

Ask
Spring 2016 MagazinesThe editors of Ask clearly know how to appeal to their target audience. The topics are well chosen for this age group; stories of shipwrecks, historical accounts of jokes and clowns in the ancient world, and explanations of bizarre animal food preferences are more or less guaranteed to garner many kids' interest. They are also nicely handled and broken down in interesting, varied, and extremely clear ways. Genetics isn't easy to explain, but a feature on Gregor Mendel for the probability issue explains the mechanics of breeding pea plants quite cogently, complete with a pretty Punnet square for illustration. Similarly, the shipwreck issue offers not only a comic strip about Manjiro, the shipwrecked Japanese fisherman who became an unlikely liaison for the first official contacts between Japan and the U.S., but also a very clear, and surprisingly interesting, technical explanation (with numbered diagrams) of how engineers lifted a ship off a reef without damage from oil spills or wreckage. Although Ask is billed as a magazine of arts and sciences, it skews much more toward science than art. It is also designed for children who like to read, rather than to complete puzzles or games. This periodical is an excellent example of how creatively creative nonfiction can be handled. Readers prepared for a primarily informative focus, will find much to enjoy.