Spend Time With Our Kids

By BRUCE HALLETT/PRESIDENT

This week TIME FOR KIDS joins students heading back to school after the summer hiatus. For the fourth year in a row, our young publication will be distributed weekly to classrooms nationwide throughout the school year.

This week's TFK cover story is one that our editors, and undoubtedly many students, have been following closely for the past three months: the Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa home-run derby. Will the story take on the controversy surrounding McGwire's use of possible performance-enhancing supplements such as creatine? "We'll mention it, of course," says TFK managing editor Claudia Wallis. "Many kids know it's part of the story. We have to respect that."

TFK's appreciation for the curiosity and intelligence of young readers is a key to its growing popularity. Published in two editions, for intermediate (Grades 4 through 6) and elementary (Grades 2 and 3), TFK will have a combined circulation of 2 million this year. Perhaps the best indicator of the magazine's success is the 1,600 letters and e-mail TFK receives each week from students, parents and teachers. "Kids know we really respect their opinion, so they want to tell us what they like," says TFK intermediate-edition senior editor Martha Pickerill.

TFK plans to expand its education mission this year by adding several bonus editions to the regular 26 issues. Three of these issues will focus on the environment and encourage kids to find ways to get involved in their own communities, something they already show a penchant for doing.

As readers, kids favor stories about sports, animals and space. But that doesn't mean they shy away from weightier issues. One of last year's most important stories examined the topic of land mines--an everyday threat to kids in a number of countries. The story drew hundreds of letters. Nor did the magazine avoid the White House sex scandal or the tragic death of Princess Diana last year. "Kids tell us they like to feel that they're doing real reading," says Leanna Landsmann, TFK's president. "It makes them feel grown up."

Teachers say they appreciate the reading challenges TFK presents. A teacher from Maine wrote recently to praise the magazine for "treating kids as the citizens of the world that they are."

Finally, parents are enthusiastic about TFK for the dialogue it initiates with their children. Teachers report that after reading TFK, the vast majority of students talk to their parents about what they have learned. "Kids get really excited when they see their parents reading similar stories in the regular edition of TIME," says Pickerill. Ann Reimus from Pennsylvania wrote to say she and her husband "love politics and follow the news. TIME FOR KIDS has sparked that interest in our son."

That convergence is no coincidence. TFK regularly taps the rich global reportage of TIME staff members. "We have access to the great journalists at TIME and work like a real newsmagazine. None of our competitors can say that," says Wallis.

TFK's success has not gone unnoticed. Last year, the first year for which it was eligible, the magazine won the prestigious Educational Press Association Golden Lamp Award for general excellence. We like to think TFK takes after its parent.