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KIDZWONDER – A PAYING ONLINE MARKET

This is from editor Teresa Lilly: Kidzwonder magazine is looking for articles. You can see a sample issue online. We are looking for short pieces, fiction, rebus, seasonal, holidays, community workers, collections, and anything else kids would like. This is a new magazine so we currently only pay $2 per article. We will also host writing contests periodically which will be free, so check back with us from time to time.

SCHOOL MAGAZINE OF AUSTRALIA

[We’re sharing some observations from an Australian writer who has read through a number of issues. This is what she thought of as she read – so it’s also an excellent guide to analyzing a magazine. When you read sample issues, what do you notice?]

I've divided the info up by magazine (as you would know from the website, there are four different mags, each aimed at different age-groups). As well as original material, they also reprint classic poems from time to time - Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, TS Eliot etc.

Countdown (8-9 years old)

Fiction is often of the heartwarming type, often gently lesson-driven. More realist storylines than fantasy; whimsy is sometimes a feature. Often focusing on exploring the world, first experiences. Generally feature third-person omniscient narrators.
Examples of recent stories: seeing snow for the first time, losing a tooth, special needs kids, relationships with grandparents, multicultural elements, a fruit&veg store owner who plays the violin to his produce, moving house, re-tellings of folk tales, learning to ride a bike, the drought. There are some stories which feature animal protags - dogs, frogs etc.

Poetry
Poetry includes both rhyme and free verse, although more of the former. Lots of slice of life stuff, animals, humour, aspects of nature.

Blast Off (9-10)

Fiction
Again, they seem to favour third-person omniscient; mix of fantastical and realist. Lots of generational stories - relationships with grandparents etc. Seems to be more nonfiction here and a trend towards n-f disguised as fiction - stories which introduce a topic or theme and educate the reader about that, sometimes followed by related sidebars, activities etc.
Recent stories include getting a dog, recycling junk from the council cleanup, the school play etc.

Poetry includes more free verse at this level - whimsy is a feature, and there is a focus on nature as a broad theme.

Orbit (10-11)

Fiction
School/neighbourhood-focused stories, folk-tale re-tellings, lots of ‘boy-appeal’ stories – sport etc; themes such as friendship, overcoming adversity, individual strengths and weaknesses, caring for the environment. First-person narrative starts to become a feature here, although there’s still plenty of third-person.

Poetry features more free verse and greater use of more advanced techniques -- figurative language, allegory; still lots of nature/animal-focused work, some rollicking rhyme/slapstick-type humour.

Touchdown (advanced primary)

Fiction: Ranges from lighthearted/humorous slice-of-life to more serious/social justice/environmental-type themes. Recent short story topics include: children saving whales, a girl who makes a wish to lose weight and ends up on the ceiling, re-tellings of traditional stories, a fortune-teller’s prediction comes true in an unexpected way, time travel

Poetry: quite a lot of re-prints from poets such as W Carlos Williams, Dickinson, Robert Frost etc; original stuff is fairly diverse - lots of free verse, image-focused poetry, still some focus on nature/animals, also humour, whimsy – statues that talk, a land where humans have tails etc. Where poems rhyme at this level, they tend not to have the tight rhyming schemes seen at the earlier levels; there’s also more play with half-rhymes and techniques such as enjambment etc.

There weren't many serialised stories at all. I had a year's worth of magazines (eleven issues of each) and there was only one serial out of all those, which ran across two issues of Touchdown. There is a recurring character who appears in many stories by one particular writer, but the stories themselves stand alone.

There were no parallel worlds of any kind and no fantastical creatures or anything like that. What fantasy there was tended to be based on extensions of the real world - eg plants coming to life in the garden, wishes coming true, that sort of thing.

This page last updated on 01 September 2008