Contact: Patricia M. Mikelson
Highlights Corporate Communications
pmmikelson@highlights-corp.com or 614-324-7003
AT HIGHLIGHTS FOR CHILDREN, “FUN WITH A PURPOSE” GOES INTO EVERY PRODUCT DEVELOPED
Highlights Magazine, Highlights High Five, Highlights Book Clubs, Highlights Catalog and Web Sites
Highlights for Children believes that children are the world's most important people and that each child deserves the opportunity to become a confident, caring, curious, and creative individual. Every product offered by Highlights for Children reflects the company's commitment to its creed:
- To help children grow in basic skills and knowledge, in creativeness, in ability to think and reason, in sensitivity to others, and in high ideals and worthy ways of living—for children are the world's most important people.
"We believe kids develop positive self worth by using their creativity and imagination, reading, thinking and reasoning skills, as well as by learning how to treat others with respect, kindness and sensitivity," said Kent S. Johnson, CEO of Highlights for Children. "Children, no matter how young, have a great capacity to learn and understand, and we believe that all children should be treated with respect and taught by positive example. We believe that children have fun and learn by exercising their innate creativity, curiosity, thinking ability, and imagination. That is why we create products for children that are 'Fun with a Purpose.'"
By producing Highlights and Highlights High Five magazines and other "Fun with a Purpose" products for children, the company pursues its commitment to providing the very best to children, parents, grandparents, and other caregivers.
Highlights Magazine
Highlights magazine, launched in June 1946 by Garry Cleveland Myers, Ph.D., and Caroline Myers, is the most widely read consumer children's magazine with more than two million readers each month. The major intention of Highlights is to help kids grow to become thoughtful, literate, sensitive citizens.
"In this increasingly complex world, where so often kids seem hurried through childhood, a magazine like Highlights is more important than ever," said Christine French Clark, editor of Highlights. "We know the power of words and pictures to influence children, so we choose ours carefully, always keeping the best interests of our young readers top of mind."
Among the most popular features found in each issue of Highlights are "Hidden Pictures," "Goofus and Gallant," "Ask Arizona," reader contributions found in "Dear Highlights" and "Your Own Pages," "Gallant Kids," fiction and poetry, science, and things to make.
Highlights High Five Magazine
The first issue of Highlights High Five will be available on newsstands and delivered to subscribers in December 2006. Devoted to young children ages two to six, Highlights High Five is dedicated to helping parents and other caregivers stimulate young children's development and have fun at the same time.
Each monthly issue of Highlights High Five offers a mix of read-aloud fiction stories, including stories that introduce the Spanish language; poems; simple nonfiction; puzzles; easy crafts and cooking activities; finger plays; and action rhymes. Also included are adaptations of familiar features that appear in Highlights: "The Adventures of Spot," featuring the dog from "The Timbertoes," and "My First Hidden Pictures." Illustrated with brightly colored artwork and photographs, the playful, user-friendly magazine is meant to be enjoyed by the child with an adult or older sibling. Many features can be enjoyed independently by pre-readers after they have been introduced to them.
HighlightsKids.com Web Site
HighlightsKids.com, an advertising-free children's Web site, offers features that change daily, weekly, and monthly. Some favorites include interactive games, such as "Maze Maker," "Click-and-Play Hidden Pictures," "e-Card Creator," "Mystery Messages," "Picture Twisters," and "Goofus and Gallant Story Adventures" in which children decide how the stories turn out. The site contains entire sections devoted to science, creativity, stories, and games, and includes interactive features such as polls and quizzes. HighlightsKids.com also offers extensive archives of games, stories, articles, and science questions, as well as monthly features that complement each issue of Highlights magazine.
Highlights Book Clubs
Highlights for Children is constantly expanding into new products that will extend its positive impact on children. Highlights Book Clubs deliver puzzle-solving fun monthly. The Book Clubs offered by Highlights for Children include the super puzzle variety of Puzzlemania, the number-crunching fun of Mathmania, the exciting cross-country adventures of Which Way USA?, and the international mystery-solving challenge of Top Secret Adventures. Hidden Pictures Playground is tailor-made for pre- and beginning readers and offers matching activities, simple word-searches and easier-to-find Hidden Pictures.
| Puzzlemania | Puzzlemania offers mazes, brainteasers, word games, dot-to-dots and drawing puzzles, word searches, secret codes, crosswords, Hidden Pictures, number and logic puzzles, matching and memory games, and more. Designed for children ages 6 and up, Puzzlemania helps children exercise their reading, manual dexterity, creativity, logic, and sequencing skills. One of Highlights for Children's most popular club programs, Puzzlemania has been enjoyed by more than five million families. Parents and teachers value the reading, reasoning and math skills, and creativity children use to solve these puzzles. |
| Mathmania | Mathmania takes the playful approach of Puzzlemania, and applies it to the important topic of math. Each Mathmania book, appropriate for children ages 7 and up, features more than 30 math puzzles. Hints and Bright Ideas are offered to help children achieve success, with answers at the end of each book. |
| Which Way USA? | Which Way USA? invites children to take a U.S.A. road trip with a team of explorers, visiting each of the 50 states, two per month. By following the explorers' adventures, and with a big map as their guide, children (ages 7 and up) meet fascinating heroes, visit natural and man-made wonders, and relive great events that shaped our nation's history – all while solving puzzles and reading maps. |
| Top Secret Adventures | Top Secret Adventures introduces children (ages 8 and up) to 27 different countries, one at a time, through a mystery and adventure series. Starting by assembling a jigsaw puzzle that reveals a mystery, kids become young puzzle detectives. They learn about the people, culture, terrain, geography, and history of the featured country while searching for clues to solve the who, what, and where of the mystery. Top Secret Adventures will help expand knowledge and stimulate curiosity in children as they gain understanding of other cultures. |
| Hidden Pictures Playground | Hidden Pictures Playground takes Highlights' most popular feature and introduces young pre-readers and beginning readers (ages 4 and up) to the fun of success with puzzles. Big, bold images, lots of bright colors, sticker activities, rhymes and lots of thinking and imaginative fun capture young children's attention and interest, and help build confidence as they complete these puzzles and activities by themselves. |
| Hidden Pictures Game, Books, and CD-ROM | Responding to the popularity of Hidden Pictures, Highlights created a Hidden Pictures board game that includes 32 laminated Hidden Pictures boards, 32 Clue Cards, 30 Search Cards, 100 colored tokens to "mark" objects, and a 90-second timer, along with instructions for three different games, each at two levels of play. The Jumbo Book of Hidden Pictures and Colossal Hidden Pictures Book series include 140 and 150 Hidden Pictures puzzles, respectively. The Hidden Pictures CD-ROM contains 40 black-and-white interactive puzzles. When a child clicks on a found object, the object animates and bursts into color. The CD-Rom also allows children to create their own illustrations. |
Highlights Toy Catalog at www.Highlights.com
Many products exist that capture the spirit of "Fun with a Purpose" and the Highlights Toy Catalog provides parents and grandparents with a thoughtful selection of them. All the high quality toys, games, puzzles and craft activities for children under 12 are reviewed and selected by the editors of Highlights. Their goal is to help parents, grandparents and other gift buyers identify products that will help strengthen children's basic skills and knowledge, their ability to think and reason, and to be creative. Highlights editor-created board games (such as Which Way USA?, Top Secret Adventures and Hidden Pictures Game), books and CD-ROM are also available through the catalog.
In today's world, Highlights is a trusted source for selecting products for the children in their lives. The Highlights Catalog offers a 100-percent satisfaction guarantee and return policy and can be reached at 800-422-6202 or www.Highlights.com.
Highlights.com Web Site for Adults
Highlights.com is a gateway to information and products available from Highlights for Children. Kids can access www.HighlightsKids.com. Parents can shop for quality educational products from the Highlights Catalog, order the magazines and the Book Clubs, and visit the Parents' Corner for family ideas and articles. Additionally, many customer service issues can be resolved at the Web site.
"During our next 60 years of business, Highlights for Children will continue to provide quality educational materials for children, with the purpose of helping children grow to become their best selves, because children are the world's most important people," said Johnson.
For information on subscriptions to Highlights, Highlights High Five, and Highlights Book Clubs, and to view the Highlights Catalog, visit www.Highlights.com or call 800-303-2802. A one-year, 12-issue subscription to Highlights is $2.67 per issue. Children are invited to visit www.HighlightsKids.com.
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Highlights for Children, Inc. (www.Highlights.com) has focused on helping children become their best selves for generations. Highlights magazine celebrated the printing and delivery of the one-billionth copy of the magazine and its 60th anniversary through summer 2006. Highlights High Five™, devoted to pre- and emerging readers (ages two to six) will publish in January 2007. On the Web, www.HighlightsKids.com offers children interactive content related to each issue of the magazine, as well as independent activities such as "Click-and-Play Hidden Pictures®," e-cards, games, craft activities, "Mystery Messages," jokes, and riddles. Devoted to "Fun with a Purpose®," Highlights for Children also offers children, parents, grandparents, and educators a broad range of products including the Highlights for Children Book Clubs (Puzzlemania®, Mathmania®, Which Way USA?®, Top Secret Adventures™, and Hidden Pictures Playground®). Highlights Toy Catalog (www.Highlights.com) selects quality toys, games, craft activities, puzzles, and other products that children will love and parents can trust. Corporate offices are in Columbus, Ohio, and the editorial offices are in Honesdale, Pennsylvania.
For more information or to arrange an interview with a Highlights for Children spokesperson, please contact Patricia M. Mikelson, Highlights Corporate Communications at pmmikelson@highlights-corp.com or 614-324-7003.