We've been really impressed with the rise and rise in the quality of magazines for children, in particular those that ditch the 'horrible plastic tat' approach, ditch the ads and serve up a superb mix of topics for young inquisitive minds to dive into.

First up is "The Week Junior" which is a current affairs magazine for 8 to 14 year olds, with a strong emphasis on covering important news stories, amazing science topics and a huge dose of natural history too.

"The Week Junior" has a really approachable format, heavy on the illustrations and photographs but with informative level-headed text that doesn't "talk down" to kids. It reminds me a lot of the approach that old-skool "Newsround" used to take, covering important topics in a really cool way.

There's a fantastic offer on at the moment to pick up 6 free issues as part of a subscription.

You can find out all the details on The Week Junior Website: https://theweekjunior.co.uk

We've also been taking a look at "National Geographic Kids" - a junior version of the grown-up magazine (which we really rate highly as well).


"National Geographic Kids" also serves up a fantastic magazine with tons of nature, science and environmental topics.

The mag DOES feature free gifts on the cover (though to be honest these usually end up in the bin at home) but the magazine itself is a really informative read, again illustration / photograph-heavy with some great articles to read, puzzles to do and overall a bit more for kids between 5-8 (though older kids like C also seem to enjoy it).

You can find out more about the National Geographic Kids magazine on their website: https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/subscribe-kids/#!/kids-services

For us, "The Week Junior" just edges out in front as the magazine we'd be most likely to take out a subscription to as it felt a bit more appropriate for C's age (10). Both are excellent though so check out the websites for pricing and availability.

Here's a couple of brilliant new books from Otter-Barry kicking off with a riotous and crazy set of stories about a very odd fellow indeed...

It's amazing what kids get into these days. LOL Dolls, Roblox, Quantum Physics...

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, they said...

Here's a fascinating slice of history about a pioneering librarian who really set the wheels in motion to revolutionise book lending...

Oh my goodness, our bonus Chapter Book of the Week this week really is a fantastic idea you'd SWEAR someone must've thought of already...but this one's really not for kids so we're shoehorning it in as a bonus review

We had to squeeze in just one more Book of the Week this week, making room for an extremely important and fantastically timely book...

For this week's Chapter Book of the Week, strap yourselves in, you're about to be whirled off into a deep dark detective mystery that will absolutely blow your socks off. All without leaving the library!

This is really something special, for many many reasons - not least of all the fact that it perfectly addresses a real problem we've had with picture books since we first started this blog...

The joy of pedalling around a glorious and busy little town has never been captured before with such joy in a children's picture book...