I remember ever since I was a child, whenever I’d go to the supermarket with my mother, I’d always ask her to let me buy a magazine. I would always pick the most pink, girliest magazine that included a little hair clip in it or a little lip gloss – because that was what was available for girls.
As a young girl, I used to buy magazines frequently and I recall that from the age of 11, my girly magazine content became more fixated on cliche girly activities: hair and makeup, take this quiz to see which celebrity you are like the most, tell us your most awful cringe moment etc. In general, thinking back, they were really pointless activities and this is what was marketed to young teenage girls. At that age, I wanted something colorful and stimulating with fun activities to do and unfortunately these magazines were the only appealing option back then.
However, now I was intrigued to come across a vibrant online magazine called Quest Jr In Pursuit of Knowledge. This is a magazine for young people between the ages of 8-14.
What is Quest Junior all about?
It is an initiative aimed to create a digital magazine that combines Islamic knowledge along with diverse coverage on arts, science, nature and technology from around the world. Quest Jr provides insightful educational content for children and young adults. It capitalizes on the use of technology to deliver knowledge to young children in a vibrant and interactive manner. So let’s go through the key features of the magazine.
Content quality
The magazine really contains a variety of topics, including stories, travel pieces, cooking recipes, scientific experiments and general knowledge – all geared towards motivating children to become more productive.
The interactive activities such as quizzes and riddles provide different engaging methods of conveying information. The stories range from ones about the righteous companions to a grandpa teaching his grandson about patience. The wide range of content means that a young reader will be engaged and able to learn many things from Islamic history, to general knowledge and even how to cook!
The language used is both easy for children and sometimes also challenging to help them expand their vocabulary. This could be used to encourage bonding time between parents and children to help the children develop their vocabulary whilst learning new things.
Overall, the wide variety of content ensures that the reader will be entertained for a while and will be gaining beneficial knowledge to help them take advantage of their time from a young age.
Design
The magazine doesn’t compromise on the design. It uses bright colors and fun pictures to really catch the attention of the reader. This way it appeals to young children and is not dull or boring. Each section is given its own color theme to make it memorable and stimulate the imagination of young curious minds.
Overall pros of the magazine
• Has a variety of engaging topics
• Comfortable layout that is easy to follow
• Bright colors and vibrant pictures to attract the reader
• Useful and beneficial content to stimulate the mind
• Compatible with Windows, Mac and Android devices
Areas of improvement
It seemed to me that the target audience of this magazine would be between 7-11, rather than 9-14 as I felt the content wouldn’t really appeal to young teenagers. However, this is something that can be developed in the future by diversifying the coverage to appeal to a larger range of audience.
Conclusion
Do I think this magazine is worth subscribing to? Probably, yes. It is important to motivate children from a young age to think about how to make the most out of their time and stimulate their curiosity to learn about beneficial topics, especially with all the distractions about them. This magazine does a good job of delivering content on both deen and dunya so as not only to stimulate curiosity, but also share useful knowledge.
The subscription offers are:
3 months- $25
6 months- $40
1 Year- $60
If you want to download a free copy of the magazine go to https://questjr.com/go-quest-jr/ and use the promo code: #goquestjr
Let us know what you think of the magazine in the comments below!
