special report

ASK

Investigation and Discovery for ages 6 - 9

We debated a bit whether to include a Special Report on ASK, since according to the Cricket website, “Ask magazine is not accepting unsolicited manuscripts or queries at present.” But since the guidelines add, “Experienced science writers who wish to be considered for commissions may send a resume and published clips,” we knew that some of the science writers might like to consider this magazine. It’s slightly harder to find on library shelves than the fiction members of the Cricket family so we decided to give you a peek inside an issue after all. ASK really is quite delightful.

If you decide to submit a resume and clips, send to

Editor
ASK Magazine
Carus Publishing Company
140 S. Dearborn #1450
Chicago, IL 60603

They are also open to art samples sent to the art director at the same address.

WHAT THEY PRINT:

NONFICTION. ASK publishes a variety of photo essays with relatively short bursts of information, long captions, and lots of photos. The sample issue included a profile of a zoo photographer and a historical profile of a man who photographed children at work, so ASK does profiles as well as fact pieces. They also have pull-out pages – the ones in the sample issue made a small guide to wildlife photography – readers were directed to cut the pages out, sort them into the little booklet, and staple them.

ANALYSIS OF SPECIFIC ISSUE

Contents:
ASK
THEME: Getting the Picture
May/June 2004

America’s Photo Album – (no byline) A look at a selection of the 13 million photos stored in the Smithsonian museums. Photos ranged from stars to bird skeletons to antique photos of people, famous and not so.

Nestor’s Dock. (Tom LaBaff) A regular department -- comic strip. This one featured a little girl who decides to take her own make-up picture for the school yearbook, with amusing results.

Getting the Picture. A lengthy piece (10 pages) showing photos that took special equipment, or special patience, or special circumstances to get. Includes historical photos that revealed terrible circumstances, x-rays, photos of people in motion, photos of snowflakes, photos of letters of the alphabet found in close-ups of butterfly wings, and other “wow” sights.

It’s All Happening at the Zoo. (by Charman Simon) Profile of zoo photographer Jessie Cohan with lots of anecdotes from the photographer of interesting situations she has encountered while photographing zoo animals. It also gives some information on how Jessie became a zoo photographer.

Jessie’s Tips for Great Animal Photographs. The pull-out pages feature. The booklet included many photographs with short photo tips on each page.

Stop It! (Meg Moss) An article on Harold “Doc” Engerton’s original work with stop motion photography. Includes unique photographs. (Photo sidebars to the piece reveal other unusual photography tools like telescopes in space that take photos and scanning electron microscopes.

Photo Firsts. (Meg Dorman) This article was illustrated with cartoons instead of photos. The article looked at the development of tools to “photograph” the world: the camera obscura, daguerreotypes, wet plates, the Kodak, flash powder, the first color film, the Polaroid camera, and digital cameras.

Lewis Hine: his camera told the truth. [James Rumford] A profile of a man who photographed children working, the publication of these photos help spur child labor laws.

The issue ends with Letters – the letters in this issue address the comic characters and don’t reference issues or science questions., A Contest – photograph a favorite animal, a cartoon section called “Jimmy the Bug” which is used to answer more science related reader questions, and another cartoon called “Marvin and Friends,” which features animals playing at making photos on their computer.

This page last updated on 01 July 2005