What magazines would a five-year old boy in the UK love to receive?

October 30, 2008 3:06 PM

I want to give the five-year-old son of my good friends a magazine subscription as a gift. I'm giving their eight-year-old bookworm daughter a sub to Puffin Post, which I loved as a kid. Any recommendations?

We're in the UK, so any US publications would need to accept international subscriptions and not be *too* US-centric. He loves Thomas the Tank Engine, cars and his telescope. His face absolutely lights up any time he sees a book with a car on the cover.

posted by acalthla to sports, hobbies, & recreation (23 comments total)

My son was fond of National Geographic Kids (and cars and Thomas the tank engine). (Thank Christ they grow up....)
posted by fcummins at 3:12 PM on October 30, 2008

Cricket

Highlights
posted by parmanparman at 3:16 PM on October 30, 2008

I loved Ranger Rick and Highlights when I was little. :)
posted by nitsuj at 3:16 PM on October 30, 2008

Click or Ask

Sorry they're not 'car-centric', but my kids have been huge fans of (almost) anything form this publisher. Never a disappointment.
posted by Incognita at 3:22 PM on October 30, 2008

Instead of Nat Geo Kids, just get them the regular National Geographic. My grandfather had some crazy notion that if you treat kids like they're smarter than most adults generally take them for, they might just live up to the notion. And so, every Christmas since I was old enough to turn pages and look at pictures, we got another annual subscription to Nat Geo. Looking back from 30 now, I can remember only a few of the presents I got (my first RC car, etc.) but I can clearly remember the Nat Geos. They are where I learned to read and much about what I know about the universe we live in today. And we still have every one of them on a shelf in mom and dad's library, and I still pull them out to read when I'm home. I didn't get to be very close to my grandfather and he may not have got much right, but he freaking nailed that one.
posted by allkindsoftime at 3:22 PM on October 30, 2008 [4 favorites]

Highlights creeped me out as a kid. Still does. I second Cricket, or, if you think it's too advanced for a 5-year-old, how about its baby sib magazine Ladybug? High-quality literature--poems, stories, and articles--beautiful illustrations, and puzzles.
posted by Ms. Informed at 3:29 PM on October 30, 2008

Spider is by the folks who publish Cricket but it's probably more age appropriate for a 5 year old.
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 3:30 PM on October 30, 2008

http://www.zoobooks.com/

Really nice and all about animals. I think it is more of a set of reference material with monthly delivery, but I remember getting them as a child and reading them a couple of times through. I even kept them and still have them.

A sub should be enough to last a few years (there are 58 issues in total)

Available for $38 per year including shipping to the UK.
posted by koolkat at 3:36 PM on October 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

We always liked Ladybug a lot. My kids really liked the stories a lot when they were that age. And it's a very profession publication - it always looks great.
posted by GuyZero at 3:40 PM on October 30, 2008

is OWL magazine still around?
posted by joelf at 3:53 PM on October 30, 2008

Seconding Ranger Rick and Cricket.
posted by chickadee at 3:54 PM on October 30, 2008

Ladybug, and then Cricket. I cannot put into words how much I loved Cricket growing up. The full-colour illustrations just aren't the same, but they've still got the stories :)
posted by kalimac at 4:07 PM on October 30, 2008

Zoo Books were wonderful. I remember them fondly. Koolkat is right that they're more a set of reference materials that arrive every month, but they were still very exciting to get and were lots of fun to look back over again and again.

The one about dinosaurs and the one about primates--those were the best.
posted by Neofelis at 4:39 PM on October 30, 2008

Nthing Zoobooks. Depending on the 5-year-old in question, the text might be a little advanced, but the pictures are spectacular, and work keeping. I got my first issue when I was...oh...7? Finally finished the cycle as I was entering Jr High, and I kept them long after as anatomy references for drawing!
posted by blackunicorn at 4:50 PM on October 30, 2008

Stone Soup!
posted by availablelight at 6:48 PM on October 30, 2008

n^thing Ranger Rick and Cricket
posted by ob1quixote at 7:21 PM on October 30, 2008

Five-hundredth-ing Ladybug/Spider/Cricket. I started reading Ladybug at age five myself and never looked back. (I'd prefer Ladybug for a five-year-old - Cricket, if I recall correctly, is aimed at ages 9-12.)
posted by punchdrunkhistory at 8:57 PM on October 30, 2008

Zilllionth-ing Cricket and Ranger Rick.
posted by bink at 11:19 PM on October 30, 2008

Highlights. It's just really - the best there is.
posted by watercarrier at 2:07 AM on October 31, 2008

Lego do a magazine my kids have been bugging me for.
posted by bystander at 5:08 AM on October 31, 2008

Isn't Your Big Back Yard intended for kids younger than Ranger Rick's intended readership?

I loved getting those. I never liked Highlights much. I considered it too bland and babyish and mostly associated it with waiting rooms at places I didn't want to be.

Here's Amazon's listing of mags for kids 4-8.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:09 AM on October 31, 2008

The pro about Highlights, among others - is that it still manages to instill a sense of *all right is in the world* in spite of appearances. It lets kids be kids without trying to rush the maturity quotient. It still maintains innocence while integrating knowledge and fun.
posted by watercarrier at 6:30 AM on October 31, 2008

How about the Doctor Who Adventures, if he's into Doctor Who? (and what 5 year old boy isn't?)
posted by almostwitty at 8:27 AM on October 31, 2008