"When you are young, you’re naturally curious about the world and everything in it. But the world seems made for grown-ups; complex and unknowable. That’s why we’ve created The Week Junior. It explains the news and events in ways that children understand; immediate, colourful, exciting. From news to nature, science to geography, and sport to books, The Week Junior explores an extraordinary array of topics from around the globe. Written to engage a young person’s point of view, without spoon-feeding or patronising, it explains events in a safe, accessible and inspiring way."
A note from the editorial team
WORD OF THE YEAR
The Week Junior
JANUARY
Belgian Malinois dogs
FEBRUARY
A library for locals
MARCH
Caerphilly cheese
APRIL
A Welsh beauty spot
MAY
Protecting the Nluu language
JUNE
The Amazon rainforest
JULY
Swimming at any age
AUGUST
Indian spaceflight
SEPTEMBER
Brazilian people’s rights
OCTOBER
A Swedish dictionary
NOVEMBER
Making mew-sic
DECEMBER
A powerful experiment
Crossword • Read the clues carefully and write the answers into the grid.
Heroes of the year • These five individuals inspired everyone to make a difference, help others and believe in themselves.
Will Poulter • The actor fighting bullying in schools.
Shirley J. Thompson • Writing music for the King.
Leah Williamson • Football hero who is always herself.
Ravi Adelekan • Making dreams come true.
Nature’s big news • From snotty echidnas to learning to speak whale.
Why birds pinch anti-bird spikes
Keeping cool with snot bubbles
Listening in to noisy ponds
How to speak whale
An ancient soil that could save forests
Reader survey results • Back in October we invited you – our readers – to tell us a bit more about yourselves by filling in our survey. More than 1,400 of you responded and here’s what we learned.
Word fill in
Winter maze
Number tower
The latest great ideas • Scientists around the world have been inventing, investigating and discovering new things.
Queen’s secret letters decoded
Warm computers can heat pools
Cheesecake straight from the printer
Laughter is the best medicine
Life on pretend Mars
Sporting stars of 2023 • Look back at some of this year’s special sporting moments.
CALENDAR 2024
Wordsearch
Award-winning books • Find out what won the votes of readers and judges.
Big screen stories • Rediscover some of 2023’s most popular films.
Top games of the year • Take a look at some of the best games for consoles released over the last 12 months.
Puzzles
Make a spinning quiz game • Create some festive fun by making your own family game.
The most incredible stories of 2023 • Here is our pick of this year’s strangest tales.
What YOU got up to • Our readers have shared lots of pictures of their lives. Here is just a small selection of your brilliant photographs featuring pets, hobbies, outings and fundraising ideas.
Get involved in 2024 • Here’s how you can share your news, photos, ideas and opinions with us.
Spot the difference
How much of this year’s news can you remember?