In recent years, I have enjoyed reviewing several books from Britannica publisher, What on Earth Books. Did you know they now have a monthly magazine? One that channels all the qualities of their captivating reference books into an easily digestible read for children.
What Is What on Earth! Magazine?
What on Earth magazine delivers bite-sized chunks of reference-book goodness each month. You have all the interest and rigor you’d expect from a leading publisher of reference books with a topical feel and some extra bits of entertainment thrown in. Many children’s magazines are of limited interest, often having plastic tat attached to their front cover, which is usually broken as fast as the contents of the magazine are forgotten.
Not so What on Earth! magazine. It’s perfect for inquisitive children of all ages. Not only does it cover a dazzling array of topics, it also has some great puzzles, jokes, and even a child-friendly quiz.
The magazine has nods to their book collection with Factopia and Listified spreads.
GeekDad has teamed up with What on Earth to take a look at a few issues of the magazine, beginning with the May 2024 issue.
The magazine is available in the UK and Worldwide (including the U.S.) and is available in both physical and digital formats. If you take out a subscription, you’ll make a saving on the cover price.
Why Read What On Earth! Magazine – May 2024?
This month’s cover story, “Rise of The Robots,” treats us to the history of robotics from Babylonian water clocks up to the possibility of a computing singularity. There is also a double-page spread that looks at how robots and IT are revolutionizing the world of medicine. It’s fascinating reading for any age.
Equally interesting was the article on taxonomy and Linnean nomenclature for living things. On the face of it this might have been very dry, but, thankfully, scientists have named things after Hot Wheels, Shakira, and Greta Thunberg to keep things interesting and relevant to budding biologists!
The “toys in numbers” sequence was inevitably fascinating, but the piece I enjoyed the most was “Wacky Science.” Six glorious pages of things you didn’t know you didn’t know, and more importantly, as is often the way with What on Earth’s books, things that you didn’t know how much you WANTED to know them. These pages were possibly worth the cover price alone.
I very much enjoyed the puzzle pages too. Often publications pay lip service to these things, but What on Earth! magazine has a great multiple-choice quiz, a massive word search, a great spot-the-difference puzzle (which I still enjoy even at the age of 51), and many other challenging puzzles. If that wasn’t enough, there are some jokes and riddles for readers to bamboozle and entertain their friends and family.
It’s always something of a leap of faith when I agree to review something new. I expected a good quality read from What on Earth, but publishers don’t always successfully transform their books into short-form versions. What on Earth! magazine succeeds in everything it sets out to do. It’s a well-laid-out, engaging read for children (and adults). It can be hard to pull children away from devices and the internet, but What On Earth! magazine should do just that. It might take a bit of seeding, but it’s a great way to start a discussion with your children about an unusual topic. Hopefully, once you’ve got them started, the Robots and everything else will carry them away.
I received a copy of the magazine in order to write this review.
