Zootles

Zootles is a relatively new bimonthly from the creators of Zoobooks. Zootles features vivid, colorful spreads of wild animals, drawings of wildlife, stories, poems, games and other activities geared towards very young children aged 2 to 6. Each Zootles issue features a different animal and the focus tends to be on young animals or those often popular with young children (e.g. baby zebras, tiger cubs, rabbits, horses, elephants).

Zootles presents the material in an educational and fun way without being "baby-ish". The themes tend to revolve around physical and developmental characteristics of the animal mixed in with fundamental learning skills such as reading, rhymes, counting and pattern recognition.

Each issue features a particular number and letter each month and there is a recurring character, an otter, which is part of an regular comic strip on the back cover, that playfully guides the entire magazine along. The middle includes a bit more advanced detail about the animal featured and a page or two of additional resources and tips for parents who wish to engage their children further based on the current issue's theme.

There is no advertising other than the subscriber insert cards for the magazine itself. Each issue is about 20 pages.

This is one of the few magazines I've found most appropriate for and enjoyable by very young children. I also suggest you consider Ladybug, which is geared towards the same age group, but is a more general literary magazine with stories, poems, songs and games for kids in the same age bracket.

My preschooler loves Ladybug, another periodical (with more of a language arts theme) for young children, and when I came across Zootles, I decided to give it a try. Zootles is a bimonthly publication and is a great magazine focusing on wildlife. The magazine is ad-free which is a great bonus in my opinion. Each publication features a particular animal, for example pandas, and the entire magazine (for those two months) has interesting facts about the pandas, covering their habitat, the panda babies, how they play, their diet, and a short story featuring the panda. The magazine also has a 'fun pages' feature which comprises fun activities like coloring, drawing, and other learning activities.There are plenty of full-color photographs about the featured animal as well as beautiful illustrations. Highly recommended for ages 3-6.

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This subscription focuses on animal science concepts, mainly physical features, subspecies, and interesting fact. Very limited on th phonics, and number focus, but maybe that is why it is a science subscription, lol. Some facts were even new for me. Example, you can easily tell the various monkys from apes because monkeys have tails, apes (gorillas, chimpes, orangutans, bonobos) do NOT. How cool is that. The photos are outstanding in this magazine, the poems are sweet and emphasize rhyming. The section in the middle for extension ideas is super and can take it to that 6 ending range or keeps it simple for the 2s. Lots of sensory activities which is great for the little ones. I will renew. Only thing that would make this a 5 star would be a few more letter/number activites.

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My daughter loves this magazines, she will sit and do one from front to back and never get bored. I love how engaging they are and the puzzles are fun, very much like Highlights Magazine.

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Started receiving this magazine when my son was 3! He just turned 4 and I plan on continuing as it has been a highlight for us. The funny (to me) story: While working on completing my son's toilet training this became the go to magazine to keep him occupied while sitting on the potty and waiting. It has excellent little facts about the featured animal as well as stories and games geared perfectly to his level. Although my son has been potty trained for some time at this point the habit of reading this magazine in the bathroom stuck. That's right, he asks for this magazine every time that it's "that time". I now keep them stacked at the back of the toilet :D