Ladybug is an illustrated literary magazine

Literary magazine

A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...

 for children ages 2 to 6. It is published in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 by The Cricket Magazine Group/Carus Publishing Company

Carus Publishing Company

The Carus Publishing Company is a publisher with offices in Chicago, Peru, Illinois, and Peterborough, New Hampshire. It owns the Open Court Publishing Company as well as the Cricket Magazine Group, and Cobblestone Publishing...

, and appears 9 times a year, every month except for combined May/June, July/August, and November/December issues.

Ladybug was founded in 1990 by Marianne Carus, the editor-in-chief of Cricket

Cricket (magazine)

Cricket is an illustrated literary magazine for children published in the United States, founded in September 1973 by Marianne Carus, whose intent was to create "The New Yorker for children." Marianne Carus still serves as the magazine's editor-in-chief.Each issue of Cricket is 64 pages...

magazine. Carus wanted to provide an art and literary publication for young children as a precursor to Cricket.

Ladybug features four regular serials in each issue. “Max and Kate” is written and illustrated by the British team Mick Manning

Mick Manning

Mick Manning is a British children's author and illustrator, who has written and illustrated some 65 books.-Biography:Born in 1959 and brought up in Haworth, near Bradford, Yorkshire, England, Manning went to school in Keighley and then studied at Bradford College...

 and Brita Granström

Brita Granström

Brita Granström is a Swedish painter and illustrator living and working in Great Britain.As a painter she is represented by The University Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne.-Works:...

, and chronicles the everyday adventures of two best friends, Max and Kate. “Mop and Family” is a comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

 by the Dutch husband-and-wife team Alex de Wolf and Martine Schaap centering on a brother and sister and their sheepdog, Mop. “Molly and Emmett” is the longest-running serial in the magazine, created by children’s illustrator Marylin Hafner, and follows a young girl named Molly and her mischievous cat, Emmett. In January 2008, Ladybug introduced the rollicking trio, Ladybug, Muddle, and Thud, characters that appear in the margins of the magazine in their own parallel universe and draw kids into the content.

In addition to original stories and poems, Ladybug offers non-fiction

Non-fiction

Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...

 articles on the natural and cultural world, as well as songs, games, and activities to introduce children to language

Language

Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...

 and reading

Reading (process)

Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of constructing or deriving meaning . It is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas...

. As with the other magazines published by the Cricket Magazine Group, Ladybug accepts no advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

.

In May 2008, the magazine will launch a website

Website

A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...

 for children, www.ladybugmagkids.com. The site will feature book review

Book review

A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review could be a primary source opinion piece, summary review or scholarly review. It is often carried out in periodicals, as school work, or on the internet. Reviews are also often...

s by Ladybug, Muddle, and Thud, and recordings of songs.