The Denver Post • 1

CK Reporter of the WeekNatalia Goncharova, Fort Morgan

Summer is the warmest season of the year in the northern hemisphere, from June to August and in the southern hemisphere from December to February.

Ally Condie was in Denver recently to talk about her latest book. It’s also the setting for Summerlost, the festival told of in the novel “Summerlost” by

Ally Condie. Condie was inspired to write “Summerlost” when

she visited her Utah home town, Cedar City (which gave her the name of the main character, Cedar Lee, in the book) and also visited a Shakespeare theater that was about to be torn down.

In the novel, it has been a year since the car crash that killed Cedar’s father and brother.

Now she is spending the summer in Iron Creek where her mother grew up.

She meets Leo Borlock and begins to work at the Summerlost Festival.

Odd items start appearing at Cedar’s windowsill, items that her dead brother Ben would have enjoyed.

Who is leaving these trinkets that start the memories fl owing?

Cedar begins to wonder about the undying memory of the star who used to work at the Summerlost Festival, Lisette Chamberlain.

Leo and Cedar start secretly giving tours about the Summerlost star. Giving all these tours about Lisette makes Cedar start to wonder if her ghost is

the one leaving the trinkets, because she was born there in Iron Creek. This novel was really personal to Condie, she said, having dealt with a few losses

herself, and also, meeting a boy when she was Cedar’s age. His name was Justin and now he had a son named Leo, and that is how Leo

Borlock received his name. She also has an autistic son who inspired the character Ben.Ally Condie has a very intriguing writing process. She usually comes up with the character fi rst and then starts testing them out,

like throwing a divorce or a problem their way and testing out how they would react and fi x it.

Then the plot and setting just come to her. She also comes up with expressions such as He** farts (a phrase Leo and Cedar

use for bullies) because, in this case, it would be something her friend Justin would have said.

Everybody looks for the cure for writer’s block. Well, Ally Condie has it. As an experienced writer, her methods are running, walking, bike riding or just

reading another book.I thought this book was powerful. I really liked how the author made the book like a real life situation because a lot

of people have lost loved ones and they can really relate to Cedar and this book. It had parts where you’re reading till midnight dying to know what happens. It is packed with action, adventure and friendship. This book is for ages 8 and up, but I think that slightly younger kids could read it

with a parent.

May 3, 2016

Headed for DIA? You should take the A-Train For the past few years, RTD has been

building a brand new railway that now runs trains from Union Station to

Denver International Airport (DIA). The A-Train Route was completed and

offi cially opened to passengers April 22.New Union Station, DIA and all the

stations on the RTD line had parties and celebrations and allowed passengers to ride the entire rail line for free.

While there, I got the chance to interview a passenger named Austin about to board the train.

I asked him what he liked about the new train, to which he said, “I will use it maybe once a month for travel, mostly to the airport. I like this train because of the convenience. I didn’t realize it would be so big. I mean, it fi ts a lot of people.”

I also asked a security person named Enrique about some statistics for the day of celebration, and his opinion of the train.

He said that since his shift started a little over half an hour earlier, over 1,000 people had boarded the train.

This was at six pm, so imagine how many people had come through the entire day!

I questioned him on what he thought some of the advantages were to the new train; he said it would be very good for the environment because it will lessen the number of cars on the road to DIA.

He added that he thinks the train will be popular because of its convenience and effi ciency.

Because the rides were free all day, I went on a little train ride myself.

The brand new train was clean and welcoming. My brother and I sat in the very back car and looked out the window to see other trains whizzing past and the beautiful skyline of downtown Denver.

A recorded voice came through the speakers telling us where the next stop was.

It took us about three minutes to go from one stop to the next, and going from Union Station to DIA takes about 40 minutes.

Now that the light rail to the airport is fi nally fi nished, thousands of Denver citizens will not have to park there or ask a friend to drop them off at the airport, but can take the fast train that will take them to their destination effi ciently and for a very low cost. I’d recommend that readers fi nd the time to

go on a little adventure on the new A-Train.

Teachers, Register Today at www.stockmarketexperience.orgNext Trading Session Begins September 19, 2016

FREE to all Colorado schools

Latest Condie novel is personal

photo/Thomas Krumholz

By Thomas Krumholz ,14, a CK Reporter from Denver

By Haley Deison,11, a CK Reporter from Arvada

photo/Alex Deison

The Denver Post • 2

When it comes to languages, most of our readers who answered the most recent question could have done it in at least two

languages. Only a small number reported that they consider

themselves fully bilingual, speaking at least two languages equally well, but, combined with those who said they speak two languages, one better than the other, just over a quarter of you are fairly fluent in more than one language.

And only about an eighth of you are English-only, while nearly two-thirds report that they study a second language but don’t feel very comfortable speaking it yet.

Here’s what we asked you, and what you told us:

How bilingual are you?

A. I speak both English and another language equally well. 6%

B. I can speak English and another language pretty easily, but I’m more comfortable in one that the other. 20%

C. I’ve studied a second language but don’t speak it fluently. 64%

D. English is it, at least for now. 12%

Now here’s our next question:How do you feel about dark, action-filled

superhero movies?A. Not my thingB. Okay, but keep it kind of PGC. The more fights and explosions, the better!D. Doesn’t matter: My folks won’t let me watch

them.

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

Based on a video game, “Ratchet and Clank” tells the story of a cat-like lombax named Ratchet and his robot friend, Clank.

Optimistic Ratchet hopes to join the Galactic Rangers, a group of heroes dedicated to saving the galaxy.

Soon, he gets the opportunity of a lifetime, and he and Clank are off on adventures bigger than they have ever dreamed.

“Ratchet and Clank” is an amusing movie, with a few elements that audiences will find funny. How-ever, it is not for everyone.

Since “Ratchet and Clank” is based on a video game, fans of the game will enjoy the movie more than non-fans will.

There are some parts in the movie that didn’t seem to make sense, but might have been under-standable to people who had played the game.

The movie seems to be targeted more towards elementary school-aged boys than older kids, however, there are a few jokes dropped in that will amuse older kids and adults, too.

If you’re looking for an emotive movie like “Inside Out”, this isn’t it.

The characters aren’t as emotionally-developed as those in Disney and Pixar movies, and so they are harder to connect to.

Also, despite the title, the movie actually has very little to do with the relationship between Ratchet

and Clank, instead focusing more on the relation-ship between Ratchet and the Galactic Ranger leader, Captain Qwark.

That’s not the only focus in the movie, either. There are many focal points in “Ratchet and

Clank;” in fact, there are so many different plots and plans going on that it starts to get a little confusing.

Younger kids won’t mind, but older audiences may lose interest because of the puzzling storyline.

“Ratchet and Clank” is an entertaining movie for younger kids and fans of the video game; but it’s probably not worth the price of movie tickets.

If you’re a parent looking for a fun and silly movie for your kids, wait until you can check this one out from the library or rent it, but don’t spend too much money on it.

It’s cute, but not $20 cute.

Vid-game movie fun, but not fun enough

Close that laptop: You learn more taking notes by handIf you aren’t seeing it in your

classes yet, you’ll see it when you get to college: Rows and rows of students listening to their instructor and click-click-clicking to take notes on their laptops.

Because a good keyboard jockey can write faster than someone with a pen, it seems like a good idea: You can write down almost every word that is said, instead of just some short

notes to remind you.And that’s why it’s a bad idea,

according to researchers at Princeton University and UCLA.

You’ll learn more if you take notes by hand, even though your written notes won’t be as complete as those taken with a keyboard.

Here’s why: When you key in every word, you’re listening with your ears, but not with your brain. You’re simply put-

ting down everything you hear.When you use a pencil, you

have to listen harder and de-cide which words and phrases are important, because you can’t get them all.

That means you’ve already begun to understand the sub-ject, and that’s the reason that pen-users scored higher on tests after a lecture than stu-dents who quickly typed every word. photo/TimII

We asked you, you told us:

There’s more than one way to answer for most readers

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

“In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse,” by Joseph Marshall III, follows, as the title suggests, the footsteps of Lakota war chief and leader, Crazy Horse.

It explains with detail from boyhood to leader what Crazy Horse endured.

It starts off with a brief summarization of the main character, eleven year old Lakota boy, Jimmy Mc-Clean.

After that introduction, it brings in the two prob-lematic characters in the story, Corky Brin and Jesse Little Horse.

These two are the bullies at Jimmy’s school, and they tease him for having odd looks -- blue eyes, light brown hair, and light skin -- since other Lakota usu-ally have black hair, brown skin, and brown eyes.

The story then moves on to Jimmy going on a road trip with his grandfather, Grandpa Nyles.

His grandfather takes Jimmy to the many places that Crazy Horse once walked The Oregon Trail, Fort Robinson, and so forth.

The entire meaning of the trip for Jimmy is to understand his heritage and to understand Crazy Horse’s hardships.

The meaning for the reader follows this theme, as, for me, I was learning

with Jimmy that looks aren’t everything. I also learned about Crazy Horse, as I expect this book was mainly meant

to teach. I have to say that the book was very good. It was

detailed about the happenings of Crazy Horse’s, and was very specific.

The writing in itself is, admittedly, a bit abrupt and general, but that makes for more facts than fluff.

The characters are elaborate and it isn’t just a bor-ing old history book, but has a bit of pop that other-wise wouldn’t be included.

It’s a good book and certainly worth a read, so I’d give it four stars.

Solid introduction to a great American leader

By Terra Dundon,11, a CK Reporter from Elizabeth

The Denver Post • 3

Boulder is a contestant in a diff erent sort of beauty contest: One to fi nd out what city in America is doing the most to build a

sustainable, beautiful future.The World Wildlife Fund runs a worldwide contest

each year to select the Most Sustainable City in each of 20 nations.

The “I Love Cities” campaign is part of WWF’s Earth Hour City Challenge, and it’s one where the public gets to vote on the city of their choice.

This year’s nominees are Evanston, Illinois, Burlington, Vermont and Boulder, and you can vote for whichever one you’d like to see win by going to http://www.welovecities.org and starting by clicking

on the fl ag of the United States.You may think of preserving the environment

as something that mostly happens in rural areas, but WWF points out that most people today live in cities and there is a lot that can happen there to help make a healthier and more pleasant future.

By saluting the best ideas in the best cities, the group hopes to encourage citizens and local governments to work together on these projects.

Boulder was nominated because it encourages citizens to help come up with solutions, it has put in new standards for commercial buildings and it has expanded composting and recycling.

Voting continues until June 22.

Is Boulder the nation’s most sustainable city? (It could be!)

While much attention has been focused on refugees attempting to get into Europe, another refugee crisis has been

happening on the other side of the globe.Boatloads of immigrants from Middle East-

ern confl ict have headed for Australia, but the Australian government has been reluctant to let them settle there, or even come ashore.

Australia thought they had a solution, keeping these would-be immigrants on islands far from the Australian continent, but a large part of their plan has now been upset by the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea.

Several years ago, Australia had a military base on Manus, an island in Papua New Guinea north of that nation’s main island.

The Australian government made a deal with Papua New Guinea to keep refugees there, but there were problems with the plan.

The people being kept at the former base said they were being mistreated and complained that they were not given a fair chance to prove that they should be accepted as refugees and permitted to live in Australia.

They attempted protests, but the Australian government would not allow reporters to visit to cover demonstrations, and even riots were not fully reported in the press.

Now the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea has declared the camp illegal, saying that it violates the country’s human rights laws.

The court said that the people being held in the camp had not violated any laws but were being treated as if they were criminals.

A government offi cial there said that, when they made the agreement with Australia a decade ago, they expected that refugees would only be kept there long enough to fi nd out if they should be treated as refugees or sent back to their native countries.

Instead, he said, people have been kept there year after year without any attempts to decide what should happen to them.

The refugee issue is creating some very heated conversations in Australia, but, so far, it ap-pears that what will happen now is that the 900 people at Manus Island will be moved to one of Australia’s other island settlement camps.

Australia told refugee center is inhumane

photo/teofi lo

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 1915, Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae wrote the World War I poem “In Flanders Field,” so our answers this week will begin with “P” for the poppies you’ll see on lapels this Memorial Day.

1. A short-nosed, long-haired breed of dog originally from China’s capital.

2. A short-nosed, long-haired breed of cat originally from Iran.

3. Easily opened nut, related to the cashew and known for its green color.

4. High-calorie, high-protein food made by American Indians from meat, fat and berries.

5. Warsaw is the capital of this European country.

6. The organ that produces insulin to control blood sugar.

7. Located between Breckinridge and Colorado Springs, the seat of this Colorado county is Fairplay.

8. The science that studies fossils and other evidence of prehistoric life.

9. Colorful singer and songwriter whose real name is Alecia Beth Moore.

10. Term for the long, skinny part on maps of Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Florida.

(answers on Page Four)

Above, the Manus Island Detention Centre, as it appeared in 2001 before the fi rst boat people arrived there. At right, Manus Island is the largest of several islands off the north coast of Papua New Guinea. (Photo/DIAC images)

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“I Survived the Joplin Tornado, 2011” is a fi ctional book by Lauren Tarshis and published by Scholastic, about the time that Joplin, Missouri, was hit by one of the most destructive forces on Earth, a

tornado. The tornado itself was three-quarters of a mile wide

and with winds that had a top speed of over 200 miles an hour.

Dexter James is the main character. Dex was 11 years old when it hit, and he was trapped inside a van.

Dex has a brother named Jeremy and a dog named Zeke.

The way that he meets Doctor Gage, a tornado chaser who has his own TV show, is that he was biking and not paying attention and almost got hit by his car.

A storm chaser is a person who chases tornadoes and other strong storms to capture information for the safety of people now and for greater insights to provide safety in the future.

Joplin is located in Missouri, only seven miles away from the border of Kansas. They get tornado warnings often.

Doctor Gage invites him to chase the storm that day because he doesn’t expect it to be a tornado.

However, it is a tornado, and the tornado shifts to Joplin where they are.

Things don’t go as expected as there are injuries, surprises, and mysteries.

The story is based on a real tornado, though the characters are made up.I thought the book was OK.

I think it is good that they focused on just one person’s story. It gave them more room to be descriptive in the writing about that one story instead of having a lot

of stories with just a few details. The book was short. It was only 89 pages, so it was

quick to read.At the end of the book there is a Question and Answer

section about tornadoes, a section on why the author wrote this book, and advice on extra reading if you want to know more about tornadoes.

There are only a few pictures in the book, and it would have been better if they had more, since this book is designed for younger readers, specifi cally for 2nd-4th graders.

This is the 12th in a series of 13 books, with each book describing a major event in history.

You can go to www.scholastic.com/isurvived to see more details about this and the other books in the series.

According to the website, the author is working on book #14 right now and just released a picture of the front cover. Check it out for yourself!

Book takes a short look at a major disaster

By Ben Vanourek,10, a CK Reporter from Littleton

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. Pekinese 2. Persian 3. pistachio 4. pemmican 5. Poland 6. pancreas 7. Park 8. paleontology 9. Pink 10. panhandle

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 storiesBrazil’s Reef

Taking Notes by Hand

Sustainable Cities

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

Chapter Seven: The Nature Fakers

We don’t know everything that Theodore Roosevelt and John Burroughs

discussed on their trip to Yellowstone. After all, they were on the train together for several days and then in the park for two whole weeks.

But one thing they talked about was “nature fakers.”

A month before their trip, Burroughs had had an article published in the Atlantic Monthly, a popular and important magazine, about writers who claimed to write about nature but made up foolish things about animals that simply weren’t true.

Burroughs had always admitted that he was not a scientist, but, even without having studied botany or zoology, he had learned a great deal about nature. In his writing, he tried to educate people as well as entertain them.

But now that books about nature were becoming popular, writers were doing more entertaining than educating, he said.

It was fine, Burroughs agreed, to sometimes write about animals as if they could think like people, instead of just acting on instinct. For instance, one popular writer had written about a porcupine, and how the porcupine walked through the forest without the fearful caution of other animals.

“He did not care who knew of his coming, he did not greatly care who came,” the man wrote.

The writer couldn’t possibly know what a porcupine was really thinking, or even if a porcupine thought at all, of course. But, Burroughs said, everyone understood that, and readers knew he was just describing how the porcupine walked and how it seemed to behave.

The important part was the porcupines really do walk through the forest that way, and so the story was based on facts.

Other writers, however, were just silly. He mentioned a story in which the author, who promised that all his stories were true, wrote that a fox was being chased by dogs and so went across a railway bridge just in time to get to the other side safely before the train came and killed the dogs, who were still out on the bridge.

Burroughs wrote that, even if the fox were really that clever, he would still have needed a timetable to let him know exactly when the train was coming, and a pocket watch as well. The story was ridiculous.

When the article appeared in the magazine, the writers whom Burroughs had criticized were furious.

But his friend, Theodore Roosevelt, was delighted and wrote him a letter congratulating him on it.

That was the same letter in which Roosevelt invited John Burroughs to go to Yellowstone with him.

And they talked about it there at least once. When Burroughs and Roosevelt visited the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, the spring snow was still deep and they had to ski to get to a good view of the canyon.

There, they saw a place where an arch of snow and ice had been formed over the river by the wind and water. One of the guides said that coyotes had been seen using it to get across.

Roosevelt turned to Burroughs and joked that maybe one of the “nature fakers” had watched the clever coyotes build that bridge.

But Roosevelt didn’t joke about it when he published his next book, “Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter.” In the book’s introduction, he thanked and praised Burroughs for writing the article, saying “it is unpardonable for any observer of nature to write fiction and then publish it as truth, and he who exposes and wars against such action is entitled to respect and support.”

Like Burroughs, Roosevelt was serious about education, and about teaching people, particularly young people, to understand and appreciate nature. After all, that was why he used to give Burroughs’ books to poor children as gifts, hoping they would someday travel from the slums to see nature themselves.

But, if nature writers lied to them, they might not bother, he said in an interview. Once they found out the stories were not true, they would lose interest in nature.

And it wasn’t right, he said. It was no more fair to teach children that ducklings had to be taught how to swim by their mothers than it would be to teach them that North was South. Most of all, it bothered him that some schools were using the nature fakers’ books in their classrooms.

“As for the matter of giving these books to the children for the purpose of teaching them the facts of natural history -- why it’s an outrage,” he told a reporter.

Both men agreed: It was fine to make up stories about animals, as long as everyone knew they were just made up. Those stories were fun.

For instance, Roosevelt wrote, Rudyard Kipling’s “Jungle Books” were not supposed to be true stories of how wolves and bears and panthers behave. The stories about Mowgli were made-up fun, and we could enjoy them as made-up fun. And nobody ever read “Aesop’s Fables” and thought they were supposed to be about real animals.

Those fun, fictional stories might even make children curious about real animals.But lying is wrong, and truth matters: If people were going to learn to love nature, and

grow to respect it and to want to protect it, it was important for them to learn how it really worked.

The nature fakers who made up those foolish stories, Roosevelt and Burroughs agreed, were undoing all the work of people who truly loved nature and tried to teach people about it.

by Mike Peterson, c. 2014 - illustrated by Christopher Baldwin, c. 2014

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

The Trip That Saved Nature

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