I’m a great believer in kids’ magazines. For a start, they are a great way to support your child’s reading for pleasure:
They’re designed for dipping in and out of, making it easy to squeeze a bit of reading in at any point of the day. Brief articles, often highly illustrated also break down barriers reluctant readers might have; blocks of text tend to be relatively short, and the reader doesn’t feel s/he has to make a huge commitment to enjoy or learn something.
You can choose ones closely aligned to real interests your child has. Maybe your child is crazy about horses – there’s a magazine for that. Or cycling or gardening… you don’t have to stick to magazines aimed at children.
They’re reading material you can have very easily to hand. They can be stashed in bags for journeys out, they can be read at kitchen tables. Magazines (and newspapers) “hang around” making for easy serendipitous reading.
Their timely nature creates a buzz about reading – whether the magazine gets delivered once a week through your letterbox, or you know it comes out once a month and so make a special trip to the newsagents. The fact that magazines appear at certain times creates a frisson of excitement, and something that many kids will look forward to if you subscribe or get into the magazine habit.
Many magazines are highly illustrated, either with photos or artwork. Just because kids can read themselves, it doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy illustration of one sort or the other. Indeed, in today’s world with a highly visual focus, images are almost essential if you want to grab people’s attention.

Eco Kids Planet Magazine is a new nature and environment magazine aimed at children aged 7 to 11. The magazine uses narrative non-fiction, i.e. fun, fictional characters in a story format, to convey facts about nature and the environment, providing children with real world examples of how they can make a difference when it comes to looking after our planet.


It’s a brilliant success story: Eco Kids Planet Magazine was originally a Kickstarter project, but it is now stocked in one of the biggest newsagent/bookshop chains in the UK – WHSmiths. However, you can also get your hands on copies by entering a today’s brilliant international giveaway. First prize is a year’s subscription to Eco Kids Planet Magazine, and the Runners-Up Prize is a bundle of 6 past issues. Both prizes would be great for schools as well as families.
The nitty gritty of the giveaway
This giveaway is open WORLDWIDE
To enter, simply leave a comment on this blog post.
For extra entries you can:
(1) Tweet about this giveaway, perhaps using this text:
Win a year’s subscription to @EcoKidsPlanet – a kids’ nature magazine – over on @playbythebook’s blog http://www.playingbythebook.net/?p=32552
(2) Share this giveaway on your Facebook page, Google Plus page or blog
You must leave a separate comment for each entry for them to count.
The winner and runner-up will be chosen at random using random.org.
The giveaway is open for two weeks and closes on Earth Day ie Wednesday April 22nd 5pm UK time. I will contact the winner and runner-up via email. If I do not hear back from the winner/runner-up within one week of emailing them, I will re-draw as appropriate.
You can find out more about Eco Kids Planet Magazine on their website: http://www.ecokidsplanet.co.uk/.
Good luck with the giveaway!


This giveaway is now closed. The results are:

I have emailed Aaron and Caren with the good news!
Maxine Owen
This is great! Would give to my nephew
Lizzie
Looks fantastic! Thanks for letting us know about it.
Catherine
Have pinned on my Pinterest competition board.
Catherine recently posted..Picture Books about Bedtime
Pratham Books
If we won it, we would gift it to an NGO we share an office with – the books would be put to great use in the libraries they work with.
Vinitha
My daughter would love these
Vinitha recently posted..H: Holidays
Trish
I want to win these for my daughter!!! 🙂
Barb
I would love to win! Magazine sounds fabulous for my girls at home and readers at school.
lynn clayton
i want to win for my son
lynn clayton
i tweeted my name n twitter is @lynnbeanie
lynn clayton
shared on facebook lynn clayton
Andrea Amy
What a great giveaway! My son would love this, thanks for the chance.
Andrea Amy
I tweeted
https://twitter.com/mommy2fiveboys/status/586768941365624832
Andrea Amy
I shared on google+
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AndreaAmy/posts/Yf35LwHerun
Sonya
Love the idea, thanks for the opportunity.
Heather
Looks fab. Thank you for letting us know.
Claire
What an excellent looking magazine!
Bec Sands
My children would love receiving these magazines.
Marta G (A Bilingual BAby)
Hi! I’d love to read the Eco Kids Planet magazine with my son and my nieces. Thank you for this amazing giveaway!
Marta
Marta G (A Bilingual BAby) recently posted..Artollo Giveaway
Mona
Great ! my 4 nieces would live them <3
Dawn
My niece loves animals , in fact she wants all animals she sees on T.V . Once she asked for an elephant , crazy kid . I would be the best Aunt in her opinion if I got her this magazine. I would love to win this amazing and educational magazine for her !!!!!!
Susi
This sounds right up my daughters street. Fab magazine
Crafty Tanya
These look so informative as well as fun!
sj.fraihat
My daughter would love it
Monica Gilbert
This looks like a great magazine.
Gemma Holland
I would live to win for my little explorer. He wants to be Bear Grylls when he grows up! Thanks
Gemma Holland
https://twitter.com/twirlyswirl79/status/589197838208344064
noering
I want it for my kids
lynn heath
Great Magazine, I would much prefer the kids to have an educational magazine to teach them about the importance of looking after our planet
lynn heath
https://twitter.com/lynn_heath/status/589725954328686592 – My Tweet Link
Emily Witkowski
As a children’s librarian, I would LOVE to be able to add this to our collection!
nicola james
great prize.tweeted too (nicolajames15)
Zak Collingwood
These would make a great addition to the school library.
ELZBIETA ZNYK
fab giveaway, my son would be so happy xx
Lee-Ann S
My daughter is an animal nut and these magazines would be perfect for her. Lots of new information to learn in a fun and exciting way.
Leanne Perrett
my son is at the age were exploring an learning are super fum so this would really help him
Robyn Bellefleur
I would love to win this for my daughter.
Liz
This looks great – will be searching it out for my nature-mad 9yo!
Liz Rose
Yes please, I know people who would love this.
aaron broad
Awesome giveaway thanks, my little sister would love it
aaron broad
I tweeted https://twitter.com/BroadAaron/status/590841212040523777