The Denver Post • 1

Houses smashed. People dead. New Orleans ruined. Katrina was devastating.

But in the days leading up to that, Ressie and her best friend Anya thought nothing of the hurricane predictions and tossed the idea aside.

Big mistake as Denise Lewis Patrick shows in her novel, “Finding Some-place”.

Ressie Boone was turn-ing 13 on August 28. She was fi nally going to be a teenager.

Mrs. Martine, her neighbor, was going to make a beautiful famous coconut cake for the occasion.

Ressie was even going to debut her birthday outfi t to her family that she sewed herself.

Suddenly, the news about the hurricane got worse in the blink of an eye.

August 27, Ressie Boone woke up knowing she was evacuating the city that day.

Her uncle was driving her away from the soon to be warzone. Her parents were gone at work.

As she waited to evacuate, Ressie helped Mrs. Martine get ready for the hurricane.

Now Mrs. Martine thought nothing of Katrina. Thought the worst that could happen was a little storm.

The real thing was way worse than it was in her head.

The beginning of this book was kind of confus-ing because you didn’t know who the characters were and you also didn’t know who was talking.

The rest was good and had a bunch of suspense. The novel was also re-ally interesting because it showed the feelings and thoughts about Hurricane Katrina through third person.

The book did a really good job of explaining Katrina and is a good example of historical fi ction.

I never knew that Katrina was that bad and the book showed me that.

Katrina changed the lives of people in New Orleans.

The book did a really good job of explaining Katrina

and is a good example of historical fi ction.

The Denver Zoo recently introduced four new lion ‘cubs’ - actually, year-old youngsters - to their Predator Ridge exhibit.

Born May 17, 2015, the four brothers, Kito (meaning “Jewel”), Bahati (“Lucky”), Usiku (“Night”), and Jasiri (“Adventurous”) have caused newfound excitement to sprout within the zoo.

“They’re kind of like the second generation of Predator Ridge,” Hollie Colahan, Vice President of Animal Care says, “The cats that we opened this exhibit with over ten years ago are gone and now we have this new group.”

The new lions were transported from the Lee Richardson Zoo in Kansas through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan.

This took place after their father, Razi, began to push them out, a normal behavior that happens at this age since the male lions are reaching sexual maturity.

With only 30,000 lions left in the wild, conservation eff orts to save these magnifi cent felines are being stressed at zoos everywhere.

Nearly two lions are killed per day due to various causes, but the most dominant factor being loss of habitat, either completely or by being broken up into smaller spaces than the cats need for healthy living.

Hollie Colahan spoke about what the average person can do to make a diff erence for lions around the world.

“We love to tell people just coming here to the Denver Zoo makes a diff erence for conservation,” she said. “I think that anytime people spread the word and spread awareness that lions are in trouble and that habitat loss is an issue not just for lions, but for animals all over the world, that it helps inspire people to tell that story and build that awareness.”

All in all, the brothers are a totem of hope for lions around the world and inspire awareness of the peril that this species is experiencing, as well as paving the path for a new generation at the Denver Zoo.

CK Reporter of the WeekBen Jeff ers, Evergreen

September 6, 2016

Novel helps puts Katrina in perspective

Youth-written stories that appear here also appear on

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HEY COLORADO KIDS!Visit YourHub.com/nextgen for more stories, movie reviews, school news, blogs and polls. Join the conversation today.

Cubs bring their own pride to Zoo

By Haley Deison,11, a CK Reporter from Arvada

By Clarise Reichley,12, a CK Reporter from Denver

(A)nytime people spread the word and spread awareness that lions are in trouble and that habitat loss is an issue not just

for lions, but for animals all over the world, that it helps inspire people to tell that story and build that awareness.”

--Hollie Colahan, Vice President of Animal Care

Left, two of Denver’s newest lions soak up some sunshine prior to their trip west. (photo/ Lee Richardson Zoo ) At right, Denver Zoo veterinarians check out one of the new arrivals before he is released onto Predator Ridge (photo/Denver Zoo)

The Denver Post • 2

Tara Krishnan has never felt like she fit in. Growing up Indian in a mostly-white town, she’s always been on the fringe of things.

She’s never hung out with the “popular” crowd, but she always had her friend Meg. Now Meg is spending a year in Argentina, and Tara doesn’t know how she’ll survive junior year without her.

On top of that, an alternate version of Earth, Terra Nova, has been discovered, along with the fact that on this planet live alter-nate versions of everyone on Earth.

This startling discovery sets off waves of excitement, confusion, and fear, and will shake the foundation of everything Tara has ever known.

Written by Aditi Khorana, “Mirror in the Sky” is a gripping page-turner that will leave you wanting more.

With a shocking twist ending that is sure to leave everyone astounded, the novel is composed of several well-developed characters and an excellent plot that is easy to follow while not being too easy of a read for older kids.

In fact, this novel would be best for kids 12 and older because it

contains some more mature topics, including cults. However, if a parent is willing to explain a few things to their

kid, than this novel would be a good read for kids 10 and up, too.This book would make a fun read for both realistic and sci-

ence-fiction fans, because it contains both elements.Realistic-fiction fans will enjoy the parts about a girl struggling

with friends and love, and science-fiction fans will enjoy the parts about Terra Nova and space.

Kids who feel that they have a hard time fitting in will also sym-pathize with Tara and enjoy the story.

Mirror in the Sky is a mind-boggling must-read that will leave readers in wonder.

You don’t want to miss this out-of-this-world novel!

Fiction, science fiction meet in novel

SpaceX explosion reminds us launches still involve risk

The first and most important thing to know about last Thursday’s spectacular ex-

plosion of a SpaceX rocket on its launching pad at Cape Canaveral was that nobody was hurt.

We may be getting used to rocket launches, but they’re still potentially dangerous, and this test was done the day before the scheduled launch, with nobody anywhere near, just in case.

The next question is, what was

aboard the rocket? The Amos 6 satellite, an Israeli-

built communications satellite, was intended to be placed in orbit over Africa.

As part of a project Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg is head-ing, the idea was to provide more and cheaper Internet access to people in remote areas.

That’s not just for playing Pokemon Go. Internet access is very important for schools, health

organizations and others who need to reach people in small, poor, rural areas.

Now decisions will be made, but it seems likely a new satellite will be built. It’s not clear if the Israeli company bought insurance for Amos 6, but about one launch in 20 fails, either on the ground or in space, so they likely made plans.

Meanwhile, this was a reminder that space exploration remains risky business. image//Spacecom

“Click Here to Start” is a novel by Denis Markell about a 12 year old boy named Ted, from Los Angeles. His Great-Uncle (whose name

is also Ted) passes away, and Ted inherits all of the stuff from his Great Uncle’s will.

The main characters are Isabel, Caleb and Ted. Ted is a problem solver who plays “Escape the Room”

video games on his laptop all of the time and never needs a walk-through (which is when they walk you through the game if you can not solve it).

His friend Caleb, on the other hand, always needs to do the walk-throughs, is great at drawing, and loves comic books.

Isabel is a smart girl from New York who loves to read and moves to LA for the summer.

These three go on an adventure in Los Angeles and use their different talents to figure out puzzles of life, such as finding a missing lawyer, how to escape from a house with laser sensors locking her in, and catching an identity thief.

Ted and his friends are looking for a treasure that is vaguely mentioned in the will. However what the treasure is was not mentioned, and his Great-Uncle was a hoarder with items in a lot of places throughout the

LA region.This story was pretty funny because of the character’s

personalities. For example, in one scene, Caleb’s parents are

divorced, and he doesn’t really like his dad anymore. So now, all of his drawings are of a superhero towering over an old Asian man.

The novel took a while to read, and I think the author put just the right amount of details and action into this book.

It was interesting because every clue led to the finding of another clue.

I would recommend this book for ages 8 and above because anyone younger than that would find some parts of the book to be too intense for them.

On a scale of 1-10, I would rate this book a 9 because of all the mind puzzles.

Fun story of gamers playing real-world game

By Ben Vanourek,11, a CK Reporter from Littleton

By Cara Dulin,14, a CK Reporter from Castle Rock

The Denver Post • 3

One of the easiest ways you can help avoid spreading colds, fl u and other diseases is to wash your hands

often, particularly after using the bathroom and before handling food.

But now the Food and Drug Administration has ruled that, if you do a good job of washing your hands, it really doesn’t matter what kind of soap you use.

In fact, the administration is going further than that and ordering companies to remove 19 chemicals from soaps that are sold as “antibacterial.”

Companies will have a year to get those antibacterial soaps off the shelves, or to change how they are made so that they no longer contain those ingredients.

Part of the problem is that some of the chemicals could

be harmful, though the FDA is not claiming that many of them are outright bad. Use of them, however, might not be healthy in certain circumstances or for certain people.

In more cases, however, the decision is simpler: They don’t do what the manufacturers say they do.

After several years of testing, and of inviting soap companies to submit their own scientifi c data, the FDA has concluded that washing your hands properly is the key to health, no matter what kind of soap you use.

Antibacterial washes will still be permitted in medical facilities, as well as in food preparation areas.

Otherwise, do as this 1940 poster recommended, before most antibacterials were invented: Wash your hands often.

Antibacterial soaps no better, could even do harm

Some of the most popular and well-known fossils are of creatures which, if they were alive and standing in front of us, would

probably cause us to turn and run.But while mammoths, brontosauri and other

enormous animals have left behind evidence for archaeologists in the form of fossils, they are not the only life forms to have done so.

The latest fossils to excite archaeologists are a good deal smaller than a brontosaurus.

In fact, if one of them were alive and stand-ing in front of us, we wouldn’t notice unless we happened to be looking through a microscope exactly in the right direction.

A team of archaeologists from Australia’s Uni-versity of Wollongong have discovered evidence of microbes in Greenland that may be as old as 3.7 billion years. That’s old.

The young mammoth discovered in Snow-mass a few years ago had been there for about 50,000 years.

This is more like 3,700,000,000 years.The type of rock in which the fossilized layers

were found is extremely rare, mostly because it may have become superheated in the years since it formed, destroying evidence of the type of life the Australians found.

And what type is that? It’s not individual fossils that you can pick out and display the way you would the bones of a raptor.

It appears to be layers formed by microbes in shallow water areas, so that, while the microbes were in it, it’s the layers themselves that have somehow survived all these years.

Dr. Allen Nutman and his team actually made the discovery four years ago, while examining rock that, until the latest climate changes, had been covered under Greenland’s protective shield of ice.

They waited to announce their fi nd until they had time to examine the discovery and become more sure of what it was they had found.

Archaeologists will discuss and debate the fi nding, but it pushes the start of life not just back to this period, but to however long before that it took for the microbes to evolve that far.

Are these the oldest fossils we’ll ever fi nd?

“Southern Gothic” by Bridgette R. Alex-ander is a realistic mystery about 16 year-old Celine Caldwell, who fi nds

herself enveloped in a thrilling case with her powerful curator mother as the suspect.

However, it turns out that not everything is as it seems.

Ever since her parents divorced and her mom assumed the job of the main art curator at the Metropolitan Art Museum, Celine was placed dead last in her mother’s life.

As an art intern at the Met, Celine realizes that artwork has begun to go missing and all the evidence leads back to her mom.

After days of endless work, Celine gets so close to the truth that she realizes the art was linked to an old murder and the killer and thief was the person she would least expect.

This novel was very thrilling and empowering to anyone. It gives a nice message that you can do anything even if people tell you otherwise.

The book was intriguing, especially at the end where a plot twist is revealed, but it had more than a few parts where the plot was slow and slightly boring.

Also, the wording of the book was sometimes hard to read and understand.

Despite its downs, the book defi nitely kept you

involved and interested until the very last mo-ment, and the mystery was very hard to solve.

The book was very detailed and I felt like I was solving the case along with Celine.

I was also able to relate to the book since it is set in the present and all the characters had very strong personalities that helped me visual-ize the story.

There is a small amount of romance but it’s nothing much and doesn’t really aff ect the sto-ryline, and, if you are a fan of scary mystery this book is probably not your type because it is not creepy or scary.

Make sure to watch for a second book, too, because this book ends with a cliff hanger.

“Southern Gothic” is probably best for ages 12 and up because of occasional cussing and mature, confusing themes.

The next time you’re looking for a good book to read, I would suggest “Southern Gothic” by Bridgette R. Alexander.

Step up to a mature, challenging mystery novel

photo/ U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Rules: Every row across, every column down and each of the six smaller boxes must contain numerals 1,2,3,4,5 and 6, one time and one time only.

The solution to this week’s puzzle is on Page 4.

On this date in 1916, Piggly Wiggly, the fi rst grocery store where people could choose products from shelves instead of having a grocer get them, opened in Memphis, Tennessee, so our answers this week will each begin with “G.”

1. Eight pints, or four quarts, of liquid

2. US President who was assassinated in 1881, a few months after he was inaugurated.

3. Cartoon cat who loves lasagna but hates Mondays

4. Western slope county whose county seat is Glenwood Springs

5. A state in the southern US, or a nation between Russia and Turkey

6. He writes crime novels for adults, and the “Theodore Boone” crime series for kids.

7. Popular, humorous Civil War song about peanuts, using another term for them

8. A small rodent often kept as a pet, known in some countries as a “cavy”

9. Non-violent man who led the campaign for freedom in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh

10. German brothers who collected German folk tales in the 19th Century

(answers on Page Four)

The wavy lines in this rock may be fossilized microbes or signs of where the microbes were. Either way, they are old enough that they could change theories of how life came to Earth. (photo/Allen Nutman/University of Wollongong via AP)

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By Kayla Mitchiner,11, a CK Reporter from Golden

The Denver Post • 4

is produced by Denver Post Educational Services

Executive Editor: Dana Plewkadplewka@denverpost.com

CK Editor: Mike Petersoncoloradokidseditor@gmail.com

We welcome your comments.

For tools to extend the learning in this feature, look under “Youth Content” at:

www.ColoradoNIE.com

eEditions of the Post arefree of charge for classroom use.Contact us for information on all

our programs.

Denver Post Educational Services101 W. Colfax Ave.Denver CO 80202

(303) 954-3974(800) 336-7678

Stories without bylines were written by the editor.

(see Page Three)

10 right - Wow!

7 right - Great!

5 right - Good

3 right - See you next time!

1. gallon 2. (James) Garfi eld 3. Garfi eld 4. Garfi eld 5. Georgia 6. (John) Grisham 7. Goober Peas 8. guinea pig 9. (Mohandas or Mahatma) Gandhi 10. Grimm

Hot Links to Cool Sites!

NASA’s Space Placehttp://tinyurl.com/ckspace

NIE Special Reporthttp://tinyurl.com/ckniereport

Headline Geographyhttp://tinyurl.com/ckgeography

Pulse of the Planethttp://tinyurl.com/ckpulseplanet

How to become a NextGen Reporter!http://tinyurl.com/colokidsreporter

To read the sources for these storiesPrehistoric Microbes

Handwashing and the FDA

The SpaceX Explosion

go to http://www.tinyurl.com/ckstorylinks

How Nighthawk Got His Fine Clothes

These stories were collected from Blackfeet, Chippewa and Cree storytellers in Montana in the early 20th century by Frank Linderman.

To-night I shall tell you why the Nighthawk

wears fine clothes. My grandfather told me about it when I was young.

I am sure you have seen the Nighthawk sailing over you, dipping and making that strange noise.

Of course there is a reason for it.

Old Man was travelling one day in the springtime; but the weather was fine for that time of year. He stopped often and spoke to the bird-people and to the animal-people, for he was in good humor that day.

He talked pleasantly with the trees, and his heart grew tender.

That is, he had good thoughts; and of course they made him happy. Finally he felt tired and sat down to rest on a big, round boulder. Here he rested

for a while, but the stone was cold, and he felt it through his robe; so he said: “Stone, you seem cold to-day. You may have my robe. I have hundreds of robes in my camp, and I don’t need this one at all.”

That was a lie he told about having so many robes. All he had was the one he wore.

He spread his robe over the stone, and then started down the hill, naked, for it was really a fine day.

But storms hide in the mountains, and are never far away when it is springtime. Soon it began to snow. Then the wind blew from the north with a good strength

behind it. Old Man said: “’Well, I guess I do need that robe myself, after all. That stone never

did anything for me anyhow. Nobody is ever good to a stone. I’ll just go back and get my robe.’

Back he went and found the stone. Then he pulled the robe away, and wrapped it about himself. Ho! but that made the stone angry -- Ho!

Old Man started to run down the hill, and the stone ran after him. Ho! it was a funny race they made, over the grass, over smaller stones, and over

logs that lay in the way, but Old Man managed to keep ahead until he stubbed his toe on a big sage-brush, and fell -- swow!

“Now I have you!” cried the stone. “Now I’ll kill you, too! Now I will teach you to give presents and then take them away,” and the stone rolled right on top of Old Man, and sat on his back.

It was a big stone, you see, and Old Man couldn’t move it at all. He tried to throw off the stone but failed. He squirmed and twisted. No use: The stone held him fast!

He called the stone some bad names, but that never helps any. At last he began to call: “Help! Help! Help!”

Nobody heard him except the Nighthawk, and he told Old Man that he would help him all he could. So he flew away up in the air, so far that he looked like a black speck. Then he came down straight and struck that rock an awful blow --swow! -- and broke it in two pieces. Indeed he did.

The blow was so great that it spoiled the Nighthawk’s bill, forever -- made it strange in shape, and jammed his head, so that it is strange, too. But he broke the rock, and Old Man stood upon his feet.

“Thank you, Brother Nighthawk,” said Old Man. “Now I will do something for you. I am going to make you different from other birds--make you so people will always notice you.”

You know that when you break a rock the powdered stone is white, like snow, and there is always some of the white powder whenever you break a rock by pounding it.

Well, Old Man took some of the fine powdered stone and shook it on the Nighthawk’s wings in spots and stripes -- made the great white stripes you have seen on his wings, and he told him that no other bird could have such marks on his clothes.

All the Nighthawk’s children dress the same way now; and they always will as long as there are Nighthawks.

Of course their clothes make them proud; and that is why they keep flying over people’s heads, soaring and dipping and turning all the time, to show off their pretty wings.

adaptation c. 2005, Mike Peterson - illustrations c. 2005, Christopher Baldwin

For a teaching guide, go to http://tinyurl.com/ckserial

Old Man Stories

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