While our literary magazines (Babybug, Ladybug, Spider, Cricket, and Cicada) feature “the best of the best” for children in stories and poems, our discovery magazines provide the best for children who want to explore the world through science, history, art, archeology, or geography. Below you’ll find our editors’ picks for the best articles of 2015 from Click, Ask, Muse, Cobblestone, Dig, and Faces.
We’re proud of the diverse voices, points of view, and topics covered in our magazines each month. We hope this round-up will give you just a taste of why our magazines have won more awards than any other publications for children. For your child’s monthly dose of brainy fun, be sure to subscribe to your favorite magazine(s).
Editor: Amy Tao
Favorite Article: “What Color Is It?” (September 2015)
A note from Amy: The words in this article are simple and few, but the idea they convey is complex and intriguing. Like many of the best Click stories, it inspires readers to look at the world more closely and think outside the box.
What Color Is It
Ask
Editor: Liz Huyck
Favorite Article: “Helping Hands” (Nov/Dec 2015)
A note from Liz: I like this article because it captures the best of what technology can be; enabling people to create freely, share ideas, and help each other. I hope it helps inspire a new generation of Makers!
Helping Hands
Editor: Johanna Arnone
Favorite Article: “What’s Mine Is Yours” (October 2015)
A note from Johanna: The author tells four very different but related stories–from a high-tech box that keeps a heart beating outside to a doctor who expects that a full human head transplant will occur in the near future. But the most memorable subsection, for me, is the story of a woman who required a face transplant. Her grace, and the donor family’s, are impossible to forget.
Whats Mine Is Yours
Cobblestone
Editor: Meg Chorlian
Favorite Article: “Marching to Montgomery and Beyond (February 2015)
A note from Meg: The issue was about pivotal events of the civil rights movement that led to civil rights legislation. A first-time writer sent in a query to interview someone who had grown up in Selma, Alabama, and who had participated in the march from Selma to Montgomery. The author delivered a great interview with a woman named Shirley Jefferson. Jefferson was 12 years old in 1965, when the march took place, so she was the same age as COBBLESTONE readers. She talks about going to segregated schools, being scared, and the KKK, and how the whole experience made an impression on her. It is very powerful, and I think it gives readers a personal, real look at an event that might otherwise seem to them like its ancient history: It wasn’t that long ago that people were marching in the streets for civil rights, and here was a person their age who participated!
Marching to Montgomery and Beyond
Editor: Rosalie Baker
Favorite Article: “Crypt Secrets” (March 2015)
A note from Rosalie: DIG has written much about tomb findings and skeleton analysis, but this article was different. It focused on Medici family tombs on the order, as the author writes, of CSI Florence. Most fascinating was how comparing historical records with analysis of recovered remains offered proof that a Medici father had not murdered his sons. The culprit was a mosquito!
Crypt Secrets
Editor: Elizabeth Carpentiere
Favorite Article: “At a Glance” (April 2015)
A note from Elizabeth: Among the two most important things my dad passed on to me were his love of reading and his passion for baseball. I love every page of the April 2015 issue, “Baseball: The World’s Pastime,” but my favorite piece is the At a Glance. It’s fun, informative, and a great introduction to the issue.