Good children's magazine for advanced 8 year old?

[LynnS6]

Dd's birthday is coming up in May and I'd like to suggest to relatives that they get her a magazine subscription to one of the Cricket magazines or something similar. Looking at the Cricket site, they've got magazines for the 6-9 age group and the 9-14 age group. Would the 9-14 ones be OK for her? 

Dd is in 2nd grade and will be 8 in May. She's reading comfortably at a 6th-7th grade reading level. She likes some fantasy like Harry Potter or the Warrior Cats, realistic fiction, and historical fiction. She's interested in other languages and cultures. She can handle heavy-ish themes (death of parent, for example), but she's not ready for some more mature themes of puberty, nor for the "dying dog" genre of literature (Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, etc.).

Which magazines would you recommend?

thanks!

[moominmamma]

Generally speaking I find the Carus publications to be fairly sophisticated for the age-groups mentioned. In other words, a bright 8-year-old would not feel at all patronized by the stories and articles in ASK or Spider. My 9-year-old moved up from ASK to Muse last fall (at age 8.5, ~6th grade level academically). I wouldn't say that she had really outgrown ASK. She still enjoyed it, but she wanted a change, and content that took a bit longer to read and made her think more deeply. She's been happy with Muse. 

So I don't suppose you'd go wrong with either category. The content in the 9-14 picks wouldn't be inappropriate for younger kids. I think the interest-level is definitely targeted at tweens -- but not in a racy way. If you go younger, you have the option to trade up at any point during your subscription, with the remaining value of the previous subscription completely transferrable to the new one. So there's a hedge built into their marketing model which is nice.

Miranda

[KCMichigan]

Originally Posted by moominmamma 

Generally speaking I find the Carus publications to be fairly sophisticated for the age-groups mentioned. In other words, a bright 8-year-old would not feel at all patronized by the stories and articles in ASK or Spider.

So I don't suppose you'd go wrong with either category. The content in the 9-14 picks wouldn't be inappropriate for younger kids. I think the interest-level is definitely targeted at tweens -- but not in a racy way. If you go younger, you have the option to trade up at any point during your subscription, with the remaining value of the previous subscription completely transferrable to the new one. So there's a hedge built into their marketing model which is nice.

Miranda

I agree....my 6 yr olds got ASK at 4.5 and loved it! They also enjoy Ranger Rick- which is 8+.

Cricket is used in the 3rd/4th/5th grades at our school, so I would assume that it would work for ages 8-12.  FACES is a great magazine for learning about how kids live around the world, CALLIOPE is a good history magazine that may touch on topics such as slavery, death, war, etc- but it is popular with the 5th graders.

As Mirander said, you cant go wrong I think!
 

[mamazee]

You might want to check out New Moon magazine (newmoon.com) as it's aimed at girls starting at age 8 and is pretty awesome.

[Geofizz]

Yes, my kids even still get a lot out of Ladybug!  My MIL buys it for them, and she keeps asking if they've outgrown it yet.  She's shifted the subscription into my 6 year old's name and he gets it first, but both kids enjoy it.  It's a lovely set of publications!  My whole family reads cobblestone, as we're more history buffs than literature hounds.

DD also really enjoys dig.  I'm contemplating getting the family a National Geographic subscription as well.

If she's inspired to write, you could also try Stone Soup.

[expecting-joy]

Ask, Spider, Appleseeds, New Moon...

[ChristaN]

My youngest likes Kiki a lot (http://kikimag.com/about/about.php#.T4Y4e6t8BIE).  Mine is more interested in fashion, though.  

Another option might be to look for membership to a society in an area of interest for your dd.  Some organizations offer magazines with memberships.  For instance, my oldest is very interested in marine biology so we got her a kid membership to the Cousteau society when she was younger which came with a subscription to their kid magazine: http://www.cousteau.org/cousteau-kids/cousteau-kids

[loraxc]

We recently came across a copy of New Moon and DD8 LOVED it.

[MamaInTheDesert]

I remember loving Ranger Rick at that age, so you get another vote from me on that. Another thing I liked was subscriptions to notebook inserts. I remember there was ZooBooks that I really enjoyed, and I can't remember the names but I know there was one on different cultures, and one on dinosaurs. Maybe some other mamas can help me out with the names of those or give you more suggestions.

[LynnS6]

Thanks! So many great suggestions.

Kiwi would definitely not interest her right now. New Moon looks really cool, but I don't think she's quite ready for that yet --maybe in a  year or two.

Stone Soup looks awesome and that's definitely going to be on my list. Dd loves to write and this might inspire her to actually finish a story! (She's really really good at introductions. Not so hot at getting the story rolling.)

I think I'll have to get copies of the Carus publications and let dd look at them. Personally, I would like Calliope, Faces & Cricket and would order all three for myself! Ask and Spider might do well for her too, but it's hard to say without looking at them.

[ChristaN]

Originally Posted by LynnS6 

Stone Soup looks awesome and that's definitely going to be on my list. Dd loves to write and this might inspire her to actually finish a story! (She's really really good at introductions. Not so hot at getting the story rolling.)

If she likes writing, she might also like Prufrock's Creative Kids magazine: http://www.prufrock.com/Assets/ClientPages/kids_magazine.aspx

[domesticidyll]

Another big fan of the Carus magazines. DS (8) loves the big kid history ones and also reads his little sister's Babybugs.

If your library doesn't have subscriptions to check out, Carus also sells (not inexpensively) back copies individually, or I've seen them on ebay also (that would be faster than through Carus, and probably cheaper).

Also love that there are no advertisements.

A family friend mentioned recently that when he was a freshman at University of Chicago (25 years ago), he and his friends were shocked at how very many of them had had Cricket subscriptions as children.

Heather

[squimp]

My 8-yo  DD is at a similar reading level (although does not like fantasy) and she loves Ask and Spider.  We have a subscription to both now.  I'm saving Cricket for a little later.  I remember reading it as a kid a million years ago, and I can't wait to subscribe.  

[bec]

We get a lot of the cricket series magazines as well and they are well loved around here.  My 5th grader has been fascinated with Caliope and reads it cover to cover.  We just started a National Geographic (the adult version) for the 8 year old, and everyone is getting a lot out of that as well. 

[whatsnextmom]

I haven't time to go through all the posts so forgive if I repeat. We love National Geographic but if you have sensitive kids who may be disturbed by articles on gorilla poaching, for example, you might check out National Geographic Young Explorers. My kids liked that one a lot when they were younger and moved on to regular National Geographic around 10. They used to really like the Highlights hidden pictures and mazes magazines... do they still have those? Both mine liked the Zoo news magazine we got for being members of the zoo. I don't know where you live but maybe your local zoo has a publication?

[A&A]

Yes, definitely, go with one of the 9--14 magazines like Muse or Faces.  (Faces is great for learning about other cultures.)      The Cricket magazines are the BEST.   (We tried New Moon and National Geographic Kids, and didn't like either of those.) 

[expecting-joy]

We didn'tcare for National Geogrphic Kids, either - they try too hard to be hip. (We highly recommend NG Little Kids for pre-readers, though.)

[nuttymom]

My 9 year old loves National Geographic, the adult version. At one time or another she has had most of the common ones: ladybug, national geographic kids, ranger rick and a few others and has definitely outgrown them. I sometimes get her the American Girl magazine for a little lighter ;) reading, and she really likes it.

[Thalia the Muse]

Another vote for the Carus magazines -- you really can't go wrong with them! Kiki is excellent but definitely more "tween focused," with lots of fashion coverage (not body-shaming/skanky/heavily consumerist like most fashion mags, but still more for older kids). American Girl would also be fine; it's not challenging reading, but unobjectionable (except they indirectly shill the dolls a bit) and full of tips for projects to do and how to get along with friends and so forth. My DD also really enjoys Ranger Rick, and I like that it's ad-free. It's much less challenging/thought-provokng than Ask and other Carus mags for a gifted kid, though. Mostly it appeals because it's full of pictures of cute wild animals, which is fine with me.