special report

CLICK Magazine
"opening windows for young minds"
Investigation and Discovery for ages 3 - 7

Note: This Special Report first appeared on Janfields.com

Submission specifics from their guidelines

From the Mission Statement: "The goal of CLICK is to allow young children access to the world of ideas and knowledge in an age-appropriate yet challenging way." CLICK attempts to provide children with a clear and inviting introduction to many of the same phenomena and questions about the world that intrigue their adult counterparts. CLICK also attempts to introduce children to the processes of investigation and observation.

CLICK magazine uses themes which are not available on the website, so you need to send a theme request to the magazine before writing. However, the online guidelines do give a hint to the general type of themes covered: "CLICK themes introduce children to ideas and concepts within the natural, physical, or social sciences; the arts; technology; math; and history."

Guidelines list their manuscript needs as:

• Articles that explain the how and why of something in a friendly, engaging, perhaps humorous way. CLICK prefers a more informal, conversational style to a formal, textbook style. The best articles tackle one idea or concept in depth rather than several ideas superficially.
• CLICK also seeks stories that contain and explain nonfiction concepts within them....successful stories often show children engaged in finding out about their universe with the help of supportive, but not all-knowing, adults.
• CLICK articles are usually between 200 and 400 words.
• CLICK stories are usually between 600 and 1000 words.

Submission packages should include:

• which theme is being targeted.
• a bibliography of resource material (this will include specific notes where specific information was found -- sending photocopies of the specific source pages will speed fact checking.)
• An exact word count should be noted on each manuscript submitted including every word, except the title of the manuscript and the author's name.

CLICK prefers to buy all rights.

Submissions to

CLICK Magazine
332 S. Michigan Ave.
Suite 1100
Chicago, IL 60604

ANALYSIS OF SPECIFIC ISSUE

[Note: some Click content can be found online but reading through several sample issues will give a much more realistic impression of the magazine.]

CLICK
Sept 2003
Theme: Building and Fixing

All pieces are illustrated full-color. Illustrations dominate the pages.

"The Right Tool for the Job" a picture puzzle about matching common tools to the specific task where they would be used to build a birdhouse.

"Click & the Kids" A regular feature. A comic-book style story showing two children building a Treehouse along with Click -- the magazine’s mascot, a mouse.

"A New School for Hopperville" A picture story about building a school. Pictures illustrate the building process. Text explains the pictures.

"Mr. Spuffington Fixes It Himself" This story featured a man trying to make home repairs without proper tools -- ends up making a big mess and must call Martin the Fix-It Man.

"They Built Their House With Straw" Unusual photo essay about a house in Canada made from Straw bales that form thick insulation within the wood frame. The house is plastered inside and out over the hay bales.

"Yo Wants to Know" Regular feature character (of somewhat ambiguous sex -- I think it’s a girl from the illustrations) helping the father to build a firepit.

"Build It High, Long, Strong" Article about types of bridges and how they are built. Much more of an illustrated article than any of the others -- text is simple but not tied specifically to the pictures. Article is illustrated with both photos and full color drawings.

"Building Liberty" An epistolary story about a little girl whose father is friends with Bartholdi, the sculptor of The Statue of Liberty. It outlines the process of building the statue. The story is illustrated both with full color drawings and period photos.

The magazine’s back matter includes a fold-out with acard game about matching tools to the occupations that use them. The inside back cover has a small story that matches the puzzle on the inside front cover. The back cover includes a regular feature called "Beatrice Black Bear" -- a cartoon.