special report

CLUBHOUSE
Focus on the Family
Readership: 8 – 12 year olds

SUBMISSION SPECIFICS:

Note: Clubhouse is one of the magazines on my “subscribe to” list this year for study. After a full year of Clubhouse, I’ve noticed that most were designed to appeal visually to boys, very strongly. That along with content makes me suspect boy oriented writing is going to sell quicker here than girl focused writing.

Guidelines for Clubhouse are available online but they aren’t easy to find. You need to go to the main Focus on the Family Site and click on the FAQ link near the top of the page. On the FAQ page, you can do a search on writer’s guidelines and you’ll get a page that links to the Clubhouse guidelines in .PDF format. I have yet to find a way to link to them directly.

From the Guidelines:

“Focus on the Family Clubhouse readers are 8- to 12-year-old boys and girls who desire to know more about God and the Bible.” This is clear in everything they run. The stories and articles all tend to have scripture verses and very clear moral messages. As the guidelines say, the parents who subscribe “want wholesome, educational material with Scriptural or moral insight.” But the guidelines acknowledge that the reader wants “excitement, adventure, action, humor, or mystery.” Like most publishers, if they can only please one – they’ll please the parents. But when a writer does both, the editors will likely choose that story over another.

FICTION

Humor with a point (500 words)
Historical Fiction featuring great Christians or Christians who lived during great times – I didn’t see any of this in the two issues I’ve gotten so far in the subscription.
Contemporary, multicultural/exotic settings
Fantasy/Sci-Fi – one issue had a fairy-tale approach to a play
Mystery Stories – none in the issues I’ve received so far
Choose Your Own Adventure Stories – this sounds cool, but there wasn’t an example in the issues I have on hand.

The guidelines say they don’t want contemporary middle class family stories because they already have authors for these. In two issues, one had a middle class family sibling story and one had a story set in Athens. It’s possible the sibling story was by one of their “steady” writers. They also say they rarely use poetry (mostly by readers). They aren’t interest in boy-girl relationship stories or stories where parents solve all the problems. They also mention “preachy” stories as a negative, but the issues in front of me make it clear that they must be defining “preachy” differently than I would.

Nonfiction

Fun fact essays, interviews with noteworthy Christians (both issues contained these), personality features of ordinary kids doing extraordinary things (both issues contained these), activity theme pages, humorous how-to stories (how to get good grades, how to be a good friend…I didn’t have an example of this), quizzes, fact stories from Christian worldview, short news article bringing out a Biblical lesson. Humor is heavily stressed in the guidelines.

No flat retellings of Bible stories, no info-only science/educational, no encyclopedia/textbook style writing.

They don’t take queries. Send manuscripts to:

Suzanne Hadley
Clubhouse Associate Editor
Focus on the Family
8605 Explorer Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80920
 

ANALYSIS OF SPECIFIC ISSUE

CLUBHOUSE
January 2009

[Inside Front Cover] Mail Bag – reader notes, poetry, puzzles, and a recipe. And reader art.

Lighthouse – reader stories by young people of positive events they credit to Jesus or prayer.

Truth Pursuer: The Voice Within by Ann Ring and Joanna Lite. Combating negative thoughts with positive scripture verses.

Had a Blast. Response to Clubhouse’s reading challenge with photos and quotes from some of the kids who completed it.

Best in Show by Lisa Freeman. The youngest girl ever to be invited to participate in the annual Westminster kennel Club Dog Show. Includes lots of quotes about her relationship with God, her obedience, and her willingness to help others.

BrainPower – Includes a picture puzzle where you match jigsaw pieces to their proper spots, and a Sudoku using the letters from Super Bowl (by Sara Stoker).

Just Laughs – jokes from young readers.

The Adventures of Average Boy by Bob Smiley. Having read a year’s worth of episodes of Average Boy now, I have to say the humor mostly comes from his cluelessness. There doesn’t seem to be a moral lesson though – it’s mostly humor at the title character’s expense.

A Slam Dunk by Philip Harma. A story about a boy who can get something he wants really badly just by not helping someone else, but he decides to help. Written in first person. Not humorous.

Pretty Much Perfect by Jonathan Friesen. A story about a girl who is born with one arm and learns to see herself as complete. Written in third person, not humorous.

Odyssey Blog – “blog” entries illustrate a principle. In this one, about the value of patience. This page also has a number crossword.

Ask Away – reader questions answered. In this issue, questions about feeling a sibling is favored, getting enough exercise, and practicing violin.

Mystery Squad – an ongoing graphic story giving the readers clues in each issue toward solving a mystery.

[Back Cover] Puzzle where the reader moves through the puzzle by solving match problems.

This page last updated on 01 January 2009