The Denver Post1

CK Reporter of the WeekAshley Gaccetta, Longmont

The bear behind the famous bear

Almost everyone knows of Winnie the Pooh, one of the most beloved bears of all time. However, almost no one knows that Winnie the Pooh was based on a true story—and a real bear.

Lindsay Mattick tells the story of the real Winnie, a bear that her

great-grandfather bought and formed an unbreakable bond with, in her new picture book “Finding Winnie.”

Her great-grandfather, Harry Colebourn, purchased the bear cub in Winnipeg, Manito-ba, 1914, on his way to World War I, and Win-nie soon became the most famous bear in the army.

However, Harry and Winnie’s story ended soon, with him heading off to the war and little Winnipeg going to the London Zoo.

That was where the story of Winnie and Christopher Robin began.

Mattick has been told this story her whole life, and feels like she’s always known it.

“It’s been an absolute gift to be able to go around the world and share this story.”

Even though “Finding Winnie” is a personal story, Mattick says that it would intrigue her just as much even if it weren’t.

Mattick has, not surprisingly, loved writing since she was a little kid. “Writing is about expressing yourself,”she said, “it’s a really wonder-ful way to explore your own brain and your own heart.”

So it’s not surprising that Mattick chose this story to write fi rst. “Since I was (young) I’ve been sharing this story, whether it’s a

school presentation or a cocktail party. It just kind of resonates.” The idea to turn her great-grandfather’s story into a book fi rst oc-

curred to her when she was twenty-fi ve, but it wasn’t until she was pregnant with her son Cole that the idea became a reality.

Even then, it took her another year and a half to write the book. The wait was worth it, though; “Finding Winnie” has been a huge success, winning the Caldecott with the illustrations of Sophie Blackall.

With such success on her fi rst book, Mattick is extremely excited about the possibilities it could open up.

However, this success also sets a tall order. But Mattick isn’t plan-ning on letting the pressure get to her.

She’s already working on a YA version of “Finding Winnie.” “I want my writing career to take me on adventures,” she says. With stories like “Finding Winnie,” it is sure to.

March 15, 2016

YouthJournalism Day

for 4th-8th grade students

Thursday, July 21, 2016 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM

Metropolitan State University, Denver

Student Cost for the Day: $60 (includes breakfast & lunch). Spend the day with professionals learning about story writing, interviews, writing tips and photography.

Register today! Go to ColoradoNIE.com for a registration form. Call 303-954-3974 with questions.

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

Photo/Cara Dulin

“House of Robots: Robots Go Wild,” by James Patterson and Chris Gra-benstein, the second book in the

series, is about a middle school boy named Sammy.

His mom is an engineer who works at Notre Dame as the head of the robotics department.

As a result, they have tons of robots at their house like a robotic butler, a robotic teenage girl, and a robotic flying drone, to name just a few.

(It must be kind of cool to live with so many robots!)

The plot centers around a new employee at Sammy’s mom’s work who has been trying to take his mom’s place and is up to no good.

Sammy’s sister is really sick, so his mom invents a robot to go to school for her.

The robot malfunctions, and Sammy is sus-picious because he knows his mom wouldn’t create a bad robot.

His mom is too busy taking care of the sister to worry about it herself, so Sammy decides to figure out what is going on.

As the story unfolds, there is a lot of action, suspense, and surprise.

Despite being 336 pages long, I found this story to be easy to follow, and it was a quick read because it is funny.

James Patterson is one of my favorite au-thors.

I’ve read several of his books including the ‘I Funny’ series.

The author’s writing style is similar in this book as to the “I Funny” books, and so, if you’ve liked his other books, then you will probably like this book, as well as the first in the series, “House of Robots.”

Second in series keeps the fun coming

By Tyler Vanourek,13, a CK Reporter from Littleton

The Denver Post

“The Penderwicks in Spring,” by Jeanne Birdsall, is the fourth in the popular series,

which I highly recommend to young readers on the hunt for a good book.

They are also great books for parents and kids to read together.

“The Penderwicks in Spring” follows the family of eight on their ventures, particularly the youngest three: Lydia, Ben, and Batty.

However you still get insight on what the other siblings are up to.

Mr. Penderwick and his new wife, Iantha, are enjoying their new life to-gether and their kids are quickly be-coming great friends.

Lydia spends her time escaping her crib, Ben digging up rocks, and Batty working on her special secret project for the family.

The other two sisters are in high school except for the oldest, Rosalind, who is off at college.

With many previous characters mak-ing appearances throughout the novel,

this book fits in perfectly in the series.I really enjoyed this novel because

we get to see the girls grow up and this edition really helped emphasize how each has become an individual charac-ter.

It is fairly easy to read and is perfect for all ages. All the characters are very easy to relate to and there is bound to be one you will like.

I will say that it is important to read the other books before picking up this latest installment.

“The Penderwicks in Spring” is a very enjoyable book and I recommend it to kids of all ages.

It is a great gift, particularly for a younger sibling.

2

Jedi hero saves diabetic best friendIt might be hard to see the Labrador retriever in

the corner of this Facebook photo, but that’s be-cause Jedi spends each night in the dark, by the side of his little boy.

True to his name, Jedi is a hero, a service dog who has been trained to react when Luke Nuttall’s blood sugar falls below safe levels.

When you have Type 1 diabetes, it’s very import-ant to keep track of your blood sugar, and 7-year-old Luke’s diabetes is difficult enough to manage that he sleeps in his parents’ bed, hooked up to a monitor.

But it’s good to have a special friend as back up, and one night recently, Jedi jumped on and off the

bed, then lay down on Luke’s mom to wake her up.At first, she was a little annoyed, because the mon-

itor said everything was fine.But Jedi insisted, so she pricked Luke’s finger for

a blood test and discovered that the monitor was wrong, Jedi was right and Luke would have been in very serious trouble if not for his canine pal.

Diabetes service dogs apparently use their keen sense of smell to tell when their person is in trouble.

Most Type 1 diabetics don’t need that much help to manage their diabetes, but Luke does, and, when his monitor failed, he was lucky to have a specially trained Jedi as his best friend.

Children’s books are a booming business right now and are get-ting a lot of attention.

The national Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) is a program supporting and promoting authors and illustrators of children’s books through open critiques, classroom presentations, and writing conferences.

The organization is made up of both aspiring and accomplished authors, and will be celebrating their 40th anniversary in the next few months.

Recently, local members of the group attended the CCIRA conference in Denver to further pro-mote their cause and integrate themselves into more schools.

Mary Peace Finley, one of the original 6 members of the group, spoke in an interview about how the group has changed, as well as her findings as an author.

To all the young readers and writers out there, she says, “Find what draws you as a reader to become a better writer. It’s all communication and interaction.”

In the same conversation, Rondi Frieder and Denise Vega also

spoke of their experiences, Frieder saying, “Read! Reading is cool, not just for yourself, but for school and your life,” while Vega said, “The

number one thing I would tell kids is that reading is the most important thing.”

All three spoke passionately about encouraging young writers to challenge themselves, and of

emphasizing the sense of community that comes through writing.

They said writing not only extends kids’ learn-ing, but has helped adults with reading, too.

Besides helping and encouraging authors, SC-BWI’s goal is to get kids excited, and to integrate literature into all parts of kids lives.

Group boosts writing, reading of kids’ books

By Kaitlyn Pierce,14, a CK Reporter from Arvada

By Lauren Walters,13, a CK Reporter from Denver

The Penderwicks continue to entertain

Cynthia Lord, the down-to-earth author of “Rules,” “Touchblue,” “A Handful of Stars,” the “Shelter Pet Squad” series,

and the “Hot Rod Hamster” series, spoke at the Colorado Council International Reading Association (CCIRA) conference recently.

She said she wants to remind us that we all start out somewhere.

For example, the first piece she wrote when she was little was with her sister and it was called “Ding Dong the Cherries Sing.”

She gets her inspira-tion from real life. She has a son with autism, so her touching book, “Rules”

was based on her experience with her son.

She loves animals so, in her series “Hot Rod Hamster” and “Shelter Pet Squad,” she bases her writing on her dog, Guinea Pig, and her two bunnies.

To get a deeper sensory view as an author, Cynthia Lord tries to ex-perience what she is writing about.

When she wanted to experience pushing a wheelchair fast to give the sensation of run-ning to a boy in a wheelchair, she speeded a

suitcase around a parking lot!To her, she said, no medals

or awards compare to touching hearts. She shared letters from young children which showed how they connected with characters in her books and expressed how they meaningfully touched their lives.

She described one of the best parts of writing as getting to make up a whole new world.

Lord outlined her four steps to writing: Read, Write, Learn, and Dream.

By sharing one of her book pages that had been edited with writ-ing everywhere, con-structively criticizing her work, it showed that “revision is not about failure”.

It also expressed the message that even successful writers have room for improvement.

During an interview, she mentioned that young writers might get their writing pub-lished through contests, websites, magazines for young writers, or by starting a blog.

Cynthia Lord’s message is to “Dream Big!” and her goal is to spread those words of en-couragement to writers of all ages.

‘Dream Big!’ urges Cynthia Lord

Photo/Kira Zizzo

By Kira Zizzo,12, a CK Reporter from Highlands Ranch

The Denver Post3

The most important part of a healthy lunch is eating it.

That might sound obvious, but a recent study shows that as many as 20 percent of kids skip lunch at least once a week, includ-ing about 16 percent of kids between the ages of nine and 13.

Researchers on that study reported that kids who regularly skip lunch have shortages of several vitamins and minerals, and eat just as many “empty calories” in the form of fats and sugars as their friends who eat a good lunch every day.

That may be, another researcher said, be-cause they come home from school hungry and load up on snacks.

But a second research project showed proof that CK readers who asked for longer lunch periods in our most recent on-line question may have scientifi c backing for their request.

When kids have lunch periods with long lines and less than 25 minutes they select fewer fruits and vegetables, and then waste more of the food and milk that they do choose.

Those researchers recommend giving kids enough time to eat a good lunch.

Skipping or hurrying through lunch is bad for kids

Sub-Saharan Africa is the latest place on Earth to have received unsettling news

about climate change and the future.

The Sub-Sahara is all of Africa south of the Sahara Desert, and we already think of the areas just past the desert itself as places where farmers often deal with drought and famine.

But even places that seem lush and full of plant life have now been warned that climate change

is likely to alter just which plants do well there, and the warnings include several crops that are very important in local diets and local economies.

The International Center for Tropical Agriculture report warns that nine key crops, which provide up the half of local diets, will be effected by climate change in the coming decades, and some in even far less time.

In some cases, this would mean changing irrigation practices or switching from one crop to another.

But other changes would be more dramatic, and could mean that certain areas simply could no longer be used for agriculture.

Up to 60 percent of land now used for beans might no longer allow for that important crop, the report said, and as much of 30 percent of the land where banan-as and corn are grown may stop being good land for those crops.

Bananas are not only important as local food, but are sold to the

United Kingdom as a large part of Africa’s income from farming.

The report said that developing new strains of some plants might make them suitable for the new conditions, but cautioned that the process must start soon if they

expect those new types of plants to be ready in time.

In addition to that type of re-search, countries must educate farmers on new approaches, the report said.

Climate change threatens Sub-Saharan farmers

photo/USDA

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 44 BC, known to Romans as “The Ides of March,” Julius Caesar was assassinated, so our answers this week will begin with “I.”

1. China has the largest population in the world; this country is next.

2. More proper medical term for a “shot” from a hypodermic needle.

3. Term for someone who has never learned to read

4. Geometric shape with three sides, at least two of which are equal

5. Elephants are killed by poachers because their tusks are made of this.

6. A small town in Logan County and a theological seminary near Denver University are both named for this Colorado cattleman.

7. Long, two-part tube where food is digested after it leaves your stomach

8. Long-legged wading bird with a long, down-turned bill

9. Deep-blue, nearly purple color; it was a popular dye in colonial times

10. Adjective describing a statement or argument that has nothing to do with the subject under discussion.

(answers on Page Four)

Above, shoppers at a market in Kamapala, Uganda, look over green banan-as, which, along with beans, are a large part of the traditional cooking in Uganda. A report says both crops could be endangered in the future due to climate change. (Photo: Moongateclimber)

Dragonbreath books mix comedy, adventure

“Dragonbreath: The Frozen Menace” by Ursula Vernon is about a dragon who has lost

his fi re-breathing ability. He travels to the farthest north to try to

fi nd a baby phoenix egg shell in order to reignite his fl ame.

There are three main characters in the story: Danny Dragonbreath is a dragon who loves to go on adventures and is very brave.

Wendell is a friend of Danny’s, an igua-na who has hypochondria, a medical con-dition that makes him constantly worry about his health.

Christiana, also a friend of Danny’s, is a crested lizard who is a scientist and is always trying to fi gure out the logical explanation for the many, magical powers that Danny has.

I won’t tell you more about the story, but let’s just say that Danny’s adven-

tures with his two friends include going to mythical Japan, travelling through a magic portal that happens to be located in Danny’s great-grandfather’s fridge, avoiding being squashed by giant killer ice worms, and infuriating a phoenix with the long name of Sun-Blazing-on-the-Snows-Eternal.

I would defi nitely recommend this book, which has a nice mix of comedy and adventure. You’ll get sucked into the book because of that.

This is the 11th book in the “Dragon-breath” series; The fi rst book was pub-lished in 2012, and all of the books in the series are hybrids, part comic with part novel.

By Ben Vanourek,10, a CK Reporter from Littleton

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

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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. India 2. injection 3. illiterate 4. isoceles triangle 5. ivory 6. (John Wesley) Iliff 7. intestines (large and

small) 8. ibis 9. indigo 10. irrelevant

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Lunch

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Actaeon and Diana

There was, in the land of Thebes, a young man named Actaeon, who was handsome and athletic.

Actaeon did well at all sports, but loved nothing more than hunting the fleet deer across the hills and through the forests with his pack of well-trained, merciless hounds.

It was said that Actaeon had trained his hounds so well that they had only to see a deer, or catch its scent on the wind, and they would chase after and bring it down as surely as if they were a pack of wolves.

Perhaps that is why, when Actaeon and his friends went hunting for deer one hot summer day, they ended their hunt before noon.

“We’ve all the meat we need,” Actaeon declared. “Let’s relax, now, in these quiet woods and enjoy our lunch!”

With that, they loosened the strings of their bows and opened the packets that held food and wine, then lay on the soft, mossy ground under the trees, in the dap-pled sunshine of the forest.

When they had finished eating, Actaeon’s friends stretched out for a nap, lying on the ground like his hounds and dozing quietly.

Actaeon, too, tried to sleep, but found himself awake and becoming bored. He decided to take a walk, for this was a different part of the forest where he had never hunted before. He was curious to see what else was there.

He got up quietly and left the clearing, moving so softly that even his hounds did not follow, but simply raised their heads and watched him go, then lay back down to sleep some more.

But Actaeon and his friends were not the only hunters enjoying the forest on that warm summer day.

On the other side of the mountain was a company of immortals led by Diana, the goddess of the Moon and of the hunt.

Diana was tall, lovely and athletic, which is not surprising, since she is the twin sister of Apollo. And like her brother, she never missed when she aimed her arrows.

Diana, too, was finished hunting for the day. She and her servants, the naiads of the ponds and the dryads of the forest, went to a favorite pond where the water was cool and refreshing, and where their privacy was protected by thick bushes.

Diane unstrung her bow and laid it on the ground, then hung her quiver of arrows on a low-hanging branch. One of the dryads put the long hair of the goddess up carefully, to keep it out of the water as she bathed, and a naiad helped her out of her hunting dress as she slipped into the cool water of the pond.

Soon, the naiads and dryads had joined their mistress in swimming around the pool, washing away the perspiration of their morning hunt and enjoying the fresh water under the warm, noonday sun.

As Actaeon rambled through the forest, he suddenly heard the tinkle of laughter and paused, listening. Soon after, he also began to hear the voices of young women.

Actaeon the casual hiker suddenly became Actaeon the skilled hunter as he changed his pace to a silent, stealthy creep, edging his way over a ridge towards the sounds.

He kept low as he came over the top of the ridge until he was sure he would not be seen against the sky, then moved quietly down towards the bushes from which the laughter and talking came. And now, Actaeon could also hear splashing, and he moved even more silently.

Actaeon crept through the bushes to the edge of the water, but, as he parted the last few branches to see, one of the dryads saw the motion and screamed.

Immediately, the dryads and naiads gathered around their mistress to shel-ter her from the spy, but she was so much taller that Actaeon could see her face flush red, first with embarrassment, and then with anger.

Diana glanced to her bow and arrows, but they were out of reach at the other side of the pond. Instead, she scooped a handful of water and flung it over Actaeon.

“There, mighty hunter!” she said, her eyes flashing with fury. “Go back to your friends and brag to them of what you have seen -- if you can!”

Startled, Actaeon turned and ran, swiftly bounding over the rocks and fall-en trees in his path, and, as he ran, he was surprised at how fast he moved, and how easily, until, as he leapt over a small pond, he saw his reflection in the water. His arms and legs had grown slim, his hands and feet were now black hooves. His neck had grown long, his ears large and from his head there had sprung antlers.

As he approached the clearing where he had left his friends, Actaeon tried to call out to them, but found that his voice was now silent.

He burst into the clearing, but his friends saw only a large deer, and did not know it was their friend.

Actaeon’s hounds also saw nothing but a deer, a deer who looked back at them with sudden horror as he saw them eagerly leap to their feet and prepare to do exactly what their master had so carefully taught them to do.

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

Next Week: Roosevelt, Burroughs and The Trip That Saved Nature

Tales of the Ancient World