FindOut! pound;2.50 monthly Dorling Kindersley

KnowHow! pound;1.75 monthly Egmont Magazines

Two new monthly magazines for primary children are competing for similar, though not identical audiences. They each present themselves as publications that acknowledge children’s natural curiosity and hunger for information. They aim to appeal to both boys and girls and, in their launch issues at least, eschew some obvious magazine staples, such as popstars, fashion and football. (Well, actually KnowHow! does include a feature on the origins of football.) FindOut!, from Dorling Kindersley, is aimed at seven to 11-year-olds, and KnowHow!, from Egmont Magazines, is for five to eight-year-olds. That would suggest one magazine being appropriate for key stage 2 and the other for KS1, but there isn’t as much difference in the level of content and presentation as that implies. Indeed, only a fairlyimmature 11-year-old would be happy browsing in FindOut! and while it has more pages and is a glossier product (reflected in its cover price) than KnowHow!, I would say that it is actually pitched at the six to nine age range.

Egmont carried out extensive “qualitative research” before launching KnowHow!. This apparently involved focus groups, family interviews and “in-situ observations”, to ensure that a balance was struck between fun and educational content.

A note to grown-ups on the first page could suggest the balance has lurched in the direction of educational content. There is a reference to supporting “aspects of the National Curriculum” and to developing children’s personalities “Iby broadening their moral, cultural and social skills”.

In fact, the emphasis is decidedly light-hearted. A special activity pull-out gives directions on making a jar of pickled eyeballs. Another page shows how to perform a Magical Cups trick. There are the usual magazine puzzles: a maze, spot-the-difference, wordsearch etc. The information features in the launch issue were about water creatures, reptiles, China and the Moon.

KnowHow!‘s first free cover gift was a very basic paint-mixing set. FindOut!‘s was a Tutankhamun plaster-of-paris model kit, a tie-in with a double-page feature on “10 secrets of Ancient Egypt”. Although there is no earnest “Note to parents” in this magazine, the educational links are more apparent in its choice of information features.

In addition to Ancient Egypt, the launch issue presented Part 1 of “Meet the Romans’’, which extended for four pages. There were also features on volcanoes, the heart (four-pages), tigers, and Sudanese nomads. There was still room for the usual mix of mazes and “brain benders”, and a chance to win a digital camera worth pound;300.

The magazine will need to watch its highly-irritating policy of drawing attention to Dorling Kindersley books at every opportunity, or it will give the impression that its information subjects have been chosen simply to advertise a particular DK title. That apart, if parents or teachers are looking for a well-produced children’s magazine with a bit of substance, FindOut! is the one to choose. In aiming to be accessible slightly younger readers, KnowHow! is both physically and qualitatively thinner. But it is also more recreational, and might be a better choice for weekend or holiday reading.