Upsy Daisy, my comic's ripped! (In The Night Garden Magazine)

Member Name: jo1976

Product:	In The Night Garden Magazine
Date:	05/07/09 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Features well-loved characters, bright images, story to involve your child

Disadvantages: Not very good value for money compared to books

My mum visits every weekend and very early on got in the typical Gran's habit of coming laden with sweets and gifts for the kids! I'm constantly telling her off for bringing sweets round as both of my boys will quite happily wolf the lot down but are not so keen on cleaning their teeth afterwards. Recently Grandma has taken to bringing comics round for the boys instead.

This week the comic of choice for my two year old son was an 'In the Night Garden' magazine produced by the BBC. This was not a bad choice actually, as my youngest son is a big fan of the programme showing on CBeebies. He recognises and is able to say the names of all the main characters and constantly repeats some of the catchphrases and he did spot his favourites on the front cover when the magazine was handed over.

Most of these comics aimed at pre-schoolers follow a similar format. They all seem to contain just a few pages of bright pictures, a puzzle or two and maybe a story. The main attraction of these comics seem to be the plastic bits of tat there are inevitably attached to the cover. A comic doesn't seem to be a comic nowadays without a free gift thrown in, however tacky and worthless it might be. The latest issue actually came with something fairly decent enclosed. There was a little pop-up Iggle Piggle on a stick stuck to the front cover of the magazine. My two year old is absolutely besotted with it and is constantly saying 'Where's Iggle Piggle gone?' and then popping Iggle Piggle up saying 'Here he is!' The downside of his infatuation with his new toy is that he has hardly given the comic a second glance. In fact, even with his enthusiasm for 'In the Night Garden' in general, at just two these sorts of comics don't really hold his attention for more than a few seconds at most. It's surprising really when he loves reading in general but flimsy comics, however brightly decorated, don't really seem to keep him interested at all.

There isn't really a great deal of content in this magazine to justify the £1.99 cover price, especially when you consider how little you pay for decent quality children's books from places like the Book People. This issue, for example, includes a few pictures of the main characters to cut out and make a 'play scene', a couple of posters, free stickers to place throughout the magazine and a story. There are just 28 pages in total so it doesn't take very long at all to work your way through the magazine, although that could be a positive for little ones with a very short attention span. There is quite a nice feature within the featured story as it includes blank spaces for the parent to insert their child's name and involve them directly in a story about their favourite characters.

Although the cover of the magazine is quite thick, the rest of the pages are very thin so not particularly durable for a product aimed at toddlers and very young children and the pages are very easy to tear, often when just removing the free gift(s) from the front cover. The magazine is very bright and colourful and focuses on images rather than words, which is understandable given the age range that it's going to be enjoyed by. I just don't think that it is particularly good value for money and I certainly wouldn't buy this magazine every fortnight if my mother didn't buy it. I'd much rather put that £1.99 towards a decent quality book that is going to be shared with my little one time and time again. My youngest is a little bit too young for some of the activities in the comics and reading the story included isn't quite the same as cuddling up to Mummy with a sturdy hardback.

I wouldn't personally recommend this comic to any mothers out there - no matter how much of an 'In the Night Garden' fan your little one might be.

Summary: The free gift was okay!