Look and Learn in The Oldie

The August issue of The Oldie has a piece on Look and Learn which describes it a "a gem of a paper, its 1950s minor-public school world view an antidote an antidote to the preponderance of pre-teen magazines telling girls how to look sexy, or boys how to be a successful assassin in a PlayStation game."

"Would today's children think the same?" The Oldie asks. And for once I can reply... we've actually had some very good feedback from parents about how much their children enjoy reading the paper. Having done a few interviews about Look and Learn, I know for a fact that it's perceived as a magazine that only "swots and Lord Snootys" (as the Oldie calls them) would read. Not true. Not true by a long shot. Given a chance, most children will find something in the magazine that they like. If they don't particularly fancy the history article on one page, the feature on animals on the next page might grab their attention, or the piece on 'Famous Aircraft' or the reprint of 'The Trigan Empire'. I've watched children reading the magazine and I've not seen one flick through the contents without finding something that they want to read. And they do read... the magazine is as well written as it is illustrated. More often than not, when they find one thing they enjoy, they'll go back to the beginning and take another look at things they previously skipped over.

I was in the Look and Learn office yesterday so I had a chance to look through a copy of The Bumper Book of Look and Learn. It's fantastic. I can't imagine anyone who has pre-ordered a copy of the book being disappointed. It's huge, full-colour throughout and the artwork has reproduced superbly. A lot of the artwork was taken from original art boards, dropped into scans of text, so it has the feel and look of the original pages but with the artwork looking better than it ever did in the printed magazine. This link will take you to more information on the book and further links to where you can order copies.