National Magazine Day

This National Magazine Day, we’re celebrating the many ways children can discover a love of reading, from stories and comics to fascinating facts and fun puzzles. Magazines give children the freedom to explore their interests, build confidence and enjoy reading in their own way. We’re proud to partner with Storytime magazine, which provides magazines to our partner schools, helping more children discover the stories and activities that inspire them to read.

In this blog, Storytime’s Creative Director Lulu Skantze explains why magazines can make such a difference, particularly for children who haven’t yet found reading enjoyable.

The Play Power of Magazines - by Lulu Skantze

"We talk a lot about reading for pleasure, and rightly so. But sometimes I think we are still a little too narrow about what we mean by reading.

Not every child is going to pick up a book and disappear into it for an afternoon. While some might, others will read a comic, spend ten minutes looking at a page about sharks, do a puzzle, read the instructions for making something, then go back and read the joke they missed three pages earlier. It all counts as reading.

And this is exactly where I think magazines have always had a rather special role. They sit somewhere between a book and a toy. They are something to read, certainly, but they are also something to do.

I grew up surrounded by magazines, comics and those little activity books you could buy at the corner shop. You read them, but you also scribbled on them, cut things out, folded pages, swapped them with friends and kept favourite copies for years. Nobody hovered over you saying, “Careful with that!”

I love books, don’t get me wrong. But books are treated as precious objects while magazines give children a little more freedom. And freedom is quite important when we are talking about reading for pleasure.

A magazine does not ask a child to begin at page one and read until the end in one go. They can enter wherever they like, stay for a bit, or get lost in it a whole afternoon! One child might begin with a comic, another might choose a a fact page or a puzzle. Someone else might be drawn in by an illustration or a subject they already love. That freedom helps engagement and gives the young reader agency.

Magazines offer short, varied and visually engaging pieces of content that can help children build confidence as readers. They also provide wonderful opportunities for shared reading, because adults and children can talk, make, laugh and learn together.

For reluctant readers, magazines can be particularly useful because they don’t feel like a huge commitment. While a whole book can look daunting; a two-page article, a comic strip or a puzzle feels manageable. You finish one thing and you’ve already had a small success. Then perhaps you read another. That is how habits begin.

Periodicals have another advantage too: they come back. A new issue arriving every week or month creates anticipation. There is something lovely about children receiving something addressed to them, knowing there will be familiar favourites inside but also something they haven’t seen before.

Variety matters enormously as well. In one magazine a child might encounter dinosaurs, poetry, sport, another country, a science experiment and a story they would never have chosen as a book. Magazines are very good at putting unexpected things in front of children.

After nearly 12 years publishing a children’s magazine, I’ve seen how often those unexpected encounters are the things children remember.

The real play power of magazines is that they don't make a great distinction between reading, learning and having fun. So if we want more children to read for pleasure, we need to give them plenty of ways in. Books, yes. But also comics, facts, puzzles, newspapers and magazines.

I suspect the beginning of a love of reading is simply finding something you really want to turn the page for.

Storytime is a children’s magazine designed to support reading for pleasure through high-quality stories, diverse illustration, facts, puzzles and activities. Used by families and schools around the world, it helps children build confidence, curiosity and positive reading habits. Hello@storytimemagazine.com @storytimemag www.storytimemagazine.com

Lulu Skantze

Lulu is the Creative Director of Storytime, a global children’s brand bringing stories to life across print, digital, and audio. Storytime is also one of the UK’s biggest children’s magazine. She’s passionate about making reading joyful and accessible for all, and uses storytelling to support literacy, learning, and creativity.