The Denver Post • 1

CK Reporter of the WeekKylene Santoro, Morrison

This year more than 114,000 people went to the Denver Comic Convention, a three-day family friendly event that displays the best of pop

culture, whether it is “Superman” the comic series or the TV show “Firefl y.”

Maxwell Jaynes who came to the Comic Con for the fi rst time this year, said, “Being able to go and be a part of a community, talking and relating about costumes and stuff is really great!”

The event started in 2012 and has only grown since. There are so many aspects at this event that anyone can enjoy being there.

One cool thing about Comic Con is the elaborate costumes people wear, also known as cosplay. People come in full costumes and show them off at Comic Con.

Some great examples of this are clone troopers from Star Wars or a full metal Dalek from Dr. Who.

If you aren’t too interested in cosplay, you can also buy a lot of incredible merchandise there.

There is the Tower of Shirts, which is exactly what it sounds like. You can buy clothing with references to your favorite comics, movies, or shows.

Other merchandise includes the sword shop. You can buy real metal swords from video games or TV shows like the Master Sword from “Legend of Zelda” or

an energy sword from “Halo.”Artwork is another huge part of Comic Con; this

includes artist and comic strip writers. One example, “Finnegan’s Field,” a new comic strip

by Drew Litton, who featured his work at a Comic Con booth.

Litton is a local artist who draws sport comic strips for ESPN and was well-known for his cartoons in the Rocky Mountain News. His new strip is about a boy and his dog.

“My readers have always meant the world to me. I’m so glad they continue to follow my cartoons in print, online and on social media,” he said.

Dustin Resch is another local artist showing off his skills at Comic Con, drawing diff erent characters from throughout pop culture.

Some artists who are a part of the Pop Culture Classroom, which is based in Denver, taught kids how to make comics.

One dad comes every year to Comic Con with his son. He says sometimes it’s hard to fi nd something they are both interested in, but they together love learning fun things from Pop Culture Classroom.

A big part of Comic Con is Celebrity Summit, where many famous names come and sign autographs and get their pictures taken.

A few celebrity sightings included Stan Lee, the creator of Marvel Comics, Karl Urban who is Bones from Star Trek, and John Rhys-Davies, Gimli from Lord of the Rings.

Other celebrities are authors showing off their new books. One of these authors was Matthew Wolf, the writer of the Ronin Saga; he was selling the fi rst two books of his series.

I’m halfway through the fi rst one and give it two thumbs up.

The 2016 Comic Convention was a blast and a mixture of wonderful pop culture.

I encourage all to go to it next year, to meet the friendly authors and celebrities, buy cool toys and clothes, and see beautiful artwork and cosplay.

June 28 , 2016

A young girl living in a very diffi cult timeFrankie, the protagonist of “A Tiny Piece of Sky,” by Shawn K.

Stout, is the youngest of three sisters, which she fi nds to be awful.

First off , she cannot go to Aunt Dottie’s house for the summer like Joan, the second oldest.

Or be called “Princess” and viewed as perfect like heroldest sister.

Plus, she is stuck working in the kitchen of her father’s new restaurant instead of seating guests, or driving tractors.

So, while trying to prove she is capable of more to her parents, she discovers more about the war that is startingin Europe.

People are accusing her father of working for the Nazis, because his parents were German.

Frankie becomes curious when her father comes home late at night and is seemingly keeping secrets.

To add on top of everything else, kids are picking on Frankie because of her German heritage.

“A Tiny Piece of Sky” seamlessly blends historic fi ction with mystery. This book defi nitely has something for everyone.

Even though the book is set in 1939, there are still many aspects that are very relevant today.

For example, racism is a prevalent theme throughout the book.

I would highly recommend this book to fans of all genres. However, I would say this book is probably best suited for kids 11 and older, due to some of the political aspects of the novel, as well as the racism and war topics that may require background knowledge.

At 318 pages long, “A Tiny Piece of Sky” is a book that should defi nitely be on your summer reading list.

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.

Thousands � ock to Comic Con

By Lauren Walters,13, a CK Reporter from Denver

By Thomas Krumholz,14, a CK Reporter from Denver

Cosplay is a fun part of any Comic Con, and can range from simple superhero costumes to elaborate pieces like this Dalek from Dr. Who Photo by Thomas Krumholz

Future cartoonists can get their start with a session in the Pop Culture Classroom’s Kids’ Lab Photo by Thomas Krumholz

The Denver Post • 2

“We is in Dream Country.

This is where all dreams is beginning.”

My own dreams finally came true: Roald Dahl’s book “The BFG” has been transformed into a magical movie that many will fall in love with.

Imagine a world beyond the one that we know of today: a world of giants and dreams.

The Big Friendly Giant (Mark Rylance) calls this home, but even living at home can be tough.

The BFG is the “runt” of the giants, the nonhuman eater, a disgrace to the “flesh-gobbling” giants. He gets pushed around by all of the larger, meaner giants.

The movie, “The BFG,” brings up the topic of bullying and shows that it should be stopped.

One day, Sophie (Amanda Root), an orphan girl sees the BFG. He snatches the girl from her bed and takes her to Giant Country.

As they get to know one another, they learn that they are equals: two lonely souls.

Sophie shows the BFG how to stand up for himself and not let the giants push him around.

Together, they work to teach the other giants a lesson, with the help of the queen, of course.

“The BFG” is a spectacular movie that I could watch on repeat for days. It is hilarious and heartwarming, and great for an audience of any age. It was truly beautiful and made your heart beat along with the characters’. I had a smile plastered to my face most of the movie; the rest of the time, I was

holding my breath in anticipation.

This movie made me laugh out loud more times than I could count!

I especially loved when the BFG treated the Queen of England with Frobscottle, a carbonated drink that the BFG makes, in which the bubbles go down instead of up, creating “music” when it comes out the wrong end of your body.

The BFG had a language of his own, using words like “scrumdidilyumcious” and saying “beans” instead of “beings.”

I also liked that this movie followed the book very closely and that the characters in the movie were

almost exactly like the ones in the book.Your favorite book is now in theatres! Don’t miss

“The BFG!”

“Now You See Me 2” is a sequel to “Now You See Me.” However, you do not need to see the first

movie to understand and enjoy this sequel.

“Now You See Me 2” has a lot of adventure, comedy, mystery and, of course, magic.

This movie, at times, really gets you to sit on the edge of your seat. At other times it will make you laugh so hard you can barely breathe.

The story is about a group of magicians called the

Four Horsemen: Merritt (Woody Harrelson), Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Jack (Dave Franco), and Lula (Lizzy

Caplan). They are brought

together to go on ,assignments where they use their skills to protect the public.

Some say they are criminals, some say they are heroes.

Specifically, they are on a mission to expose a tech

company that is up to no good. Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe, who played the

title character in the “Harry Potter” movies) is the main criminal.

There is a lot of adventure in the movie as some of the best made plans don’t always go as planned, landing the Four Horsemen in unforeseen and dangerous situations.

Will they fail or succeed? Do they huddle together and work as a team or tear apart and go their own ways? Do they all survive?

You’ll have to watch the movie to find out.The actors do a really great job in this movie.

I think each one really fits the personality of the characters that they are portraying.

I especially enjoyed the hypnotist, Merritt, because he was funny.

I also enjoyed the street magician, Jack. He had good skills, was funny, and had a unique personality.

In my opinion, this sequel was better than the first movie. It had a more creative plot and more action.

It is rated PG-13, however, I think that it was fine for kids 10 and over. There wasn’t really any sex in it, and there was minimal swearing.

There was a lot of fighting and action scenes, though.

The end of the movie definitely hints that there could be another sequel. That would be a good idea for this fan!

BFG film faithful to Roald Dahl’s novel

Sticky question: How do chameleons catch their prey?The best part of science is being

able to explore things that seem cool and interesting, and what could be cooler or more interesting than chameleons?

Start with their ability to change colors to fit in with the back-ground.

This lets them hide in plain sight, which is not only good self-protection from predators but also makes it harder for their insect prey to see them.

Then there are those crazy eyes that stick out from their heads and operate independently, so that the chameleon can look in two directions at once.

But it was the chameleon’s quick-firing tongue that raised the curiosity of physicist Pascal Damman of the University of Mons in Belgium.

The tongue shoots out twice the length of the chameleon’s body and can snag prey up to a

third the chameleon’s size.(We’ll pause while you do the

math to see what that would be like for your measurements.)

What he and his team found was that mucus on the end of that tongue is 400 times stickier than human saliva.

Not only that, but it is stickier when the prey is moving fast.

This is not only cool to find out, but may lead to developing new types of glue. photo/ Norbert Sdunzik

By Tyler Vanourek ,13, a CK Reporter from Littleton

By Natalia Goncharova,13, a CK Reporter from Fort Morgan

NYSM sequel recaptures original’s magic

Roald Dahl’s book “The BFG” has been transformed into a magical movie that many

will fall in love with.

In my opinion this sequel was better than the first movie. It had a more creative plot

and more action.

The Denver Post • 3

Mars has two moons, Venus hasn’t got any moons, and Earth? Earth has one moon,

plus maybe another. Maybe more.2016 HO3 is the one that’s in the news right

now, and is being called “Earth’s second moon.”What it actually is, is a small asteroid that is just

trying to orbit the Sun but has somehow become tangled in Earth’s gravitational fi eld.

So, as it goes around the Sun, it keeps getting dragged back towards Earth.

This means that it also goes around the Earth, but not in a very neat orbit and certainly not close enough to be seen with the naked eye.

For one thing, 2016 HO3 is only between 130

and 330 feet across, which would be pretty hard to see even if it were as close as the Moon.

But it’s about 100 times farther away than the (real) Moon, and is more of a piece of natural space junk than an actual satellite of the Earth.

It’s also more of a guest than a member of the family: 2016 HO3 has been hanging around for a couple of hundred years and will probably hang around for a few centuries more, but, at some point, it will drift off and we won’t see it again.

There are several such bits of rock following us around from time to time, but it’s really not fair, nor is it good science, to compare them to our faithful old Moon.

Don’t bother looking in the sky for our “second moon”

photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech

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 day in 1846, Belgian inventor and musician Adolphe Sax patented his invention, the saxophone, so our answers this week will begin with “S.”

1. Author of the YA novel “Holes”

2. The largest North American grouse, they are native to Colorado and Wyoming

3. The name of this mountain range, which begins in Southern Colorado, translates to “Blood of Christ.”

4. Longmont native who stars in “Gravity Falls” and voices Louise on “Bob’s Burgers”

5. Biblical strongman who lost his strength when his hair was cut.

6. Type of epic told in prose, often about the adventures and travels of Vikings

7. Amphibian that looks like a lizard, but has a smooth, damp-feeling body

8. Nickname of ESPN football analyst, former local radio personality and All-Pro lineman for the Denver Broncos, Mark Schlereth

9. His children’s books include “The Giving Tree,” his volumes of poetry include “Where the Sidewalk Ends”

10. Nation in the Alps known for clockmaking, chocolate and its banking industry.(answers on Page Four)

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Sri Lanka is an ancient nation that has been invaded many times over its thousands of years of history, most recently by Great

Britain.Though that occupation lasted about 130

years, a short time in Sri Lanka’s long life, it brought about a very important agricultural product: Tea.

It’s hard to think about the British without tea, and Sri Lanka, or “Ceylon” as it was known in its colonial days, was where the fi nest tea was grown.

Although Sri Lanka became independent again in 1948, growing and processing tea remains one of its most important economic factors.

Rubber production was also started under the British and, while Malaysia is better known for it, rubber is also an important Sri Lankan export.

In fact, “Ceylon” was one of the fi rst places out-side of South America to produce rubber, from seeds smuggled out of Brazil by the British.

However, much of the tea and rubber produc-tion in Sri Lanka takes place on large planta-tions, and small farmers who grow tea plants and rubber trees fi nd it hard to compete with huge plantations.

In order to help those small farmers, and to improve Sri Lanka’s agriculture industry, the In-ternational Fund for Agricultural Development, a United Nations agency, is providing a $65 mil-lion grant to assist Sri Lankan farmers.

The Smallholder Tea and Rubber Revitalization Programme (STARR) will help small tea growers improve their farms and their practices in order to produce more tea.

STARR will also help struggling farmers who want to switch from growing food crops and start producing rubber on their land.

IFAD exists to assist farmers in the develop-ing world, and the STARR program will help Sri Lanka’s small farmers become a successful part of the economy of a nation that already has one of the highest incomes in Southeast Asia.

Above, two women work on a tea plantation in Sri Lanka, a nation whose tea and rubber industries were an important part of its history as a British colony and remain vital to its economy Photo/Anjadora

The recent Denver Mini Maker Faire was a festival at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science where you could

go to diff erent artists booths and make souvenirs to take home.

Elise VanDyne, who calls herself the Maker Faire-y, guided me through the fair. She explained how all of the contraptions worked and why they would be important in industry.

She was very helpful: On top of other things, takes her job seriously, and made a point of talking with everyone.

This year was the third annual event. The theme was “Building the Future,” and there were over 100 diff erent booths, with most focusing on something “STEAM-related,” or Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Making.

A pin maker, for instance, lets you put in a piece of very thin plastic, a metal pin and a small sheet of paper that has a design that you want on a pin you can wear.

You press, twist and take the pin out, insert a needle, and you have your own custom pin.

“Robauto” is a robot company for kids that makes inexpensive, working robots, which you can add personalities to later. They send you a robot, you add batteries, then you steer it with either your phone or a remote control.

I checked out CodeSpire, a coding program that teaches you how to code and make your own games. They have summer camps, and it was very interesting.

I also got to use a copper compressing machine. You insert a small square of copper and push down on the lever, it then compresses your copper and spins it around. It then has a dent in it. You got to pick what you want the dent to look like.

Another station was the Geek Derby. Here you got to put together a miniature model car made with pieces that were 3D printed!

There was an airpen that is like a glue gun but makes hard, plastic structures.

Whatever you draw is basically drawn in plastic.

One of the booths was called “Sparkfun!” They had hover pong. It’s an electronic ping

pong game, with your hand serving asthe paddle.

The Edibot is a robot that follows whatever color you program it to, wherever it goes.

For example, pick yellow: There was a yellow plastic ball and if you move the ball, the Edibot would move to where the ball was.

The Clouds are clouds that make a fake version of the weather outside. For example, if it is sunny, they part and make rays of sun, if

it is raining, they look all cloudy and make mini lightning bolts and make thunder sounds.

It tells you the weather before you even go outside.The Pinball Machine Maker takes apart pinball machines and makes them into

diff erent games, like a horse derby game where you pick your horse number among 11 diff erent horses. The light goes over the 11 pieces. When you press the buzzer, the light stops on a horse.

If you hit the right moment, your horse gets a boost. If your timing is off , you give another horse a boost. First one to the fi nish line wins.

Smart fun-making marks Mini-Maker Faire

By Ben Vanourek,10, a CK Reporter from Littleton

Pinball machine parts you can see make for fascinating fun photo/Ben Vanourek

Tea, rubber farmers getting a better deal

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

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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. Louis Sachar 2. sage grouse 3. Sangre de Cristo 4. Kristen Schaal 5. Samson 6. saga 7. salamandar 8. Stink 9. Shel Silverstein

10. Switzerland

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 storiesChameleons

Our second moon

Tea and rubber farmers

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

Chapter Seven -- The British Are Coming!Our story so far: General Brown has given Caleb the task of drawing the various points at Sackets Harbor where the

British might try to land their troops, so that his officers will know the ground they must defend.

Caleb was learning as he worked.

He’d only drawn with a quill a few times, but it didn’t take long to figure out how to keep the ink from dripping and how hard to press so the line stayed the same width. But he ruined several sheets of paper before he realized that the best plan was to copy his sketches in pencil first, and then go over the linesin ink.

Best of all, there was a real piece of rubber on the desk where General Brown had him work, so he didn’t have to use bread to erase any mistakes he made in pencil.

He’d finished the landscapes weeks ago. Now General Brown wanted him to make copies of the map of Sackets Harbor for each of the commanders.

At first, it seemed boring, copying someone else’s artwork. But he found he enjoyed it, because it made him really look at how real mapmakers worked. He saw how they used an arrow to show which direction was north, how they marked areas that had forest, how they used a different type of line to show a path than they did to show a road.

He’d known all those things from reading maps before, but now copying them exactly forced him to concentrate better on just how they were put together.

And being distracted was good. Most of the soldiers and sailors had gone to the other end of the lake a month ago. They won a great victory, capturing the Canadian town of York, and the ship that brought that news also brought a lot of valuable military supplies they’d taken. But it also brought the body of General Pike, who had died in the battle, and the news that Private Clark, who had been so kind in helping him avoid a beating at home and in letting him follow the soldiers to Sackets Harbor, had also been killed.

Until then, the war was just something in the newspapers, something people talked about, but it wasn’t something that happened to people he knew. Now, with the army moving to attack the Canadians again, he worried about Corporal Daley and even grumpy old Sergeant Adams.

It also made him take the work he was doing for General Brown very seriously, and to think about what might happen if the British did come from Kingston to attack the harbor. Even Alex had stopped clowning around so much, since the solemn ceremony where General Pike’s body was buried on the slopes above the lake, and the big 28-gun frigate being built in the shipyard was re-named in his honor.

He finished another map and blew on it lightly to dry the ink before he moved it over to the table with the rest. It was getting towards supper time and Caleb was wondering if he should start a new map or wait until morning, when he heard a cannon shot. He went to the front hall and found several other people coming out of rooms to stand in the open front door.

The Lady of the Lake, a small, fast messenger boat, was rounding the point and approaching the harbor. She had fired a gun to draw attention to the flags flying from one of her yardarms. A lieutenant in the doorway put a small telescope to his eye.

“Enemy preparing to sail,” he said, decoding the flags.Colonel Backus had come from his office and was standing behind the small group. “Send

a messenger to Brown,” he said.“I’ll go, sir,” Caleb said, and the colonel looked at him for a moment.“Can you ride, boy?” he asked, and, when Caleb nodded, Backus turned to the lieutenant.

“Get him a horse,” he said. Then he turned back to Caleb. “Ride down to the harbor and find out when they expect

the British to arrive. Do you know where Brownville is?”Caleb pointed in the direction that the Brownville Road took out of the village. Backus

nodded. Caleb followed the lieutenant to the stables, watched while a horse was saddled, then

swung into the saddle and cantered down to the docks.“When will they be here?” he shouted to the Officer of the Deck on the Lady of the Lake as

she came dockside.“Not before tomorrow. They’re still loading and the wind is light,” he shouted back.Caleb turned the horse and spurred with his heels, cantering through the village and

onto the Brownville Road. They went on like that for three miles, and then he reined the horse in to a walk. It was 12 miles to the general’s house and he’d get there sooner if he didn’t tire out his mount completely.

The first person he met on the road in Brownville told him how to find the general’s farm and he galloped the last mile and a half, then ran up on the porch and banged on the door so loudly that the general himself came to see what the noise was about.

“Calm down, son,” he said, as Caleb blurted out the news. “We’ve got time.” He turned to the butler who had also come to answer the door. “John, we need to rally

the militia. You know who to alert.”John went out the door and General Brown turned to Caleb. “Let’s have some supper, MacCrimmons,” he said. “I hate to fight on an empty stomach!”

Text copyright 2012, Mike Peterson – Illustrations copyright 2012 Christopher Baldwin

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

Freehand

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