National Geographic Kids Magaine - Fuel for Your Fire

When I was a kid there were only a handful of magazines that targeted children. I am amazed at the number available to children today. Unfortunately there are some that should not be offered up. One of these is Nation Geographic Kids.

What You Get
A one year subscription to National Geographic Kids is 10 issues for about $15 The magazine is targeted at children ages 6-14 and is animal themed. The magazine is full color glossy with lots of pictures and illustrations.
 
What's Inside
Ads, ads disguised as articles, more ads, an actual article, more ads and a few fun features. We have received six issues so far and the April 2009 issue is the first one I haven't wanted to throw out upon its arrival.

Each issues opens with "Weird but True," a collection of somewhat amusing trivia, followed by Guinness World Records and Cool Inventions such as a see-through toaster. Then starts the pseudo-articles like Video Game Central letting kids know what the hottest new video games are plus an interview or behind the scenes look at some movie due in theaters soon. And what children's magazine would be complete with a "Stupid Criminals" feature.

Somewhere in between all of that National Geographic Kids does manage to put in one or two short articles with some merit. There is usually one featuring an animal and another examining a different country (such a Mongolia) or period in time (Pompeii). In this month's issue there are actually seven article composing an "undersea safari" (with a tie in to Ben Stiller's new movie, Night at the Museum.)  The rest of the magazine includes ads for books, video games, jokes, puzzles, art from readers, recipes and other items supposedly of interest to the target audience.
 
Our Experience
My oldest daughter received this as a gift for her seventh birthday. I thought it was a great idea and that she would probably learn a little something about the world. If your child's world is about video games and bearded women National Geographic Kids is probably a good fit. If you want to ensure your children know to fill up the gas tank of their get away car before robbing a store, National Geographic Kids can help with that too.

Personally I find at least half of each issue to be worthless trash. The few decent articles they do have are short (feeding kid's short attention spans) and set in the smallest tightest font available making them difficult to read, even for young healthy eyes. National Geographic Kids is all eye candy for 6-10 year old children as I can't imagine anyone much older being interested in the knighting of a penguin or a pig that wears boots.

While the April 2009 issue does show that National Geographic Kids can put out more than just dribble, it does seem to be the exception. I am not against having some fun features to get kids attention, the jokes are silly but my daughter loves to tell them to anyone who will listen and figuring out what some of the macro photographs are is fun. However, I feel "Stupid Criminals" is inappropriate for the age group actually reading the magazine and advertising things like video games and movies in articles to young children crosses the line for me too. National Geographic Kids doesn't live up to the reputation of the National Geographic. Fortunately I don't think my daughter will miss is when her subscription runs out.