At work, I've been prepping for Back To School night; in honor of this auspicious occasion, I set up a little desert tank in the classroom and brought in a (rather boring but) incredibly sweet little lizard of mine.
I present to you, Dollar, performing his usual laziness in the corner of the tank.
Dollar is a Leopard Gecko (a genetic morph, actually, he's an albino of sorts) - a very hardy, mellow, easy to care for lizard, and one that I would highly recommend as a starter animal for kids.
There are a few good 'starter' reptiles; Leopard Geckos and Bearded Dragons both fall into this group as far as I'm concerned - Leopard Geckos have the bonus of being slightly easier all around and don't take up as much space as Bearded Dragons, while Beardies tend to be more sociable and interesting to interact with.
For those with kids, or interested for themselves, make sure to do your research on any animal before you purchase it; DON'T rely only on the salesperson at the store.
While well-intentioned, the number of ill informed sales people out there greatly outweigh those that know what they are talking about - always better safe than sorry. There are tons of books at your local store or library, and a plethora of information regarding the care and husbandry of your prospective purchase available on the internet. There are websites to read, forums to ask questions of, and excellent breeders to be found; there are even websites that you can check out the reputation of the breeder you buy from!
I was debating beating around the subject, but I think I'll come right out and say it; my personal recommendation is to avoid purchasing reptiles at any commercial pet store and go straight to the breeders.
There are a lot of reasons for this, the first of which being that chain stores (Petco/smart/club) have a lot of things to focus on; what this means for the animal you're about to purchase is that it is only one of many things on this particular radar, and more likely to receive a smaller portion of the care and attention pie. The critters have a tendency to be overpriced and underfed, and you're likely to walk away with more hardship than anything else.
Specialty stores can be hit or miss; while there are some amazing reptile stores out there, there are also a lot of really lousy ones as well - for people just starting out in the hobby, it can be difficult to tell the difference just by walking into a place.
Breeders are more likely to be narrowly focused - meaning fewer species that they're working with, and thus a (likely, though not guaranteed) deeper knowledge of the one species that they do work with. The animals are more likely to be healthy and happy, and you (as the customer) are more likely to get the kind of personally tailored experience that you're looking for. Small time breeders tend to cater to each customer individually, which gives you more freedom to ask questions and get to know the animal you're about to purchase. They also tend to be more consistent (if they're lousy, you can find out pretty easily by bouncing the name around at the forums and asking for people's input), and give you a more direct course of action should things not go as you expect them to.
All of this is my own personal opinion, you could have amazing luck the other way around, but in the 15+ years that I've been buying, this is what I've found to work best.
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