over to help me said that he actually prefers the Fire over the Kindle, but another guy same over and said the Nook would be his choice by far (he said exactly what I'd been reading -- that the Fire is just to slow and the image isn't as nice. he also said the pages scroll way too fast and it's not as easy to control) They didn't have a Nook Tablet on display, but they did have the Nook Color. I was able to open the internet and log onto Facebook and I have to say, I was impressed -- and the Nook Tablet is even quicker than the Color and supposedly has a clearer (better) picture. I was impressed with the speed at which the internet pages loaded and how the images looked on the screen. So the Nook Tablet it was!
Now I need to go out tomorrow to get her a case and a memory card. I hope she loves it!! I just got an iPad and I know she really wants one, but I can't spend that much so I'm hoping the Nook is the next best thing for her!!