A new children’s magazine, Skribblers, launched this spring in the Capital District for writers under 12 years old.
Tammy Robinson of Clifton Park created Skribblers because she wanted to give children an outlet for their creative ideas.
My hope is that it will give kids the motivation to keep writing, she said. `If they see that their voices are heard, they will be motivated to write more and write different things.`
Robinson and her older son Oliver, who is 9, belong to a writing circle, which is where the idea for Skribblers came from. Robinson is a writer herself and usually sends stories out for publication. Robinson said her son wished he could get his work published, so Robinson created a place for him and other children to accomplish that.
`I wanted to publish the children’s writing and validate the efforts they had done so far,` Robinson said.
Skribblers is made up of all types of writing and artwork from children throughout the Capital District. Robinson said she received 140 submissions for the first issue and 50 were chosen for publication.
Robinson said one child wrote an unfinished mystery story, so for the next issue Skribblers has asked students to finish it. The magazine also gave students `superheroes` as a topic to write about for the next issue. Robinson said this will give children something to write about if they don’t have any ideas and also help with their brainstorming skills.
The first issue of Skribblers was distributed to elementary schools in the Albany City School District and Shenendehowa Central School District, as well as all 57 public libraries in the area.
Robinson said students are reading stories from children living in other places in the community. She said her hope is students will take the magazine home and be motivated by their peers to write themselves.
`It’s amazing what kids learn from each other that they don’t pick up from adults,` Robinson said.
The first issue of Skribblers features many different genres of writing, from short stories to poetry and even artwork. Robinson said she had sub-missions from children as young as 6.
`It’s amazing that a 6-year-old can create a story with a beginning, middle and end,` Robinson said.
Creating the magazine was a big undertaking. Robinson said she established a team of six volunteers, mostly parents and teachers who she met through the writing circle, to read all the submitted stories and select which ones would appear in the magazine.
Robinson said every child who submitted a story was sent a personal letter with feedback. If their story was not selected they were encouraged to revise it and submit it again.
Skribblers is now a nonprofit organization, with eight board members. Tech Valley Printing printed the first issue of Skribblers. Robinson said the company agreed to print 11,000 copies of the magazine for free.
So far, Skribblers has been funded by donations from private individuals and PTAs. Robinson said until the magazine receives some corporate sponsorship it will be published semi-annually. Her hope is to be printing the magazine quarterly beginning in the fall of 2007.
`Writing is such an important part of a child’s education,` Robinson said. `I think that we start too late freeing up their voices. What I have learned from this is that children have a voice now.`
The deadline for submissions to the next issue of Skribblers is Oct. 31. Robinson said there is a 1,000-word limit. Submissions can be emailed to skribblers [email protected] or sent to P.O. Box 286, Clifton Park 12065.“