¿What is CUCÚ magazine?

CUCÚ is a foldable magazine for preschoolers, pretty, happy, made with polished quality and printed in small format, all for a very low price, that looks forward to awake the love for reading in little kids.

 

We are sure that no other material can bring so many benefits at such a low cost for each child. 

 

¿What is our dream?

CUCÚ’s mission is that everyday a kid becomes a reader, no matter his/her social or economical circumstances. 

 

Our purpose is to reach hundreds of families with this reading element, made with the highest professionalism and commitment to quality at a very low cost.

 

The highest aspiration of CUCÚ magazine is to be part of the reading strategies and campaigns in schools and kinder gardens.

 

¿How does CUCÚ look like?

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• Foldable magazine, with four sides to display illustrations and text. 

 

• Created for small hands (folded: 12x14 cm, unfolded 28x44 cm).

 

• Easy to manipulate and unfold. 

 

• Timeless (long-life content). 

 

• Beautiful full color illustrations that the littlest kids can ‘read’, made by gifted artists from Colombia and other Latin American countries.

 

• Funny and enjoyable texts with words that the littlest can understand and enjoy, conceived by writers that know children’s needs and edited by experts in kid’s literature.   

 

• A different theme each month, which the adult can transform into a funny, loving and close experience.

 

• A very low price, so that it can reach a lot of homes and allow kids to have reading material within their grasp. 

 

 

¿How is CUCÚ to be used? 

Each month, kids receive an envelope labeled with his/her name, with the magazine inside, in their home or in the kinder garden they attend to. ¡This always excites them and keeps them eagerly waiting for it’s arrival!

 

While unfolding the magazine, the child discovers each one of the four sides in where illustrations and texts are displayed.

 

The adult caregiver proceeds with the reading and plays the games that are proposed in the magazine, guided by the signals the kid is showing him/her. 

 

In every issue appear new characters and stories, or they can keep up with the ones from earlier editions.

 

After the reading, the child can save the magazine for: 

 

• Future re-reading.

• Rediscovering it with friends or brothers/sisters. 

• Sticking it to the wall, by the side that carries the text or the illustration that he/she liked most.

 

¿What’s the role of the adult caregivers?

We have checked in multiple occasions that creating the reading habit in children depends entirely of the adults that take care of them. 

 

Only those children to whom an adult have created everyday a special and warm moment for reading, discussing, laughing, telling and imagining, feel attached to books.

 

Creating in the little ones the hope for that moment everyday is the secret to develop in them the reading habit.

 

It’s for sure: they will want that unforgettable instant of playing and happiness to be repeated next day.

 

But because parents, grandparents and caregivers not always know how to do it, each CUCÚmagazine includes a little supplement titled ‘Family’, directed to them.

 

It includes activities, advice and instructions, so they can make a better job as reading mentors.

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CUCÚ magazine timeline (milestones)

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• Month 2017. Foundation CUCÚ is created, with the sole purpose of promoting reading in early childhood.

• Month 2017. First CUCÚ magazine release. 

• Month 2017. Delivery of the first CUCÚ magazine by subscription.

• Month 2017. CUCÚ magazine reaches its 100th subscriber.

• April 2018. First appearance of CUCÚ magazine in Bogotá’s International Book Fair. 

• Month 2018. CUCÚ magazine participates in agreement with Aldeas infantiles.

• Month 2018, CUCÚ magazine participates in agreement with Itinerant Book Fair(placed in Montes de Maria). 

• Month 2018, CUCÚ magazine participates in agreement with Bibliocarrito.

• Month 2018, CUCÚ magazine participates in agreement with Fundación Fábula.

• Month 2018. CUCÚ magazine participates in agreement with Secretaria de Educación(government office in Colombia) to distribute some issues of the magazine to kindergardens located in scarce resources areas of the country, by means of the cajas de compensación (institutions created to support the government work for less favored sectors of the population)

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¿Why are we passionate about motivating the reading habit?

We are a team convinced that words and illustrations nurture children as much as food does, because they feed the intelligence and creativity, and we believe that for the infant’s well being, both are necessary.

 

¿Why a printed magazine?

Our experience introducing preschoolers into the world of reading, has taken us to prefer that the first interaction is made with printed texts and books, and not digital ones.  

 

That way it’s avoided that the kid depends on an expensive and delicate device to access the text, allowing him to experiment the material easily and without forethought.

 

¿Why is this project important?

1.Because books are expensive, kids rarely have a library in their surroundings, and having one at home is most of the time unattainable for many families.

 

That’s why CUCÚ magazine is conceived to be multiplied at a very low cost.  Each edition can arrive to the homes and kinder gardens of thousands of kids, in contrast with books, which because of their high costs, barely arrive to schools and universities. 

 

2.Because a vast majority of the adult caregivers, (not only from less favored sectors of the population) ignore the benefits of reading with the littlest kids, and relegate this activity to the last priority in the schedule. 

 

To help them, CUCÚ magazine not only gives adult caregivers a tool to encourage reading, but it gives them simple advice to get the most from the reading time each day with the kids. 

 

3.Because the kids that are exposed to a higher quantity of words at an early age, show better vocabulary than his not-stimulated pairs, and are better prepared to learn new words and knowledge, helping the adjustment process of school entry.

 

This way, CUCÚ magazine eases a moment of accompanied reading with someone in whom the child is confident, creating an excuse to learn, create and imagine, that soon becomes a habit.

 

¿Why do we know what we are doing?

Patricia Mouraille, Director of CUCÚ magazine, has been since 1993 a fervent student and admirer of children’s magazines. 

 

When she entered in this world professionally, became really surprised to find that in Colombia there were no magazines for preschoolers, because her daughters were in that precise segment of age at the moment, and she knew the marvelous experience of sitting to read with them. 

 

Along with other parents, teachers with knowledge of kids needs, writers and artists that had special sensibility to communicate with children through their art, for more than twenty years Patricia and her husband Guillermo Ramírez ‘embarked’ in the creation of many magazines for children with their publishing house, Barquito de papel. 

 

Some of those magazines were Piquis (tales, stories, games, songs and special activities), Alpiclub of Alpina, Fisher Price Kids,  ‘el Informadorcito’ of Davivienda and Carrefour Kids.

 

Of all these experiences, they acquired great lessons and learning, that can be seen and experienced in CUCÚ magazine.

 

¿What inspired us to create CUCÚ?

When their granddaughter Elena appeared into their lives, the founders of CUCÚ magazine, Patricia Mouraille and Guillermo Ramírez, re-discovered the wonders of reading and involving kids in a world of creativity, fun and knowledge. 

 

They realized that as their granddaughter, lots of kids could benefit of a magazine like CUCÚ, created with the appropriate rigurosity and sensibility for this demanding group of readers.

 

Inspired by motivating in her the love for reading, CUCÚ the bird was born, a creature of short age, that just as the little readers of the magazine, is beginning to discover the world and is marveled with his findings. 

 

And beginning with this character, was created the magazine in where his adventures and the ones of his friends are told. 

 

¿Who are we?

With Patricia Mouraille (Director), Guillermo Ramírez (Editor) and their two daughters Ana María and Gabriela Ramírez, works a team of professionals convinced of the value of creating the reading habit on kids: 

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Illustrators:

Guillermo Cubillos

Paula Bossio

Paola Escobar

Alejandro Mesa

Héctor Borlasca

 

Writers:

Kyara Méndez

Lorena Salazar

Alejandro Escobar

Miguel Otálora

Piedad Bonnett

 

Early childhood educators:

Luz Mercedes Acosta

Constanza Flórez

 

Librarian:

Diana Anaya. 

 

Along with their regular contributors, they have talented guest artists that bring new perspective to the contents, songs and illustrations.

 

Around a specific theme each month, their creatives conceive fun texts, with unexpectedturns, written with simple words, to which a child finds easy to relate. Once edited and corrected, the contents are delivered to the illustrators, and they translate the stories into images. 

(se recomienda poner fotos de todos- creo que podrían poner la parrilla de imágenes que apareció en la revista No 12)

 

What they say about CUCÚ.

In 18 months of it’s existence, the team that delivers CUCÚ magazine have had the satisfaction of seeing how it has been received with great welcoming and warm expectations by children, caregivers and teachers. 

 

These are some of the press releases published about CUCÚ magazine (in spanish):

 

Cucú magazine, a way of introducing kids into the reading world. Article in El Tiempo newspaper. January 2018. 

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Cucú, the magazine for kids. Article of MaguaRED. September 2017.

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Cucú, more than a tale for kids. Article of El Espectador newspaper. August 2017. 

Encouraging reading at home. Note of Buckingham school in Colombia, in their web page. 

 

 

¡You are the hero we need!

Discover how to help CUCÚ

 

CUCÚ magazine has a little format, but is ambitious in it's aspirations of helping each day a kid adopt the habit of reading and making him/her fall in love with stories and words. 

 

So far, we have achieved it through our little subscribers, that today are nearly 500 kids, and taking near to 800 copies each month free of cost to scarce resources kinder gardens, or supporting initiatives/campaigns of reading promotions made by other foundations.

 

But because of the high diagramming, printing and delivery costs of the magazine, to continue making it we need urgently resources that allow us to support our operations and the donations we make.  Otherwise we won’t be able to continue with our work and the vision we have for CUCÚ. 

 

 

¿What’s next?

Our objective is that CUCÚ arrives to many more kids in all the corners of the country, so that them, guided by an adult, can share and enjoy the charm of early reading, and like that it can become a family habit everywhere, no matter their social or economical circumstances.

 

This is why on 2019 we want to bring CUCÚ magazine to many more homes, more kinder gardens and schools in Colombia in where children do not have access to specially designed reading material, and in that way we hope to continue making a difference helping parents and teachers to create on them the love for learning, reading and knowledge. 

 

Help us create everyday a little reader by supporting CUCÚ magazine, that in a very limited space supplies a reason to read. 

 

¿What will you receive if you help us? 

For your contribution of USD 22, you will receive:

 

• If you live in Colombia, 12 printed issues of CUCÚ magazine in the address you register. 

• If you live in other countries, 12 issues of CUCÚ magazine in PDF format, delivered to your email.

 

And for every year subscription (12 issues), you will be supporting the delivery of the same quantity of copies free of charge for two kids in limited resources kinder gardens.

 

You can also make donations to the magazine for any value you wish to contribute with.

 

Other ways you can help.

If you can’t help us right now by subscribing for a year or making a donation to the project, ¡please help us spread the word with your friends, family and relatives about our work and the magazine! ¡Maybe some of them will take interest in our crusade for making of reading a habit!

 

 

¡Thanks for your help!

CUCÚ magazine team