Children's Digest
Children’s Digest was a monthly magazine for kids in the United States. It ran from October 1950 until May/June 2009, when it merged with Jack and Jill.
The magazine was published by George J. Hecht and Parents Magazine Press and came in a digest-size format. It promised “delight, instruction, and entertainment” with a mix of new stories and reprints of classic tales. It was aimed at children roughly seven to twelve years old and often included comics, photos, and illustrations. For a long time it was printed on light green paper, which the publisher said helped reduce eye strain.
Early on, the magazine focused on reprinting famous stories and classics. In 1951 it was reported to include about 40 pages of special comics that dramatized classics like Gulliver’s Travels and Alice in Wonderland. It also featured well-known poems and stories such as Carl Sandburg’s Rootabaga Stories, The Peterkin Papers, and L. Frank Baum’s American Fairy Tales.
Starting in the 1960s, the content broadened to include a mix of reprints, newer stories, and nonfiction. The spine text on the magazine changed over time to reflect this broader range, sometimes reading “Best Stories - Famous Classics - Picture Stories” and later “Great Stories - History - Science - Biography - True Adventure.” From 1966 to 1979, The Adventures of Tintin were reprinted in the magazine, helping make Tintin more popular in the United States. At its peak, the magazine reached about 700,000 copies in circulation each month.
Cover art varied over the years. Gyo Fujikawa illustrated the covers from 1951 to 1963, with six more covers by her from 1963 to 1965. Other cover artists over the years included several notable illustrators.
In 1980 the magazine was sold to the Benjamin Franklin Literary and Medical Society, a nonprofit group that owned several other magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post and Jack and Jill. After the change, Children’s Digest was reformatted to emphasize health, safety, nutrition, and exercise.
Children’s Digest ultimately ended publication in 2009.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 07:07 (CET).