What’s wet and slimy

and a reallygood dad?

The Japanese giant salamander isn’t what you’d call “cuddly,” unless you’d like to cuddle a fi ve-foot-long, 80-pound amphibian that never leaves the water. Sound like a cutie? There’s a link to a short video of this unusual, enormous amphibian at ColoradoNIE.com.

As for being lovable, though we often think of “parenting” as done by birds and mammals, the Japanese giant salamander male takes an interest in his children, at least until they hatch and leave the underwater burrow.

Male fi sh like the stickleback are known to guard their eggs, too, but Japanese researchers found the salamanders did more than keep intruders away. They also fan the eggs with their tails to put more oxygen in the water, nudge the eggs to prevent clumping and eat dying eggs that could spread mold to the others. Photo/Carcharodon

2013

ColoradoKids CK ReporterHannah Pederson,DenverHoBBit series ends masterFullyBattle oF tHe Five armies

“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” the third and fi nal part of Peter Jackson’s adapta-tion of the Tolkein novel, is well worth the watch.

The sheer amount of attention paid to detail is astounding and really made the movie engaging and fun.

Some plot details seemed to be taken directly from the book, while others were not in the original text but I think make the movie version better overall.

Although the movie does devi-ate from the book quite a lot, the creators did a good job of tying the new parts in to the original story in a way that made sense.

The actors once more do a wonderful job of playing their characters convincingly and por-traying them accurately, as well.

Their talent, the intricate sets, and New Zealand’s beautiful scenery combine to create a place that seems to exude magic, mystique, and adventure, just

like Middle-Earth. Music played by a full orches-

tra and painstakingly choreo-graphed movements add grace and feeling to the movie’s battle scenes, as well as to its non-battle scenes.

The movie is not all action and has deeper morals, gener-ally shown by the characters’ internal struggles, which are portrayed in a clear, understand-able way.

As its name implies, there are many violent, bloody, and poten-tially disturbing scenes in this PG-13 movie.

Because of this, I would not

recommend it to children under 13 without serious caution.

That aside, fans of the series will fi nd this movie satisfying and entertaining.

The Hobbit-- with all its adven-ture, tragedy, friendship and cour-age-- is masterfully remade in “The Battle of the Five Armies.”

Fans of the book and movies alike will fi nd The Battle of Five Armies a remarkable and memo-rable end to the trilogy.

The people-- and animals-- who helped to bring The Hobbit into being have made real the hopes and dreams of thousands of Tolkein fans across the world.

The recent success of the European Space Agency in landing a probe on the surface of a comet ended with some disappointment when it tipped into an area where its solar collectors were shaded.

But the main craft, Rosetta, is still following close to the comet, analyzing the material it leaves behind as its “tail.”

One early fi nding is that we have to rethink the theory that water on Earth came from the icy ball of a comet slamming into our planet.

The H2O we’re used to is not the same as Rosetta has found on the comet.

Molecules of Earth water rarely have a type of hydrogen called deuterium in place of one of the two basic hydrogen atoms. On the comet, that type of water is far more common.

Scientists are now more in favor of the theory that Earth’s water came from a collision with an asteroid. Photo/ESA

rosetta says eartH’swater proBaBly

not From a Comet

By Emma Davis,13, a CK Reporter from Lafayette

water, nudge the eggs to prevent clumping and eat dying eggs that could spread mold to the others.

December 16, 2014

Hong Kong protest ends, for now

Political protest is rare in China, and became even more rare last week as Hong Kong authorities shut down an encamp-ment of protesters who had occupied part of the city for 75 days.

Hong Kong is often an exception to how things are in China, and protesters were camped out to de-mand the right for all citizens to vote in elec-tions for the province’s head of government.

This was the larg-est and most visible protest in China since 1989, when students in Beijing took over Tiananmen Square for a month and a half, de-manding more democracy.

Those protests ended in horror, as Chinese troops shot and killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of demonstrators in what has become known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

The tragic event is rarely spoken of in China, but the government may have had it in mind as they handled the demonstra-tions in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is an unusual situation and, even without this example, people there have more freedom than those in the rest of China.

The island, in the delta where the Pearl River

meets the South China Sea, was a British colo-ny from 1860 until 1997, when it was reunited with the rest of China.

The agreement that gave Hong Kong back included a promise from the Chinese government for a “one country, two systems” setup giving Hong Kong many of the same freedoms it had under British rule.

Residents of Hong Kong value this free-dom, which is limited compared to Western democracies but quite remarkable when it is

compared to the rest of China.The Chinese government

seems to have been patient with the protesters, but it did not allow them to win any greater participation in voting.

Still, the end of the protests came in a relatively calm way, with some protesters insisting on being arrested, but then being carried off to waiting

police vans without violence, in a show of civil disobedience.

The police then tore down the tents that remained in the area and began clearing up the clothing and other objects protesters left behind.

The demonstrations have ended peacefully, but with protesters promising that they will be back.

Today’s reviews of the Hobbit movie and of the novel “Conversion” caution that they are not suitable for younger readers.

Look through today’s paper for entertainment and make a list of a dozen possibilities, dividing them among those for the very young, those for older people and those for all age groups.

Beyond these four pages

Novel is fascinating, but definitely PG-13

“Conversion,” by Kath-erine Howe, is about a senior in high school named Colleen.

As everyone around her mysteriously falls ill, she has to balance decisions, schoolwork, and friendship.

Part of the novel takes place

during the Salem Witch Trials, and the other half in modern day Boston.

Throughout the book, the two settings connect and reveal a truly fascinating story.

However, if books had ratings like movies, without a doubt this would be PG-13.

After all, seniors in high school will act like adults and discuss things that are not appropriate for all ages, using language that is not suitable for younger audiences.

That being said, it was a really

great book. My only complaint is some

parts were a little boring. For example, the book would leave you hanging at the end of a chapter, and then switch set-tings and be on a totally new subject.

All in all, however, I really enjoyed “Conversion.”

I would give it a four out of five and would definitely recom-mend it to anyone 13 or older.

So for all of you teens, add “Conversion” to your “books to read” list.

By Lauren Walters,11, a CK Reporter from Denver

Colorado Kidsis produced by

Denver Post Educational ServicesExecutive Editor: Dana Plewka

dplewka@denverpost.comCK Editor: Mike Peterson

coloradokidseditor@gmail.comWe welcome your comments.

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

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Stories without bylines werewritten by the editor.

Breaking camp Hong Kong police take down a tent as they remove shelters from the area where protesters have camped

for the past two-and-a-half months. AP photo/Kin Cheung

Jerry and Maya are regular kids. They ride their bikes and play video games, but they also have a passion: Detecting.

Jerry and Maya, you see, run “The Whodunit Detective Agency.”

In “The Diamond Mystery,” the first book of this new series by Martin Widmark, Jerry and Maya en-counter the owner of a jewelry store, Moham-med Carat.

He says that some of his diamonds are missing.

Carat has three employees.

Vivian Liander, the store as-sistant, is having house difficul-ties and needs money.

Danny Braveheart is the grumpy old jewelry cleaner whose dad owned the jewelry store before Mohammed Carat.

And then there’s Luke Smith, who cuts the diamonds and sets them into rings and necklaces.

He bought a sports car last week, and is new at his job. He seems to have a lot of money.

Jerry and Maya, disguised as window washers, try to find the

culprit. The ending was sur-

prising, even though you kind of knew who it was.

I think this is a great starter for young detective story read-ers: It is violence free, straightforward, and the characters are fun to visualize.

Though the book is short and the print is large, the story is interesting, and could definitely help occupy a snowy afternoon.

Something feels electric in the world of Michael Vey! The fourth book in Richard Paul Evans’ series, “Michael Vey: Hunt For Jade Dragon” is out!

The beginning of this won-derful saga starts with just a normal, everyday kid named Michael, or so ev-eryone thinks.

After his father died, Michael and his mother moved to Meridian, Idaho where they had a normal life.

The kid was bul-lied, though, for his lack of stature.

In fact, he was picked on all the time.

One day he got sick of it, and that is where the real story begins.

It turn out that Michael is not just a normal high school student; he is electric!

Michael was experimented on when he was born by an evil group named the Elgen.

Because of their experi-ments, he has electric powers. Later he finds there are 17 oth-ers and they group together to

defeat the Elgen.This book was

mind-boggling! Betrayal, romance,

action, this book has it all.

I read this book in just two days because I couldn’t put it down, and I’d recommend it to all kids 9 and up.

All in all this is a terrific book and you should

definitely read it!

Teachers!It is time to register for the Colorado Literacy conference!

February 4 - 7, 2015Denver Marriott Tech Center

Choose from 375 sessions • 25 Invited Speakers15 Authors • Exhibits • Special Events

Go to www.CCIRA.org to register today!

Register for our session #386 and meet some CK Reporters

Visit us in the exhibit hall!

ck Kids and adults can find live links to information about stories in Colorado Kids at www.ColoradoNIE.com

SudokuRules: 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.

4 1

2 6

5 4

6 4 1

3

4 1

By Lucy Rosenbluth,10, a CK Reporter from Denver By Thomas Krumholz,

13, a CK Reporter from Denver

Diamond mystery shines Powerful series continues

Warren Miller was born in 1924 and made his first ski movie, “Deep and Light,” 65 years ago.

His most recent film, “No Turning Back,” features down-hill racing, speed skiing, heli-copter skiing, and big mountain skiing.

You might recognize the names of some of the athletes featured in the movie, such as Ted Ligety, Julia Mancuso, and Mikaela Shiffrin.

These athletes went to Greece to ski Mount Olympus, which is the ancient peak of Greek mythology; Northern Japan, where they get lots of snow; Chamonix, France which is a famous ski town; the Swiss Alps, where they did speed skiing with parachutes; Lofo-ten, Norway; small ski towns in Montana and Alaska, and fi-nally Beaver Creek in Colorado which will be the home of the

Skiing World Cup this year.This movie made me feel very

excited to ski!! You get to see all kinds of

skiing and snowboarding along with many amazing locations.

If you hear that “No Turning Back” is playing near you, I recommend you see it, espe-cially if you ski or snowboard or like to watch skiing and snowboarding.

I also recommend it if you want to see different mountains and ski towns.

It was cool that they showed clips from some of his past movies. You got to see how much skiing has evolved.

For example, people used to not wear helmets!

This year, Miller’s film was shown at the Paramount in Den-ver, and the event was fun be-cause you could win prizes such as ski tickets at intermission and you could enter into a grand drawing for a world ski tour.

A couple of the athletes in the movie even came out on stage and the audience cheered like crazy!

Screen grab from film’s trailer

Sammy Keyes swings into adventure-packed action with a new book. “Sammy Keyes and The Kiss Goodbye” by Wendelin Van Draanen.

Sammy Keyes is almost an ordinary girl.

She goes to school and has a lot of support-ive friends.

On the other hand, her grandma has been her caretaker since Sammy was a young child.

Sammy’s mom wanted to be an actress, and, when Sammy was born, having a baby set her back because she had to take care of Sammy.

So Sammy’s mom left her with her grandma, so she could pursue her dream of becoming an actress.

Wendelin does an incred-ible job with the details in this book and I almost felt like I was part of the story.

For instance: “Marissa might have pressed

them, but Casey turned onto

an apartment complex walk-way, and the pinky swear she’d witnessed completely van-ished from her mind.”

Sammy lives for danger, and helps put criminals in prison.

She has a friend named Officer Borsch, a good police officer who has trouble solving many mysteries.

Sammy steps in and solves the mysteries for him.

She helps put many people in jail for things they did wrong that no officer could catch, all from the balcony of her apartment.

All this could change, how-ever, when someone whom she had helped put in prison comes back for revenge.

If you live for drama, and mysteries you have got to read “Sammy Keyes

and the Kiss Goodbye.” I would recommend this

book for ages 10 and up, because there are a lot of words that I had trouble with and needed to have a parent explain to me.

Also, there were a lot of people who did some pretty horrible things, and that might not be appropriate for very young children.

Keyes to adventure in newest mystery

miller’s still on top

Youth-written stories that appear here also appear on

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Sudoku

Solution416523

253461

165234

634152

521346

342615

By Parker Secrest,11, a CK Reporter from Denver

By Ashley Gaccetta ,10, a CK Reporter from Longmont