Stories for Children Magazine
Stories for Children Magazine is currently in need of the following:
NONFICTION articles for ages 3-6 (no more than 400 words)
NONFICTION articles for ages 7-9 (400 to 800 words)
POETRY - see new Guidelines
We're in particular need for FEBRUARY and MARCH 2008 issues. Please read the Submission Guidelines page before submitting.
SFC is not a themed magazine but if you need a kickstart, check out our Monthly Idea Calendar. We're always short on crafts, recipes, games and puzzles so if you have any tucked away, send them in.
SFC welcomes new writers. This would be a great time for you to submit.
Warmly,
Wendy Dickson
Assistant Submissions Editor
Stories for Children
http://storiesforchildren.tripod.com
Iguana Magazine
We are always looking for material in español to publish – fiction, non-fiction, interviews, recipes, poems, photographs, comics, puzzles and more.
Please contact us about submissions at:
[email protected][Writer's Guidelines] [Illustrator's Guidelines] [Photographer's Guidelines]
WRITER'S GUIDELINES
General Guidelines
* We do not accept translations. All submissions must be originally written in Spanish.
* We do not pay persons under the age of fifteen for contributions.
* We hold first time rights and do not consider material previously published.
* We accept queries.
* All materials are paid upon publication.
* All materials can be submitted electronically via email.
* Articles may be edited for length, grammar, and punctuation.
* We publish 6 issues a year. However, all proposals are considered.
Fiction
* We accept realistic fiction, stories, fantasy, humorous tales, legends, science fiction, fables, myths, mysteries, fairy and folk tales.
* Stories should be 800 words or less.
* Payment is US$0.05 per printed word.
Non-Fiction
* This section includes biographies / interviews with Latino personalities that have influenced the lives of Latinos in America, art, history, animals, nature, technology, science, geography, and stories about children from other cultures and countries.
* Articles should be 800 words or less.
* References, bibliography, and / or sources of information must be included with submissions.
* Payment is US$0.05 per printed word.
Arts & Crafts
* Article should include clear directions with no more than five steps.
* The project should require common households and inexpensive materials.
* A sample of the finished project should be included with the material.
* The payment is US$25.00 per project.
Poetry
* It can be serious or humorous.
* It should be no longer than 15 lines.
* Payment is US$15.00 per poem.
Other
* Recipes, puzzles, games, word search, brain teasers, math and word activities.
* Payment will be determined per submission.
ILLUSTRATOR'S GUIDELINES
* Illustrations, cartoons, comics, drawings, cover illustrations.
* All art work must be submitted digitally, at a minimum of 300dpi at full size, via tif.
* Payment will be determined per submission.
PHOTOGRAPHER'S GUIDELINES
* Photos of children and animals.
* Payment will be determined per submission.
Skipping Stones
Skipping Stones is an award-winning, international, non-profit magazine, now in the 14th year! We celebrate ecological and cultural diversity, facilitates a meaningful exchange of ideas and experiences. Young readers of Skipping Stones, ages 8 to 16, hail from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. We try our best to make their reading of Skipping Stones an active experience, relevant to issues confronting them locally and globally.
Youth respond to the world through Skipping Stones Magazine...
Skipping Stones readers hail from north, south, east, and west. From villages to inner cities, youth have something to say, about their culture, school, religion, environment, neighborhood... and Skipping Stones provides a forum for sharing it. Any way you choose to express your dreams and opinions, Skipping Stones provides a place for writers and artists of all ages and backgrounds to communicate creatively and openly.
Writings (essays, stories, letters to the editor, riddles and proverbs, etc.) should be typed or neatly handwritten and limited to 750 words and poems to 30 lines. We encourage writings in all languages with an English translation, if possible. And, we love illustrations! Please send originals of your drawings, paintings, or photos. Include your name, age, and address along with your submission.
Ideas for Submissions:
* Cultural or Regional Celebrations: First-hand descriptions (with photos or illustrations)
* Writings accompanied by children's artwork
* Bilingual submissions or writings introducing (using words/phrases from) other languages
* Folktales, hospitality customs, recipes, music, folk art and architecture from around the world
* Living Abroad and Immigration: Your memorable experiences
* Cross-Cultural Communications: Ways we express ourselves through language, proverbs, tales, songs, body language, symbols, etc.
* International Humor: Jokes, funny stories, riddles, games, cross-cultural mix-ups, etc.
* Photo Essays on a country or region
* Families and Community: Getting along, unique gatherings or projects, intergenerational experiences, multilingual families
* Creative Problem Solving and Peace-Making
* Cooperative Games, Quizzes, Riddles, Puzzles
* Life as a Minority: Challenges and successes
* Living with and Understanding Disabilities
* Unforgettable Moments: Times of transformation or revelation.
* Inspirations or Role Models in your life
* Right Livelihood: Earning a living while helping the world.
* Technology: Its impacts on the planet.
* Sustainable Living: Our Mission, Purpose and Challenges. How can we care for the Earth and all its inhabitants?
* Nature: Unique ecology, resource conservation, endangered species, fighting pollution
* Taking Action: Reports of or suggestions for children's involvement in community, ecology or social justice; actions to improve the world
* Raising Caring Kids: What tools do we use? Improving self-awareness and self-esteem; encouraging creativity, non-violence and tolerance; being a role model
* Parent/Teacher Guide: Lesson plans, ideas, activities, experiences and suggestions.
* Any other multicultural, social, international or nature awareness theme that you wish to write about!
You can send us your submissions by snail mail or via E-mail with Word attachments).
Please to:
Managing Editor
Skipping Stones
P.O. BOX 3939
Eugene OR 97403-0939 USA
René Colato Laínez
Kent Brown is the publisher of Boyds Mills Press and Highlights for Children Magazine.
What does a manuscript need to have in order to be multicultural?
My belief is that depiction of events, traits of persons, customs, which reflect a culture make a book multicultural. So, a book about baseball, where the kid has a minority name, unless there is some substantial culture learned by the reader, is just a book about baseball.
For example, I did a book with Laurence Pringle called Octopus Hug. In it, a father plays special games with his kids, including one that is a big pile-up on the floor, the octopus hug. So far there is only suburban US culture depicted. The illustrator chose to depict an African American family. The book got special use because it was a book depicting a father taking an active role with his children, and many members of the African American community praised the book as an important work to the African American community. Was this book multicultural? I don't know. I don’t think is was in the sense that it depicted any cultural flavor; it did, however, "teach" that suburban families might all have the same routines and fun, regardless of ethnic background, which is likely true (more of a statement about economic class than ethnicity).
Of all those manuscripts that you receive in a daily basis how many are real multicultural or have the potential to be multicultural?
Ah, if Octopus Hug is multicultural just because of the artwork, then a high fraction of the fiction we receive could be multicultural.In my definition, less than 5% of submissions reflect some multicultural claim. I believe that some fraction could be made multicultural by superficial editing, such as the use of ethnic groups in the artwork. Again, not sure how to count them.
A thought: we do books that have kids in wheelchairs, completely incidental to the story. So these books are not about a physical disability, but they tend to reinforce the normalness of seeing disabled persons, and show that they are a regular part of society. That is a desirable thing with respect to multicultural topics: that we see, incidentally, a mix of ethnic groups, cultural artifacts, ethnic observances, etc. But those incidental pieces, while working toward better acceptance of differences and a celebration of our diversity, do not themselves constitute multicultural.
What is lacking in these stories?
What is lacking in a great many stories presented as multicultural is a perspective that lets the reader know more of unique cultural or accurate historical viewpoints.
Are they full of stereotypes or misconceptions?
Well, the bad ones are. And there are some instances where an accurate depiction, however accurate, may reinforce stereotypes.
Two examples:
I receive awful lot of stories about Mexican culture that has kids whacking a Piñata. Nothing wrong with this artifact of Mexican holiday celebration, but having stories about piñatas, over and over, as if that the only thing we might identify with Mexican tradition, subtly reinforces that Mexicans are a people who spend their time whacking piñatas.
Another common example: Chinese New Year. We did this in Highlights magazine. Has the advantage of being attractive to illustrate, picking the parade in San Francisco. Surely that is a part of Chinese (on Chinese-American culture and tradition). But its portrayal has the tendency over time to "teach" that Chinese people are people of big parades and big dragons.
Can an author write books outside his/ her culture?
Absolutely.
Can a Euro-American capture the emotion of emigrating from Central America across mountains and rivers? Can you make it up? Not without understanding its relevance in American culture, the experience as shared by many living in the US, and the likely high emotional stake in the whole process.
Can someone read about it enough to capture all the flavors? Probably. Do they usually? No. Can men write about the emotional lives of women? Some can. But it takes insight, extensive research, and pure effort.
So now lets take the other side of the coin.
I did a book by a suburban white middle class woman. She illustrated a book set in Jamaica. Was it accurate? Was it appropriate? Yes, because this woman had a passion for Jamaican culture; lived there seven years, and had a post-graduate degree in cultural ethnology.
She went on to illustrate a book set in Nigeria. She had not been there. But she got books from the British Museum of the period. She studied the look of the landscape. She did research into the trees and plants of the area the book was set. She got a cultural anthropologist at Harvard to review her sketches, and presented them as well for comment to the Nigerian born author. Could and African American yuppie, born in Westchester County, NY, going to Ivy League schools, and generally having no interest in Nigerian culture, done better?
My example is art. You asked about writing. Yes, I think anyone can write about a specific culture. But it does not happen authentically very often. The people most passionate and steeped in a culture are typically the best to write about it. Most of those examples are members of the culture.
What do these authors need to do in order to write an authentic multicultural picture book?
Passion, anyone can do it. But those who care are most likely to get it. With the passion is an intense knowledge. Mostly such passion and knowledge exists in a within the ethnic group members. But I think it’s not exclusive.
I never lived the life depicted in What Jamie Saw, by Carolyn Coman, for a magnificent example. I doubt Carolyn lived exactly that life. But she knows it. She nails it cold. We are there, and it is believable.
Virginia Ewer Wolfe nails down the character and thoughts of a young woman living near poverty, though she has not lived that way. Somehow she has studied it, not just imagined; living as a youngster on an apple ranch with connected labor housing, watching her mother stitch up a worker on Saturday night at the kitchen table, gave her some credential, not quite living it, but clearly pretty important in her development.
Muchas gracias Kent
René Colato Laínez
If you have an article, short story, poem or recipe and want it to be publish in a children's magazine, you can submit it to Highlights for Children. Highlights is the best magazine for children in the United States.
HIGHLIGHTS FOR CHILDREN
Current Needs
Spring/Summer 2007
FICTION CATEGORIES
Fiction for Young Readers (readers ages 2 to 7) up to 500 words, Marileta Robinson, Senior Editor
No current special needs.
Fiction for 8- to 12-year-olds (readers ages 8 to 12) up to 800 words, Joëlle Dujardin, Associate Editor
• Holiday stories (but not necessarily Christmas), especially Valentine's Day (not sappy) and Halloween (not scary)
• Humorous stories
• Historical fiction about little-covered time periods
• Multicultural pieces
NONFICTION CATEGORIES
Younger Nonfiction (readers ages 2 to 7) up to 500 words, Joëlle Dujardin
Younger nonfiction should be written for readers ages 4 to 8 and should not exceed 450 words. All articles should have a clear focus and relevance to young kids.
• First-person accounts of fieldwork
• Photo Essays
• Arts Stories
• Accessible Biographies of key historical figures
• Kids living in various cultures
• Ancient history
• High-interest animals
• Details from urban life (workers, transportation, etc.).
Science, 800 words (two-page features), 400 words (one-page features), 50 words (activities) Andy Boyles, Science Editor
• Features about kids involved in science
• Scientists studying high-interest animals in their natural habitats
• Short, quick, easy, fun science activities
History/World Cultures, up to 800 words, Carolyn Yoder, Senior Editor
• Fun, humorous, kid-friendly articles
• Presidential (NOT Washington and Lincoln) and patriotic pieces
• Need anecdotal articles, rather than broad interviews
• American holidays, specifically Thanksgiving.
• World cultures pieces. No need for India, but everywhere else. We want intimate snapshots of life in another country.
Adventure, up to 800 words, Kim Griswell, Coordinating Editor
Adventure articles that bring the reader in and let him/her come along for the adventure. Rather than telling kids "I went here and wasn't it grand" the best articles share the adventure.
Arts, up to 800 words, Kim Griswell, Coordinating Editor
• Need more contemporary articles with high kid-appeal. A fresh, focused slant rather than overviews.
• No need for "classic" arts articles, especially bios of famous artists.
Sports, up to 800 words, Judy Burke, Managing Editor
• Sports "how-to" pieces (except how to dive, how to shoot a basketball, and how to throw a football). Each article should be reviewed by an expert before submission.
• Contemporary female-athlete bios. It helps when the author interviews the subject for these.
• No need for baseball biographies or track-and-field biographies right now.
Economics/Personal Finance, up to 800 words, Kim Griswell, Coordinating Editor
Articles that address economics or personal finance at a kid's level.
Gallant Kids, up to 400 words, Kim Griswell, Coordinating Editor
Articles about a kid or kids who are serving others in some special way. Articles must be about unique, interesting, kid-generated projects. The idea is that when kids serve others, they are being their "best selves."
Full-page Activities, up to 400 words, Linda Rose, Assistant Editor
• 300-Word Activities of all kinds, appealing to a wide age range whenever possible.
• Indoor and outdoor games that involve exercise, creativity, and/or humor
• Activities and games that kids can do whether they're on their own or with others
• Some cooperative games (we publish both cooperative and competitive games, but receive more submissions of the latter)
• Projects that will result in a new hobby or skill and/or a quality finished product
• Magic tricks
• Activities to get children outdoors, moving around, or creating.
We prefer activities that do not require parental supervision or materials kids aren't likely to have handy.
• Picture Puzzlers Take a look at several recent issues to see the kind of puzzle we try to present here.
• A large visual puzzle with little text, offering our readers an entertaining and visually interesting puzzle activity. Art need not be supplied with the manuscript, but basic sketches showing your idea or detailed art/photo suggestions are helpful.
• We need fresh manuscripts/ideas for this page that we haven't already done.
• We need more ideas with more than one thing going on.
• A big visual puzzle with activities here and there on the page.
• Original board games that are visually interesting and can be played on the page are also welcome!
(Picture Puzzlers should not require readers to write in the magazine.)
Puzzles, Games, Recipes, Other Short Activities, Tiffany Hoffman, Editorial
Needs for Mixed Pages include:
• Art activities
• Activities with a sporty theme
• World culture activities; holiday games
• Geography-based activities
• History puzzles/activities
• Sequencing activities
• Recipes
• Code activities
We have very little need for logic puzzles and word games at this time.
Any activities that easily lend themselves to strong visuals are a huge plus!
Crafts, Tiffany Hoffman, Editorial
• Multicultural crafts (general or holiday-specific)
• Crafts that encourage play (musical instruments, costumes, etc.)
• Crafts with direct boy appeal
• Seasonal crafts (general autumn and winter activities?we have enough snowmen)
• Gifts, usable crafts (we have enough picture frames and cards)
• Crafts for all holidays, specifically non-Christian holidays (we have enough wreaths, Santas, Thanksgiving turkeys, and Christmas crafts)
• Fourth of July and summer crafts
Please send a photo or actual sample of the craft. A drawing doesn't really provide enough information.
Send submissions to
Highlights for Children
803 Church Street
Honesdale, PA 18431
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I read Beowulf in college, and I am a baby boomer. I would be suprised to see it on a junior high syllabus and not because I think junior high students are busy reading crappy YA novels. Depending on the version you're reading, it can be demanding. I also think it's rather an adult story, even without Grendel's mom seducing everyone in sight.
I've been trying to remember whether I read Beowulf in college or high school; either way, not Jr. High.
One of the reason this sentence is so fabulous is that there is just so much going on. Beowulf, in junior high, is one of them.
America literacy doesn't seem well served by force-feeding Hemingway on a bunch of unsuspecting kids.
In Middle School I was forced to read "Tom Sawyer Abroad" by Mark Twain and I have never recovered. Heningway, taken at that age, might have done me in completely.
I read Beowulf in college -- but I was an English major, and it was a choice. I think there should be some challenges you can choose, and others that are brought to you to meet and conquer. Some YA novels? Are challenging. If a kid meets a challenge and succeeds, won't that make him or her more willing to push further? YA novels have their place within classrooms and so does Beowulf; everything in its time.
Having said that maturely and with great constraint, that comment about 'crappy YA novels' DOES make me want to give the writer a right swift smack upside the head.
I read selections from ye olde Beowulf in 10th grade. Our teacher summarized the bits in between the bits we had to read.
And... I recall it being a really long poem about eating, drinking, killing, and fornicating.
I read that and had the same reaction, Liz. It's hard to take someone who would write that very seriously.