Category: Children
Number of Pages: 42
Language: English
Publisher: Cricket Media Inc.
Publisher: Cricket Media Inc.
Frequency: 9 Issues / Year
Age Range: 6 - 9
About the Magazine
Spider is an illustrated literary magazine designed for children from 6 to 9 years old. Started in January 1994, the magazine is published in the United States by The Cricket Magazine Group, which is owned by the Carus Publishing Company. The headquarters of the magazine is in Chicago, Illinois. The magazine tells original short stories, poems, nonfiction articles, activities, games and illustrations from world famous authors. It also has art and writing contests in each issue and publishes work created by its readers.
The magazine is published every month, except for combined May–June, July–August, and November–December issues.
Features
Every issue of Spider is 40 pages long and includes a few recurring sections throughout every magazine.Notably, there is an illustrated cast of insects that appear in the margins of every page, similar to a comic strip. They include Ophelia the praying mantis, Sam the caterpillar, Sonya the damselfly, Thistle the weevil, Miro the French mushroom, and Spider the spider, who the magazine is named after. The bugs are involved in their own story line throughout each issue, but they also comment on the articles or stories above them. Each insect also has their own personality and specific interest, which dictates their specific section in the magazine; for example, Miro loves food so he can be found in the kitchen or the recipe section of each issue.
Also found in each issue:
The magazine is published every month, except for combined May–June, July–August, and November–December issues.
Features
Every issue of Spider is 40 pages long and includes a few recurring sections throughout every magazine.Notably, there is an illustrated cast of insects that appear in the margins of every page, similar to a comic strip. They include Ophelia the praying mantis, Sam the caterpillar, Sonya the damselfly, Thistle the weevil, Miro the French mushroom, and Spider the spider, who the magazine is named after. The bugs are involved in their own story line throughout each issue, but they also comment on the articles or stories above them. Each insect also has their own personality and specific interest, which dictates their specific section in the magazine; for example, Miro loves food so he can be found in the kitchen or the recipe section of each issue.
Also found in each issue:
- Spider's Mailbox is the opening section of the magazine, where reader's letters, comments, and questions and are displayed.
- Doodlebug & Dandelion is an ongoing short story written by Pamela Dell, where each issue has a new storyline.
- Spider's Corner is a portion of the magazine that includes art, story writing, and poetry contests for kids to enter, either by writing to the magazine or online. It also includes the winning entries of previous contests.
- Ophelia's Last Word is on the last page of every issue, where Ophelia gives out a piece of wisdom, an idea, an activity or introduces the themes for the next issue of the magazine.
- There is also a four page spread of take-out pages that include an activity for kids to do.
In This Issue
Greet the New Year with a lucky visitor, build a sled hill with no snow, learn about Indian powder art, and watch how one young artist tackles the challenge to “draw anything.”