The Denver Post1

CK Reporter of the WeekAbby Greiner, Golden

Effects make tale of the sea special“In The Heart of The Sea” is a tremendous

movie based on the events that inspired Her-man Melville’s ‘Moby Dick,’ the true story

about a group of sailors who set out on a ship called the Essex in search of whale oil.

During the Essex’s voyage the men are desperate to find more whales, and the crew ventures farther out to sea.

To their horror they encounter a humongous whale, driven on by vengeance, that has a wish to sink the Essex and the people in it.

“In The Heart of The Sea” is a very memorable movie that kept my attention the whole time.

The acting was completely believable. Chris Hemsworth (Owen Chase), Benjamin Walk-

er (Captain Pollard), and Cillian Murphy (Mathew Joy) added so much to the character development because they really got into character with touches such as using believable New England accents.

I definitely recommend seeing this movie in 3-D. It makes the movie come to life and it will have you

fooled into thinking that the action has jumped out of the movie screen and is happening right in front of you.

For instance, at one point in the movie, there is a dog that is licking corn on the cob, and the 3D is so good that you feel you can smell the dog’s breath.

The whale’s jumping out of the sea really comes to life, too.

The only thing that could have been changed to make the movie a little more realistic is that, in some scenes, the actor would be soaked in water, and then, in a matter of seconds, the actor is completely dry and has no trace of ever being wet at all.

I feel PG-13 is a appropriate rating for this movie, but viewer be warned there are very intense scenes and upsetting events.

Also there is mildly adult language.

December 15, 2015

Colorful 3D posters make an inexpensive giftPop some color into your imagination

with “Pop up Posters” by Melissa and Doug.

“Pop up posters” are posters you color and bring to life.

When I looked at all the posters, my first thought was, “All the posters in this package are meant for girls.”

The theme of the package I received was a garden theme, with a lot of hearts, flowers and butterflies.

But Melissa and Doug also have another set of pop up posters, one that boys might enjoy more. The theme of it is under the sea.

The posters are very easy to do. They do not require anything fancy, except

for your favorite markers or crayons. When I colored one of the posters, the

markers I used didn’t show up as dark as they normally would on paper. My red looked a lot like a dark orange.

However, crayons show up perfectly fine. My favorite part about the crayons was that

it made the posters look realistic. Making the poster 3D is the easiest part.

Once you are done coloring the poster, all

you have to do is follow the directions and fold the flaps. Then your poster becomes 3D!

This is a great inexpensive holiday gift for people who love to color and make breathtak-ing art (like me!).

It would make for a great stocking stuffer! You can choose from a garden poster pack

that girls may enjoy, or an ocean pack for boys. But it is not gender specific and you can choose whichever one you want.

There is a recommended age requirement, of five years old and up. Anybody young-er than 5 would have problems folding the smaller pieces.

I really enjoyed making these posters, and my seven-year-old brother really enjoyed coloring them as well.

G R EAT H O L I DAYS BEGI

N H

ERE!Beyond

Blackboardthe

BEST SELECTION OF CREATIVE & EDUCATIONAL TOYS IN COLORADO!

SCIENCEKITS!

LIVEFROGS!

ARTS &

CRAFTS!

PUZZLES& GAMES

PLASMACARS!

GREATBOOKS!

BUILDINGSETS!

...and so much more!

BEYOND THE BLACKBOARD TOYSSouthlands, 6155 S. Main St, Aurora 303.627.5791

7721 Wadsworth Blvd, Arvada 303.422.5151www.BeyondTheBlackboard.com

By Innagen Roberts,12, a CK Reporter from Lakewood

By Ashley Gaccetta,11, a CK Reporter from Longmont

The Denver Post

“The Last Kids on Earth,” written by Max Brailli-

er and illustrated by Douglas Holgate, tells about Jack Sullivan and his three best friends strug-gling to survive the monster and zombie apoca-lypse.

Every other living resident in Wakefield ei-ther left or got zombiefied.

Jack and his friends find themselves having to fend for each oth-er in a world full of harmful creatures that have taken over. Jack must defeat one espe-cially evil monster before it defeats him.

This book kept me in sus-pense and I couldn’t put it down.

“The Last Kids on Earth,” is an action-packed book and is

a little funny, too. I am a ten-year-old fifth

grader, and I thought this book was a bit too easy for me; so I’d recom-mend it for third or fourth graders.

If you are older than that, I’d still recom-mend it to you as a quick and easy read.

It is a hybrid novel and so had pictures on almost every page with 18 chapters in all.

This is a well written book and I recom-

mend it to any action and comedy lovers.

2

Genetically modified chickens will save babies’ livesThe Food and Drug Ad-

ministration has ap-proved breeding of a ge-netically modified chicken whose eggs will help save lives of babies with a very rare disorder.

People with this inherited disorder lack an important enzyme that helps digest fat, and, if they begin to show the problem in the first few months of life, they rarely

get to be a year old.Older patients do better,

but it’s still a very rare, very serious problem.

This new chicken has had its genes modified so that its eggs produce a drug that can be used to treat the problem.

Tests of this drug showed that it is very helpful for pa-tients, including those very young babies.

These special chickens

will be raised in laboratories or similar facilities and will never mix with other birds, so there is no chance their meat or eggs could end up at grocery stores.

Other GMO life-saving animals include a goat that helps people whose blood doesn’t clot well, and a rab-bit that produces a drug for people with a severe form of allergic reactions.

“EllRay Jakes, the Recess King,” by Sally Warner, is the eighth book in the adventures of EllRay Jakes, an

8-year-old third grader.EllRay lives in the suburbs and needs spare

best friends because he is down to only 1 ½ friends.

I know that having a ½ friend sounds weird, but his friend Corey is always at swim prac-tice, so he is not around much.

It’s his annoying 4-year-old sister Alfie who points out that EllRay needs more friends.

She has a play she is performing on Friday, so EllRay has five days to get someone to go with him.

EllRay has two main options for friends, Jason and Diego.

Jason is the class clown who performs a lot of funny pranks, mostly at recess and at lunch.

Diego likes to read and has a personality that EllRay thinks he can loosen up.

EllRay also has three other friend choices, Major, Nate, and Marco, but something goes wrong and Marco is the only hope left.

EllRay ends up trying some odd schemes to try and win friends, for example, the curse of the mummy zombie, as well as fighting with seven fellow classmates during lunch.

The book is wacky, a fast read (only 166 pages), and easy to understand, and the black and white illustrations in the book are simple but to the point.

The book went by really fast because the adventures pulled you into the story, and you wanted to flip to the next page.

If you like this book, make sure you check out the previous books in the EllRay Jakes series (each has a different color for its book cover).

Finally, you can also check out six books about his classmate, Emma, also written by Sally Warner.

Latest in Ellray series continues the laughter

By Ben Vanourek,10, a CK Reporter from Littleton

By Rylie Ridpath,10, a CK Reporter from Littleton

We should have found a way to include ages in our holiday

gift-giving question, because that’s very likely a big part of why you told us what you did.

We wanted to find out how you handle gift-giving, but we didn’t think that it probably depends on how old you are.

Do a third of you select and pay for gifts on your own because that’s how your family has always done it, or because you’re finally old enough to take on that responsibility?

We learned more about how to ask good questions than we did about gifts, but here’s what we asked you, and what you told us:

How do you handle giving gifts to others at the holi-days?

A. My folks buy gifts and put my name on them. 22%B. My folks give me money and I choose gifts for people. 37%

C. It’s all pretty much my responsibility. 33%D. I’m not into holiday gift-giving. 8%

Now here’s our next question:

Which types of games does your family play together?A. Just board and card games.

B. Just video and computer games.C. Both types of games.

D. Neither

To answer this question, go to http://nextgen.yourhub.com

We asked you, you told us:

A lesson in asking questionsMonsters, zombies, humor

Sophomore year can be tricky, as 15 year-old Scott finds out in “Soph-omores and Other Oxymorons” by

David Lubar. He just barely made it through fresh-

man year in the book “Sleeping Freshman Never Lie”, and his life is looking up, with his semi-girlfriend by his side and his two brothers no longer quite so bent on harming him, bodily or (more often) socially.

But he quickly realizes that things aren’t going to be as easy as he thought, with an evil biology teacher, an old-school language arts teacher who seems to be out to get him personally, and a school board that seems bent on the most boring school year ever.

Lubar cleverly and punnily tells the sto-ry of a boy whose life just doesn’t seem to want to run smoothly.

With a little help from super-smart fresh-man Jeremy, semi-girlfriend Lee, and fren-emy Kyle, Scott might be able to straighten out his life, and give some others a little

help along the way.This story of forgiveness and word play is

told partially in the conventional book style

and partially as a letter on how to survive high-school, written to his younger brother for days of need.

It is the second book in a series, but you do not need to have read the first to follow it.

Though the story is about high-school, and there are some trickier concepts, the story is in general not a particularly hard read, and there are no concepts which might be inappropriate for younger readers.

Due to the more advanced concepts, I would however recommend this heartwarm-ing story to those 10 and up, particularly word-nerds.

By Thandi Glick,12, a CK Reporter from Denver

Heartwarming, clever book for word-nerds

The Denver Post3

Five years ago, Japan’s Akatsuki space probe was supposed to fire its main

thrusters and go into orbit around Venus.But the rockets had been damaged and

didn’t fire correctly. Instead, the probe went off-course and missed the planet entirely.

That was certainly bad news, but JAXA, the Japan Space Agency, didn’t give up.

Akatsuki had wound up going into orbit around the Sun, and, while its main thrust-ers didn’t work, it still had the smaller ones that are used to keep it from spinning and to keep its nose properly aligned.

Akatsuki was ordered to dump the fuel for its main thrusters, which (yes, even in space!) made it weigh less, then use those smaller thrusters to adjust its orbit so that, five years later, it would once again meet up with Venus as they both orbited the Sun.

It worked.Last week, Akatsuki used its small thrust-

ers to achieve orbit around Venus. It’s not as close an orbit as had been planned, but the probe will still be able to send back data.

On Wednesday, the wandering probe sent its first pictures home.

Space probe gets second chance after wandering for five years

In 1998, a British doctor published a study that supposedly showed that vaccinations against measles, mumps and rubella caused children to

develop autism.It was not true. The journal that had published it retracted it, say-

ing it was bad science, and Britain’s medical society took away his license for using fake information in his report and for not telling readers that he would make money if people switched from the combined

vaccinations to a differ-ent type of prevention.

But his report had already scared many par-ents into not giving their babies the vaccinations.

Even after it was an-nounced that the report was false, some parents insisted that the doctor was just being picked on.

Others decided it was too confusing and that they should stop getting their kids vaccinated at all, just in case it turned out to be dangerous.

The result has been

children entering schools without immunity to seri-ous diseases, and both governments and schools are struggling to decide if it is safe to let parents make this kind of decision for their children.

The problem is that it is more than a personal choice: When there are more kids in a community who have these diseases, even children who were vaccinated can sometimes catch them.

In January, Australia will launch a new law requir-ing children entering pre-school and kindergarten to have had vaccinations against measles, mumps, rubella and pertussis.

But for some Aussie kids, the new law is too late.At an elementary school in Melbourne, 80 out of

320 students were absent with chicken pox. This was not only bad for those kids, but it’s hard to teach when so many students aren’t in the classroom.

And a mother in Brisbane posted a video of her four-month-old son on Facebook as he fought for breath with the gasping coughs that give pertussis its nickname, “whooping cough.”

Little Austin Harreman had received his first baby shot against the disease, but there have been an un-usually large number of pertussis cases in Brisbane and that may be why he caught it.

“So for those of you sitting on the fence on whether to vaccinate yourself and your kids or not ... maybe this video will convince you,” his mother wrote.

Diseases hit as Australia moves to require vaccines

Suzy Swanson has always understood things that others haven’t, but she doesn’t understand why Franny

Jackson, her best friend and a great swim-mer, drowned.

She doesn’t understand why Franny’s heart got to beat only 412 million times—about 12 years.

But all of that changes on a field trip to the aquarium, where she sees an exhibit containing a rare jellyfish, and thinks that a sting from this jellyfish might have been the cause of Franny’s death.

Using the expertise of several jellyfish experts, Suzy sets out to prove this, and unknowingly starts on a long journey of grief, coping, and acceptance.

Ali Benjamin’s “The Thing About Jel-lyfish” is a spellbinding novel that will cause even the toughest person to reach for a box of tissues.

It contains deep and emotional themes at the heart of a novel about science and oceanography.

Because of this, it will interest both people who are curious about nature and those who just want a good book to read.

“The Thing About Jellyfish” is not difficult to read, but an older audience

might appreciate the extensive themes more than a younger audience would, so I would recommend this book for readers twelve and up.

People who enjoy Rebecca Stead books might also enjoy this one, because of the similar tone and mood.

This novel will also intrigue people who are interested in learning some more about jellyfish in a fun and fascinating way that non-fiction cannot provide. It is full of great facts, and will provide the reader with some substantial knowledge.

“The Thing About Jellyfish” is a com-plex and touching book that will be satis-fying for several different audiences.

So gear up, and get ready to dive into this evocative novel.

Complex, touching story of life and death

illustration/JAXA

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 1791, the Virginia legislature’s approval made it the last state needed to ratify the Bill of Rights as our first 10 Amendments, so our answers this week will each begin with the letter “V.”

1. Large Canadian city just north of Seattle, Washington

2. Author of “Jumanji” and “The Polar Express”

3. This relative of the llama and alpaca is Peru’s national animal.

4. The most popular flavor of ice cream in the US

5. The Greeks called her Aphrodite. What did the Romans call her?

6. Queen of the United Kingdom from 1837 until 1901

7. The Green Mountain State

8. This volcano wiped out the city of Pompeii in 79 AD.

9. Children’s story about a toy bunny who becomes real because he was loved by the little boy who owned him

10. Inventor of the battery, a unit of electrical power is named for him

(answers on Page Four)

Above, a young boy with chicken pox, a disease that has suddenly struck a quarter of the students at an Australian elementary school. (photo: Robyne01) At left, four-month-old Austin Harreman struggles to control his whooping cough. (Facebook screen grab)

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

The Denver Post4

is produced by Denver Post Educational Services

Executive Editor: Dana Plewkadplewka@denverpost.comCK Editor: Mike Peterson

coloradokidseditor@gmail.comWe 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. Vancouver 2. Chris Van Allsburg 3. vicuña 4. vanilla 5. Venus 6. Victoria 7. Vermont 8. Vesuvius

9. (The) Velveteen Rabbit 10. (Alessandro) Volta

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 stories

Genetically modified chickens

Akatsuki space probe

Vaccinations and outbreaks

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

Deucalion and Pyrrha

When first the earth was born, it was a Golden Age, when people did not have to work. All the food they

needed grew on trees or in fields all year long, and the weather was so nice that nobody needed homes or warm clothing.

But this era did not last. Next came the Sil-ver Age, and the beginnings of winter. Peo-ple had to learn to farm, and to build homes and to spin and weave so that they would have food, shelter and warm clothing. But it was still a pleasant time, without conflict or wars.

Alas, the Silver Age, too, passed away, and next was the Bronze Age. Now land was di-vided among people, and some got a lot and some only got a little, and there was jealousy and greed.

People learned to distrust each other, and life was not so nice as it had been before.

Last came the Iron Age, and by this time, people had become so wicked that the gods and goddesses were disgusted with them. Jupiter called a meeting, and, while nobody was happy about the decision, the immortals agreed that the earth must be wiped clean.

At first, Jupiter planned to hurl thunderbolts at the earth until he had de-stroyed everything on it. Then he thought that so much thunder and lighten-ing might set the heavens on fire.

Instead, he had the North Wind, which helps to scatter the clouds, locked up in a cave, and let the South Wind free to bring the storms to the earth. And Juno had her messenger, colorful Iris, bring moisture up to the clouds so they could rain even more.

Jupiter called upon his brother for help, and Neptune ordered the rivers to let loose all their waters, and he drove his trident into the earth, opening the banks so that the waters raced out across the land.

At last, you could not tell the earth from the seas, for everything was water. The nereids were surprised in the watery depths, to find themselves swimming among villages, and dolphins swam and played in the branches of orchards.

There was no play for the lions and wolves who swam alongside the sheep and cattle, however. Everyone was struggling to stay alive, and men climbed mountains only to find the waters rising over the summits.

At last, Jupiter looked down and saw that the earth was entirely under wa-ter, and that nothing which had walked on its surface before survived, except for one small boat.

In that boat, he saw Deucalion and Pyrrha, a couple who were well known to the gods and goddesses for their goodness. Jupiter paused as he watched them. Then he called for the cave of the winds to be opened, so that the North Wind could come and blow back the clouds and disperse the water.

And Neptune sent Triton to the surface of the waters. He put his coiled horn to his lips and blew, ordering the rivers back to their banks.

The waters fell and the earth emerged from beneath the waves, and Deu-calion and Pyrrha’s boat came to rest on the slopes of Mount Parnassas.

They climbed from the boat and gave thanks to the gods for sparing their lives. Then they looked around at what was left of the earth, and they wept.

“How can we live like this, alone on the earth?” Deucalion asked his wife.Pyrrha shook her head sadly. But as they walked around, they found a tem-

ple, covered with green algae and mud from the waters.Deucalion and Pyrrha lay on their faces on the temple steps and prayed to

Themis, the daughter of Gaea and the aunt of mighty Jupiter.“Please, goddess, have mercy on us. If there is anything we can do to repair

the damage that has been done to our people, tell us, and we shall do it,” they prayed.

Themis felt sorry for them, and spoke aloud: “Go cover your heads, and throw the bones of your mother behind you,” she said.

Deucalion and Pyrrha didn’t know what to say to each other. They went and sat under a tree, and at last Pyrrha spoke up.

“I don’t think I can do that,” she said. “It would dishonor my mother to disturb her grave. I would rather we lived alone for the rest of our time than to do what we were told.”

They sat a while longer, and at last Deucalion spoke. “It seems to me,” he said, “that the goddess would not tell us to do something that would dishonor us.”

He sat forward and dug in the mud for a moment. “Our mother is the Earth,” he said, and pulled out a stone from the dirt. “I think maybe this is one of her bones.”

Pyrrha took the stone from his hand and held it a moment, then smiled. “I think you must certainly be right,” she said.

They stood, and covered their heads with their cloaks as the goddess had commanded. They picked up stones from the mud and walked along togeth-er, tossing the stones over their shoulders.

Behind them, the stones that Pyrrha tossed gradually changed their shapes, and grew, and looked first like stone statues of women. Then each of them would become soft, and colorful, and then would breathe and move and be-come a real woman.

And the stones that Deucalion tossed behind himself grew in the same way into men.

The gods and goddesses watched the couple, and decided to join in repair-ing the earth, recreating the animals that once had lived there, so that they crawled out of the mud as if they were hatching from eggs. And so the earth was once more populated.

retold by Mike Peterson, c. 2005 - illustrated by Dylan Meconis, c. 2005

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

Tales of the Ancient World

CorrectionIn last week’s Brainteaser, we misidentified the “remainder,” the quantity left over after dividing a larger number by a smaller number, if you only use the integer for your answer. For instance 22 divided by 5 is 4, with a remainder of 2.