The abundance of children's magazines allows you to choose an edition for every taste and budget. However, children's periodicals appeared only three centuries ago, and its modern canons were established even later.
The emergence of children's literature
Until the 17th century, children's literature as a direction did not exist. In society, it was believed that the oral stories of grandmothers and nannies were enough for children, and in an older age they did not need additional entertainment. In fact, the first children's book was the textbook "The World of Sensual Things in Pictures", written by the teacher Jan Amos Komensky. Unlike other educational publications, this work was written in a lively, figurative language and richly illustrated. If we talk about fairy tales, then one of the pioneers in this area was the French writer Charles Perrault. He collected many folk legends and turned them into children's fairy tales, removing frightening details and making the language more colorful.
The first children's magazine
The first children's periodical was published in Germany in 1772. It was called the Leipzig weekly leaflet and was published by the philologist and educator IK Adelung. The publication was intended to educate young readers and strengthen their civic consciousness. Soon after, other children's magazines appeared - the American "Boy's Friend", the British "Boy's Own Leaflet" and others. Also, many religious magazines arose, designed to educate the morality of children, - "The German Friend of Children", "The Journal of Catholic Youth", etc.
The emergence of children's magazines in Russia
In 1785, the first Russian magazine for children - "Children's reading for the heart and mind" was published. Its editor was the well-known educator N. Novikov, who also published the magazines "St. Petersburg Scientists Vedomosti", "Truten", "Pustomelya" and others. The editorial board of "Children's Reading" included famous writers, for example, Karamzin. The magazine was intended to educate children, teaches them patriotism, citizenship and the rules of morality. The publication published scientific articles, reasoning, short stories, fables and jokes. However, Children's Reading was not yet an independent magazine. It was published as part of the Moskovskie Vedomosti newspaper. From the 19th century, a separate children's periodical began to appear - the magazines "Friend of Children", "Path", "Solnyshko", "Interlocutor", "Business and Fun". These publications still had little resemblance to modern children's magazines - they did not have vivid illustrations and entertainment materials, and the content consisted of useful didactic materials. The first entertaining periodicals for children began to appear only at the beginning of the 20th century.
