National Geographic Kids is a children's magazine published by the National Geographic Society

National Geographic Society

The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...

. Its first issue was printed in September 1975 under the original title: National Geographic World (which itself replaced the much older National Geographic School Bulletin, published weekly during the school year from 1919 to 1975).

The magazine was published for twenty-six years as National Geographic World, until the title of the magazine was changed in October, 2001 to National Geographic Kids. In a broad sense, the publication is a version of National Geographic

National Geographic Magazine

National Geographic, formerly the National Geographic Magazine, is the official journal of the National Geographic Society. It published its first issue in 1888, just nine months after the Society itself was founded...

, the flagship magazine of the National Geographic Society, that is intended for children.

They also produce TV shows as well, under the National Geographic Kids Entertainment label. Shows they produced were Toot & Puddle, Geo Kids

GEO Kids

GEO Kids is forthcoming kids television channel in Pakistan. It is the fifth channel launched by GEO TV after GEO, AAG, GEO News and GEO Super. After the launch of Geo TV, they declared that ten new channels will be launched. Hence it is the fifth channel of the ten ....

, Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies

Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies

Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies is a 2006 animated television series. Set in the African savanna, it focuses on an enthusiastic elephant named Mama Mirabelle, who travels around the world to film real wildlife footage and project them onto a screen of fireflies in front of almost the entire animal...

 and videos from National Geographic Kids Video.

Publication and readers

National Geographic Kids publishes ten issues annually. As of June, 2006, the magazine reports a circulation of more than 1.3 million in English, with an estimated English language readership of more than 4.6 million. There also are eighteen editions of National Geographic Kids in languages other than English, published in Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

, Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

, Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

, Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

/Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

, Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 (two editions), Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 and the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. The magazine is written for children between the ages of six and fourteen. It has an advisory board of 500 subscribers and solicits reader feedback after each issue.

The magazine recently launched a spin-off, National Geographic Little Kids, targeted toward children under kindergarten age.

In 2009 the magazine launched their first almanac

Almanac

An almanac is an annual publication that includes information such as weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, and tide tables, containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar etc...

 called National Geographic Kids Almanac 2010. In 2010 the almanac continued with an updated book,National Geographic Kids Almanac 2011.

Features

These are some of the regular features, most of which appear periodically,

• Amazing Animals
• Fun Stuff (formerly called "Kids Express")
• The Inside Scoop (formerly called "World News")
• Kids Did It!
• Go On Safari!
• What in the World (this is one of the two features to appear in every issue)
• Video Game Central (formerly called "The Next Level")
• Weird But True
• Cool Inventions
• Stupid Criminals
• Just Joking (this is the other of the two features to appear in every issue)
• Sports Funnies (comical pictures of people in sports)
• Guinness World Records
• Wildlife Watch
• Unleashed (a comic strip about three house pets that is designed by Strika Entertainment)
• Naughty Pets (funny photos of pets doing something bad)
• The Green List
• Bet You Didn't Know (similar to Weird But True, but issue seasonal)

Anniversary issues

The twenty-fifth anniversary issue in September, 2000 was well publicized. It featured a "Top 25" list of the things readers most enjoyed (the magazine covers were #1) a collection of cards people had sent to the magazine, and a special "Kids Did It" column that featured updates on the lives of celebrities who had been featured in the magazine when they were children, such as Michelle Kwan

Michelle Kwan

Michelle Wingshan Kwan is an American figure skater. She is a two-time Olympic medalist, a five-time World champion and a nine-time U.S...

.

The thirtieth anniversary issue in September, 2005 featured an article describing what life might be like in thirty years (in 2035). It also featured thirty "cool things" of the future.

Shows

• Really Wild Animals
  Really Wild Animals
  Really Wild Animals is a children's nature television series comprising 26 episodes that aired between December 29, 1993 and December 31, 1997, starring the late Dudley Moore as Spin, a talking globe. The series was released on 13 VHS tapes, and later on 13 DVDs.Released by the National Geographic...
  
   (distributed by Warner Bros (1997-2000) & Columbia Tristar (2000-2004))
• Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies
  Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies
  Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies is a 2006 animated television series. Set in the African savanna, it focuses on an enthusiastic elephant named Mama Mirabelle, who travels around the world to film real wildlife footage and project them onto a screen of fireflies in front of almost the entire animal...
  
  
• Toot and Puddle
• GeoKids