The March issues of the bug magazines we're subscribed to arrived this week:  Ladybug for Milly, Spider for Leo (we also get Highlights and High Five; more about them later).  I love the mail and am always somewhat surprised that Leo and Milly aren't willing to drop everything and read their magazines cover to cover the minute they arrive (like I do).  Maybe they're just not that interested in magazines?  At any rate, I'm considering letting our subscriptions lapse, or at least transferring Leo's from Spider to dig: the archaeology magazine for kids (also by Carus Publishing).

There's always at least one thing they like in their magazines, though.  In this month's Ladybug it was the story "There's a Mouse in the House!" by Shirley Montgomery, with art by Taeeun Yoo.  Milly always likes "Mop and Family" (Mop is the dog) by Alex de Wolf, too.  Leo read only "Mighty Vesuvius Erupts" by Charles F. Baker and Rosalie F. Baker in Spider (he's still very interested in ancient Rome; see here for my review of a picture book about Pompeii).  This was a letter from Pliny (the Younger) to Tacitus; excellent choice, although I would have liked to have seen a source note somewhere in the magazine or on the website (again with the source notes!).

Both magazines came with an important message to subscribers:  Carus is simplifying its publishing structure so that all magazines will be offered at the same rate and will publish on the same schedule, 9 issues per year (for the bug magazines, that represents a reduction in the number of issues per year and, at $33.95, a very slightly lower price.  At the same time, Carus will also be expanding the bug magazines' online content and giving them their own websites.  Wait, they didn't have websites already?).

I still like the idea of kids' magazines, perhaps more than my kids like the magazines themselves (note:  I love the bug magazines!).  Do your kids like magazines, and if so, which ones do you recommend?  Any experience with dig?  Thanks!