The Week Junior

"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?