Review of God's World News' Trak Magazine

For a long time, I have been anxious to get a look at World Magazine from God's World News, so I was intrigued to find out that I would have the opportunity to review Trak, God's World News' publication for high school students. Like all of GWN's titles, Trak presents current events from a Biblical worldview. Like its big brother, World, these stories are still hard-hitting news stories that are absolutely worthy of the title "news magazine."

Trak is published ten times per year (there is no issue in December or May), and a subscription costs $28. Each 32-page issue contains several types of stories, including features, editorials, technology, and more. Even better, a subscription to Trak will also gain you access to God's World News' Teen Website. This brand new website is just as impressive as the magazine itself, and it enhances the value of your subscription immeasurably. The following screenshots give just a small sample of what's available online on God's World News Online:

...and new content is added daily! The most amazing thing about the website, though is this:

That's right. When you subscribe to one GWN publication, like Trak, you get online access to every single other level of God's World News Publications, from the Pre-K/K God's Big World, all the way through the high school level Trak. If you have several children, this is an unbeatable deal!

We received the August, September, and October issues of Trak. The magazines came with two pages of cardstock advertising on the front and back covers which, while they protected the magazine, made the it visually very unappealing to me. I love magazines that jump out of the mail pile at me! The colorful covers and great graphics are one of the things that make God's World News' World so wonderful! If I could change one thing about Trak, it would be to lose these ads. In any case, I tore them off before I passed the magazine on to Therese (12).

One reason I wanted to review Trak was because Therese is doing Extemp this year (extemporaneous speaking on current events). I wanted her to start easing her way into current events without having to be confronted by the horror of the nightly news. As it turns out, she loves Trak!

With each issue we've received, she has read the magazine cover-to-cover in under an hour. Then, they've disappeared to her room so that she can revisit the parts of the magazine she liked best. The big surprise has been how much she has loved the complimentary subscription to World that we have received! God's World News has been so generous with us for this review! They have provided us with a partial year's subscription to World Magazine, their adult biweekly news magazine. As I said, I have long wanted to see World in person. I read the website religiously (pun intended!). Now that I have, I will be subscribing. For one thing, World has the BEST iPad app I have seen yet for magazines (and I read a ton of magazines on my iPad). When World arrives in the mailbox, I have to fight Therese for the copy! Because World presents the news from a Christian worldview, I am not afraid to let her read it. The news is still rigorously presented. The science is hard. The political cartoons are funny. Therese is learning is so much!

So Trak is what we were sent to review, and Therese loves it. Aimed at the high school crowd, it was initially a great read for Therese. Now that she has had her hands on World, though, I think that Trak will end up being more appreciated by Nicholas (10). He has already been reading it when he sees it lying around (he loved that cover article that you see on the picture above!), so I might just tell him that it is primarily his magazine now. The reading level is certainly not above him, and the subject matter is perfectly appropriate. I unreservedly recommend anything God's World News has to offer!

Unsure about what level may be best for your kids? Are you kids, like mine, advanced readers? No problem! There are plenty of samples available for you to try out! Check out an entire sample issue of Trak here. We didn't really use the lesson plans (Therese was too old), but GWN has them in abundance! See one on chocolate here! 

I obviously love Trak (and LOVE World)! See how Crew members enjoyed other levels of GWN magazines by clicking the banner below!