How to make a zine with your kid: fold it, plan it, and find a reader

To make a zine, fold one sheet of paper into an eight-page booklet, give every page one job, and hand the finished copy to a real reader. This year the examples are spooky: Kubrio's Spooky Season runs from September 1 to November 30, 2026, and four of its projects are zines your kid makes in Magazine Studio. The fold, the page plan, and the reader are the same in March.

What is a zine, and is it the same as a magazine?

A zine is a small magazine the maker writes, draws, folds, and hands out. Zines go back a century to science-fiction fans, and photocopiers made them everyone's in the 1980s. For a kid, the two words name the same object: in Magazine Studio, your kid draws the pictures, writes the words, and publishes a magazine other kids can read, and that magazine is an eight-page zine.

How do you fold a zine from one sheet of paper?

Fold one sheet into eighths, cut one slit, and push it into a booklet. Use copier paper, not cardstock.

1. Take one sheet of Letter (8.5 x 11 in) or A4 paper.
2. Fold it in half the long way. Unfold.
3. Fold it in half the short way, then fold each end back to the middle. Unfold. You now see eight equal panels.
4. Fold it again on the short-way center fold. Cut from the folded edge to the center of the sheet, through the middle two panels only.
5. Open the sheet flat and fold it the long way. Push the two ends toward each other so the slit opens into a diamond, then a plus shape. Wrap the panels around into a booklet.

You get eight pages: a front cover, a back cover, and six inside pages, each about 2.75 x 4.25 inches from Letter or 74 x 105 mm from A4. The cut is the one step a six-year-old needs a hand with. Magazine Studio asks for the same kit: paper, something to draw with, and a device with a camera.

How do you make a longer magazine or a drawing book?

Fold two to four sheets in half, short sides together, nest them, and staple twice on the fold. Two sheets give eight pages and four give 16, at 5.5 x 8.5 inches from Letter or A5 from A4. Pages come in fours, because each sheet adds four. You don't need a print shop to make your own magazine. It suits a how-to-draw book. Kubrio's Halloween Drawing Book is the studio version: your kid picks five spooky things and draws all four steps of each by hand, one page apiece, and the AI lays out the pages but never draws a step or adds a page your kid didn't choose.

What goes on each of the eight pages?

Plan all eight pages before you fold, and give each page one job. In Writing Next, Graham and Perin (2007) reviewed writing studies in grades 4 to 12 and found that a specific goal for the finished piece had an average effect of 0.70, a strong effect by the report's scale. For grades 1 to 6, Graham, McKeown, Kiuhara, and Harris (2012) found product goals had an effect of 0.76. A page plan is a product goal. Write it in pencil on the flat sheet:

• Page 1, front cover: the title and "by" with your kid's first name.
• Page 2: what the zine is about, in one sentence.
• Pages 3 to 6: one idea per page, each with a drawing.
• Page 7: a comic or a surprise.
• Page 8, back cover: a note to the reader.

Every Spooky Season zine comes with this kind of plan. In the Witch's Brew Slime Lab Report, the recipe is a comic, three trials each get a feature page with a drawing, and the last page is a one-sentence finding. Your kid picks the one thing to change, runs the three trials, and writes every word, and three trials is a finished report. An adult handles the activator. In Scary Festivals Around the World, your family's own festival opens the issue, and three festivals such as Obon and Samhain each get a feature page, with a comic between them. Your kid picks the festivals, draws, and writes every word, and the AI restyles the drawings and lays out the pages.

Who is the zine for?

Name a real reader before your kid draws anything: a grandparent, a cousin, or a friend. Block and Strachan (2019) compared second graders writing for their teacher with the same children writing for a reader outside the classroom, and found higher quality writing for the outside reader. Kubrio starts from the reader too: "There are two kinds of projects for kids. The first kind ends on the fridge door. The second kind ends as a real thing other kids can read, watch, or play. Kubrio makes the second kind. Kids make them by directing the same AI the pros use." A younger sibling is the natural reader for the Scary Coloring Book: your kid draws five monsters by hand, the AI turns each drawing into one clean outline per page and never invents a monster your kid didn't draw, and you print it the same day.

How much writing does each page need?

One planned sentence per page is enough for most kids 6 to 13. In the 2012 review, extra writing time on its own was the weakest lever, at 0.30. Planning together helps more: Writing Next found 0.75 for collaborative writing, and the 2012 review found 0.89 for peer assistance, so a parent at the table is the home version. Each kind of text has one job:

• Headline: one to five words that name the page.
• Caption: one sentence that says what the drawing can't.
• Speech bubble: what the character says out loud, in a few words.

Leave the spelling alone. Kim, Yang, Reyes, and Connor (2021) pooled 24 studies of 5,589 children from kindergarten to grade 3 and found writing instruction had a moderate overall effect of 0.31, while spelling and handwriting instruction on its own wasn't significant. If a word stumps a younger kid, write it on a scrap to copy. Magazine Studio follows the same rule: your kid writes every word, the studio offers a tidy of the writing that your kid keeps or leaves, and Tek, the studio's assistant editor, drafts three cover lines from your kid's own pages.

How do you make a comic strip for a zine?

Draw three or four boxes, then give them a setup, a turn, and a punchline. Write the words first and draw the bubble around them. Give the biggest moment the biggest box. Jennings, Rule, and Vander Zanden (2014) had 24 fifth graders read graphic and plain novels, and they enjoyed the graphic novels most (9.0 against 7.4 out of 10) and scored higher on a test of them (8.1 against 7.4). For a warm-up, Kubrio's free Halloween drawing guides include a ghost, a bat, and a pumpkin, each with a short video and six steps on paper.

How do you keep your kid going after the first sitting?

Come back the next day, and praise the effort before you suggest anything. Hidi and Renninger (2006) describe four phases of interest. In the first two, something outside the kid sparks the interest and support from other people keeps it going, so your part is real appreciation for the effort and one or two concrete suggestions. Kubrio builds the finish into the season: a kid who finishes one project earns the Sprint Maker patch, five finished projects in the same season earn Sprint Legend, and Demo Week, December 1–7, 2026, celebrates the season's work and never ranks kids.

What to do at home this week

1. Pick a topic together: a Spooky Season zine or the thing your kid knows best.
2. Name the reader out loud and write that name on the back cover.
3. Fold a practice sheet together.
4. Write the eight-page plan in pencil on a flat sheet before anyone draws.
5. Warm up with one Halloween drawing guide, then draw the cover and pages 2 to 4.
6. In the second sitting, finish pages 5 to 8, one sentence per page.
7. Make a copy and hand it to the reader.

Ingenious projects that inspire kids to make things — until they find the thing only they could make.

Halloween Drawing Book: your kid draws five spooky things by hand, four steps each, and ends with a how-to-draw book other kids draw from. Or see everything your kid can make in Magazine Studio, then start here.

FAQ

What age can a kid make a zine? Kids 6 to 13 can, and a six-year-old needs a hand with the cut. The Magazine Studio projects range from ages 6 to 10 for the Scary Coloring Book to 7 to 13 for the lab report.

How do you make copies of a zine? Unfold the finished zine, scan or photocopy the drawn side, and fold each copy the same way. Go over pencil lines in pen first, because pencil copies faint.

Should I fix my kid's spelling in a zine? No. In the kindergarten to grade 3 research, spelling and handwriting instruction on its own made no significant difference. Plan the page together and let your kid's words stand.

What should a first zine be about? The thing your kid knows most about: a pet, a game, or a monster they invented. A how-to-draw book or a coloring book makes an easy first zine, because every page has the same job.