25. Sports Illustrated Kids - August 2011

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED KIDS – August 2011

Published by Time, Inc.

GENRE: Magazine

HONORS: This issue has not won any awards, but the magazine has received honors from the Association of Educational Publishers and the Parents’ Choice Awards.

REVIEW:

As the monthly spin-off of Sports Illustrated, this magazine is designed for boys and girls who enjoy sports.  Covering a variety of professional and college sports, the magazine features easy-to-read articles on star and up-and-coming athletes, including the cover star, Andrew Luck.  A section titled “Sports Kids” features nominated kids that excel in sports and a blurb at the bottom invites kids to nominate themselves online.  Particularly interesting, action shots fill the pages of the magazine, with the “Freeze Frame” segment highlighting some particularly amazing photos.  There are also some tips from pros for boys and girls to use as inspiration in their own lives.  In contrast to Sports Illustrated, this kids’ version uses humor in many of its features.  For instance, “Double Talk” introduces four pairs of twin brothers that play in the same professional sport, sharing funny stories of their experiences growing up as twins and seeing how well the twins know each other through a short quiz.  Also, the magazine includes a two-sided poster of two star athletes and nine sports cards for kids to collect.

OPINION:

This magazine is a wonderful resource for tweens that live and breathe sports.  In addition to some of the more televised sports such as basketball and football, the magazine includes features on tennis, lacrosse, and Supercross, satisfying the interests of all sports-enthusiasts.  Although the magazine appears to be more directed toward boys, there are several female athletes featured in the pages that will inspire girls.  There is a good mix of short and longer articles, with one article taken directly from Sports Illustrated.  The magazine includes few advertisements that detract from the features.  I especially enjoyed the “Favorite Stuff” segments that listed athletes’ interests, giving a glimpse into their personality aside from their respective sports.  This magazine could be a great way to get reluctant readers that are interested in sports to read, using it as a bridge to both fiction and nonfiction books about sports.

IDEAS:

This would be a great magazine to include in a library display about sports for tweens, as well as a list of magazines to engage tweens.  It could also be used to inspire a library program for budding sports writers, with tweens learning how to write about sports through studying the featured articles.