 no contents
My 6 years old daughter has been reading this magazine for 2 years, after one year of the 'little kids'. She still enjoys reading it, and looking forward to it in the mail. However, she always finish the whole issue in 10 minutes. That's the all the readable contents, including anytime she needs to memorize whatever she didn't know before.
I figure she likes it because 1) it's something of her own, among dozens of magazines and journals for her parents. 2) it's really easy to read.
I don't like it because: 1) The quality of the magazine does not resemble a tiny bit of National Geography, from photos, to print, to paper it uses to bounding. It's like cheap brochure printed 40 years ago, when cheap 3-passed printer can't print one line of red on top of one line of blue. Even 40 years ago, good printer would have produced better result than this magazine. There is little photos, among lots of silly illustrations. The few photos it uses look like they are taken with $10 Kodak one time camera, and processed in places cheaper than Wal-Mart photo center.
2) There is no contents. No experience, no knowledge, no whatsoever.
I may still renew it, as long as my daughter still reads it, and as long as I still can afford it.
Used to be good but has gone to the dogs!
I used to get this magazine as a kid when it was called World magazine but that was 25 to 30 years ago. Now, National Geographic Kids has gone way downhill. These days, the magazine has too much advertising for junk food, video games, and tv shows that are not educational and too many articles that are not educational such as articles on new movies, singers, and video games. I was shocked NGK did an article on Miley Cyrus. That does not belong in a National Geographic magazine. I don't have any kids of my own but I do have a baby nephew and I am not ordering NGK for him when he gets older because NGK sucks!
 Terrible
In addition to all the advertising, which like others I strongly object to, this magazine has two other problems. First, much of the material is presented in a very small font, making it extremely difficult for an emerging young reader, or even an adult with less than perfect vision, to read. Second, the magazine endorses and role-model pop culture such as texting, in a way I consider inappropriate at any age and completely unacceptable given the young ages the magazine is targeted to. Oddly, I have been very impressed with NG's "Little Kids" magazine, which is free from all these problems and quite educational. This made me double disappointed and frustrated with NG's "Kids". Don't waste your money on this magazine, even if it is fairly inexpensive. Get "Highlights", "My Big Backyard," or "Click" instead.
 BEST MAG EVER
Are you people insane!? This magazine is the greatest invention since rock and roll! So what if it's an ad buffet? Read a single issue for heaven's sake!
Easily readable, fun facts, wide-age range
I am very surprised to see middling ratings on this magazine. We have subscribe to this magazine for 7 years, since my oldest was 8. Although I still have a 9 and 11 year old who are the primary readers, the 15 year old still reads every issue. It is easily readable for the young reader who can manage simple chapter books but prefers factual information over fictional novels. The best reader is one who enjoys reading books on science or almanacs and kids' encyclopedias. It has vivid pictures, short interesting articles, activities, interesting facts.. A nice magazine for the 8 - 12 year olds that have little quality choice in the magazine industry.
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