Engage. Entertain. Educate.
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For Children
For Adults
Featured Magazine:
Zillions: Consumer Reports for Kids

 

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For Children

For 10 years I was a staff writer-editor of Zillions, the children's magazine from Consumer Reports. Our goal: empower kids to become financially literate, see through media hype, and make informed marketplace decisions. I wrote hundreds of articles about toys, games, sporting goods, fast-food, TV shows, movies, and books. I also wrote about kids' jobs and allowances, health and nutrition, and behind-the-scenes reports about advertising and marketing techniques. I worked closely with the freelance comic strip and puzzle writers, too.

Getting kids (the median age of our readers was 11) to become wiser consumers wasn't an easy task. So, I frequently infused my articles with humor, inveigled the readers with eye-catching visuals, and when appropriate used parody and other narrative nonfiction approaches to make the material come alive. I call this the "stealth" approach to learning, for which I won the Association of Educational Publishers "Distinguished Achievement Award" a few times.

Sample features

For a fuller explanation of my "3E" method (engage, entertain, educate), and general tricks-of-the-trade in writing for children's magazines, check out my Writer's Digest article.

"Hooking Kids with Nonfiction."

 

For Adults

I have also written feature articles, humor pieces, and entertainment reviews for various magazines and newspapers.

 

Here's a sample from a Daily News magazine feature in which I went joyriding in Manhattan -- vertically -- to rate the city's best public elevators.

"If you can't do the time, don't do the climb."

 

 

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