A Magical Makka-zine! (In The Night Garden Magazine)

Member Name: mummy2harry

Product:	In The Night Garden Magazine
Date:	22/05/08 (191 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lovely bright pictures, free gift, nice stories, stickers!

Disadvantages: Not overly educational, but its just a bit of fun!

Harry is absolutely book mad at the moment, insisting on me reading him a story 24 hours of the day, never mind making dinner, Harry's stories have to come first for him! So when we were out and about a few weeks ago, I spotted this magazine lurking at the back of the children's magazine section in WH Smith, and thought I would treat my little man to a magazine all of his own. He seemed quite thrilled with my purchase and we often catch him sitting and reading it of an evening!

In The Night Garden, as you probably know by now, is the latest children's television craze up and down the country. It features several odd looking characters who live in a beautiful garden and have lots of fun and games together. The main characters are Makka Pakka, Iggle Piggle, Upsy Daisy, the Tombliboos and the Pontipines. Harry's rather keen on it so I knew he'd love this magazine. This magazine is produced by the BBC who also screens, under their publishing name of BBC Magazines. It's a fortnightly magazine, each new issue comes out on a Wednesday so avoid the magazine racks on a Wednesday lol!

Okay, to the magazine. The cover of the magazine, while obviously differing issue to issue, is very bright and bold, with the In The Night Garden logo at the top of the magazine. The rest of the cover features bright pictures of the main characters of the Night Garden, small text areas telling you whats in the magazine i.e. "Stick and giggle with Iggle Piggle". Harry always spots the infamous characters and shrieks at me "Night garden magazine" with a huge smile, so I know its noticeable and attractive to the little people! The other thing that the toddlers will like about this magazine is the free gift which comes with every issue. Again, this varies every issue but to give you an idea, we've received an inflatable Pinky-Ponk (blimp type thing), Snap Cards and Crayons, and an Upsy Daisy jigsaw. They aren't the best quality gifts in the world, but they're fun for as long as they last and Harry seems pretty happy with it.

Inside the magazine, you get a nice variety of things to do and read with your child. On the first page after the cover, there is a small column on the left for parents, telling you whats in the issue, contact details for the BBC and what things you can do inside it. Straight away for the children, there is often a colouring in activity with a large picture of a main characters. It also usually has a bubble with "Hello ...... are you ready to play?" You're supposed to write your child's name so when you read it with them, its like a personal magazine. Altogether now... ahhhhhh. Other activities in the issue I am looking at include more colouring in activities, "Dance with Upsy Daisy" while tracing a path with your crayons (free with issue of course), Finding activities, a four paged spread story featuring the Night Garden characters, sticker fun and what you get with the next issue.

Now there is one thing about this magazine which for me makes it stand out is the free sticker sheet which you get with every issue of the magazine. This is a large a4 sized sheet which is stapled to the middle pages of the magazine. The sheet contains loads of stickers which are for use throughout the magazine. It actually splits them up into sections and tells you which page they are used on so you know where they're supposed to go. Harry always goes straight to the stickers and starts peeling them off sticking them anywhere he likes. I try to encourage him to use the right pages but in typical 2 year old child fashion, they end up everywhere! The stickers are good quality, nice and bright and thick so your child can easily use them, and I find you can unpeel them a few times too if needed without them getting ruined.

The quiet time story in the magazine is also another positive thing about this magazine. The story usually crosses 4 pages, with large coloured writing with bold font, making it easy to new readers to help read the story too. Again, there are blank speech bubbles encouraging you to write in your childs name so they also become a part of the story. The story is illustrated across the pages with cartoon drawings of all the characters making it fun for your child to look at while you are reading to them. Each story has its own title, in my issue its "Harry and the Tombliboos Waving Game" but again its a different short story for each issue.

For £1.99 every 2 weeks, I think that the magazine is very good value, especially for the contents and value for the children. The magazine has a lot of activities, from colouring to stickers to quiet stories for you and your child to share. Its lovely and brightly coloured, with lovely pictures inside that your child will love to look at and share with you. The free gift, although nothing spectacular, is fab for the kiddies and Harry is always over-joyed with his, however basic it is. The magazine has loads to do in it, and is great value for money and I for one enjoy buying it for my little boy every fortnight...the proud smile on his face while he's reading it in his buggy is certainly worth my £1.99!

Available from all good newsagents and supermarkets every 2 weeks for £1.99 per issue. Each issue contains around 23 interior pages. Published by BBC Magazines.

Thank you for reading!

Summary: A great magazine for kiddies