It’s a fact…children love receiving mail. Why don’t you get them a subscription to a magazine written just for them. It will grow your home reading selections without breaking the bank. Here are a few of our favorites.

A monthly magazine for children ages 2-6 that is filled with stories and activities to instill a love of reading in the youngest set of readers.

Playschool Playroom is where Bear in the Big Blue House, Spot, Maisy, Mr. Potato Head, Paddington Bear and Peter Rabbit make learning fun. Perfect for preschoolers, each issue contains drawing, matching, counting, coloring and reading activities. A character poster, plus a 6-page pullout workbook, is also included in each issue. There is a "playroom penpals" page to encourage children to write in or draw pictures of their favorite characters. Preschool Playroom is a BI-monthly, full-size 32 page 4-color magazine for children ages 2-6.

This colorful monthly magazine created especially for curious kids. Novelty and hands-on learning make a winning combination that has captivated World's nearly one million readers for more than 20 years. World's features encourage its readers to protect the planet's resources and to learn more about geography, adventure, wildlife, science, and youngsters of special distinction from around the world.

This classic magazine dedicated to developing children's reading skills, knowledge and creativity.delivers puzzles, science projects, jokes and riddles to challenge young minds, while characters in regular features like Hidden Pictures, The Timbertoes, Goofus and Gallant and the Bear Family, keep children coming back like good friends should.

Fun to Learn Disney's Princess is an early-learning magazine which brings together Disney favorites such as Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Belle from Beauty & The Beast, Aurora from Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella, Mulan, Jasmine from Aladdin, and Pocahontas. Each issue is full of magical stories, a collectible poster, a Princess project, and a pull-out workbook full of fun activities. It's published bi-monthly and it's great for any princess, ages 4 and up.

Boy’s Quest Magazine offers Exciting and adventuresome stories, and fun-filled activities. Includes jokes, riddles, puzzles, poems, cartoons, cooking, building projects, science experiments, knotting, collecting, sports and much more. It aims to inspire reading among young boys by offering wholesome interests for boys.

Having your kids help you cook is a great way to kill two birds with one stone…dinner takes less time AND you have succeed in having your kids brush up on their reading, math, and direction taking skills.

Here are a few kid friendly (and mom and dad approving) cookbooks

By Georgeanne Brennan, Random House

Ever wonder what green eggs and ham really taste like? They're yummy. And now everyone can whip up a batch for themselves using this fabulous cookbook. Filled with simple, scrumptious, wacky recipes for such foods as Cat in the Hat Pudding and Moose Juice and Schlopp, this unique cookbook will have the whole family hamming it up in the kitchen. Each recipe is accompanied by the original verse that inspired it, and the pages are laminated to protect against getting splatters of Sneetch Salad, Oobleck, and Solla Sollew Stew.

By P.L. Travers, Harcourt

Get a unique glimpse at the famous Poppins cast as the spit-spot English nanny and the Banks children take over the kitchen for a week. With the help of familiar visitors like the Bird Woman, Admiral Boom, and Mr. and Mrs. Turvy, Mary Poppins teaches her irrepressible young charges the basics of cooking, from A to Z. And young readers can re-create the week's menus by following the thirty different recipes. Kitchen adventures were never so much fun!

By Jane Yolen and Heidi Y. Stemple, Crocodile Books

This collection of 20 fairy tales, each accompanied by at least one recipe, is an oversized, glossy concoction. Most of the stories are European, told in a conversational tone mixing tradition with a dash of the modern. Toddlers will enjoy The Runaway Pancake, while fourth and fifth graders will appreciate Yolen's Snow White. The recipes include tasty-sounding dishes like Very French Toast. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert are all represented. Sidebars throughout give interesting facts about the stories and the recipes. Yolen's knowledge of folklore shows in her tidbits about the tales and their origins. Many of the food facts are intriguing, too.

By Mollie Katzen, Tricycle Press

Not a hot dog, tub of frosting, or package of Kool-Aid is to be found among these dishes; this is real food, the nutritious and delicious kind–low fat, low sugar, and meatless. The first recipe encourages kids to be creative and make their own miniature Salad People out of cheese, fruit, vegetables, and pasta. Tiny Tacos are tortilla chip sandwiches of refried beans, guacamole, salsa, and grated cheese. Focaccia starts with store-bought pizza dough that is painted with olive oil, sprinkled with rosemary, and baked. Chewy Energy Circles are a nutritious alternative to expensive power bars. Each tasty treat is presented in an easy-to-use, three-part format. First, an introductory section for grown-ups describes the end product and outlines tips to help children achieve success. Next, ingredients and directions are provided. Finally, a colorful spread combines simple language with clear illustrations to clarify each step. Safety tips and an essay discussing the benefits of this activity for children are included. Throughout, the writing is clear and encouraging, empowering novice chefs to discover new skills and tastes as they explore this rewarding endeavor.

By Elaine Magee, McGraw-Hill

Now parents and their children can have fun together in the kitchen, creating nutritious, low-fat, and tasty snacks and meals for holidays, rainy days, or any day! Someone's in the Kitchen with Mommy contains 100 recipes that are not only fun to make but also look great, taste delicious, and are healthy, too. What kid could resist Macaroni and Cheese in a Broccoli Forest... Green Shamrock Soft Pretzels... or a Chili Sundae?

The fast paced story lines and picture spreads will have kids reading faster than before. Boost both their confidence and reading fluency with a great comic book or graphic novel. Reading has never been more fun.

By Kimber MacDonald and Clay Sisk, Innovative Kids

Each cool 24-page comic book features three exciting, phonics-based stories. A new three-tiered leveling system make these perfect for beginning, intermediate, and advanced readers.

By Helaine Becker, Maple Tree Press

Finally — the truth about Little Bo Peep and those pesky, lost sheep! In this wacky take on familiar fairy tales, readers meet Rapper Rapunzel, a mouthy tween banished to her room by fed-up parents; the Big Bad Wolf, now wanted for identity theft; advice columnist Fairy Godmother; and assorted witches, fairies, gnomes, princes, stepsisters, trolls, and others now free to tell the other side of the story. In addition to the hilarious exposés, the book’s crafts, cartoons, recipes, riddles, writing projects, brainteasers, and other amusing activities supply hours of enjoyment.

By Jeff Smith, Cartoon Books

An American graphic novel first! The complete 1300-page epic adventure from start to finish in one deluxe trade paperback. Three modern cartoon cousins get lost in a pre-technological valley, speanding a year there making new friends and out-running dangerous enemies. Their many adventures include crossing the local people in The Great Cow Race, and meeting a giant mountain lion called RockJaw: Master of the Eastern Border. They learn about sacrifice and hardship in The Ghost Circles and finally discover their own true natures in the climatic journey to The Crown of Horns.

By Various Authors, Archie Comics

This 96-page full color trade paperback features many of the most hilarious exploits of Archie and Friends'from the "ME" decade, better known as the Eighties. Computers! New age music! Urban cowboys! Preppies! E.T.! Roller boogie! Michael Jackson! Cabbage Patch Kids! Breakdancing! Trivial Pursuit! Music videos! It's all here in this amazing volume!

By Jim Davis, Ballantine

Like every great lasagna, Garfield was born in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant on a winter's night in 1978, while outside snow fell like gratd Parmesan cheese. He weighed five pounds, six ounces at birth--that's big for a kitten!--and right from the start showed a passion for Italian food. the restaurant owner, forced to choose between Garfield and closing his doors for lack of pasta, sold Garfield to a pet store. Garfield thought he was a goner until Jon Arbuckle walked in the door.