The Denver Post • 1

The Newest of the Colorado KidsNate Wright, Page Two

The fun-loving and adorable Disney depiction of Tarzan is not the comparison you should have in mind as you go to see the “Legend of Tarzan.”

“The Legend of Tarzan” is the story of John Clayton III’s return to the jungles of Congo, where he was raised as Tarzan.

John Clayton III (Alexander Skarsgård) was comfortable and happy living in his wonderful home in London.

He is soon sent for by Captain Léon Rom (Christoph Waltz) to become a trade emissary for the House of Commons in Congo.

Little does Tarzan know that Leon Rom is trying to catch Tarzan in order to deliver him to Chief Mbonga (Djimon Hounsou) who has a deep grudge against Tarzan.

In exchange for Tarzan’s capture, Rom will receive an award from Chief Mbonga.“The Legend of Tarzan” is a wonderful story that contains mature topics. Tarzan essentially is persuaded to go to Congo by a historical fi gure named

George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson). George tells him that in Congo, the English monarchy was enslaving natives from

Congo to use to help build railroads. Hence, Tarzan decides to go there and see for himself.

This movie brings awareness to many mature topics such as slavery, animal cruelty, deforestation and greed and attempts to portray these horrors through a story.

The entire movie was one hour and 43 minutes long and yet I never knew where that time fl ew.

“The Legend of Tarzan” is very action-packed with such a great storyline that you will jump in surprise throughout the movie.

This movie is so heart-touching and so important for viewers to watch due to the historical elements in its plot.

I recommend this movie to anyone who likes surprises at every turn and a fl uid storyline that requires thinking.

The story also deals with some politics which really does add to the relevance and atmosphere of this movie.

However, due to these mature topics and many adult scenes I recommend this movie for children 13 and up.

Again, as a heads-up, please do not take your younger siblings children to this movie assuming that it will be like the animated Disney Tarzan movie.

These two stories are very diff erent, but I give this movie 9 out of 10 stars for its historical relevance and its wonderful storyline.

Make sure you catch “The Legend of Tarzan” as it swings past your favorite theater!

July 5, 2016

Miller hosts fi rst in series of football camps

“At a young age, talent hasn’t really developed yet, but technique is always really important,” Von Miller said while discussing the main focus of his recent camp for kids.

Super bowl 50 MVP Miller held a pro camp for kids from grades 1-8 last month.

He had never hosted one of these before but decided that this was the perfect time to help out some kids, and give “back to the community.” ‘

In these camps, he focused on teaching kids the correct techniques, attitude, and motivation.

If you perfect the technique, he explained, the skills will come along later. Since technique is so important, they did not spend time on strength and conditioning.

The Broncos fans are so much into football so that this camp sold out quickly, even though admission was $249 per person.

Miller planned to spend time with each age group, so every kid would get the chance to meet him, and to get advice from one of the best football players in the NFL, whether they were excellent at football or are just starting the sport.

There are other camps hosted by Broncos coming up: Demaryius Thomas will be hosting a camp July 6 and 7, while

Emmanuel Sanders will host a camp on July 11 and 12. For more information about these camps, visit procamps.com

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.

Tarzan mixes action, mature themes

By Mihil Mahale,14, a CK Reporter from Highlands Ranch

By Sneha Muthe,13, a CK Reporter from Highlands Ranch

Denver Bronco Von Miller works on sprint technique with young athletes at his Pro Camp in June.(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

The Denver Post • 2

The Denver Greek Festival has been going on for 51 years, since 1965. It is a cultural festival that includes Greek

food, small gifts, and entertainment, such as traditional Greek dancing and music.

The Greek Festival is held at the Assumption Greek Orthodox Cathedral (with the large gold dome) and lasts for three days.

The Greek food was delicious! All of the signs for the food were in

English and in Greek. They also had pictures of the food.

I tried pastitsio (oven baked layers of pasta and ground beef, spices, and a creamy sauce on top), keftedes (beef meatballs with pasta sauce and herbs), tyropites (buttery sheets of filo pastry dough filled with greek cheeses), gyros (shaved meat in a pita with cucumber sauce), and some fried dough balls.

My favorite was the dough ball because it was sweet like a dessert. Throughout the event, people often shouted “OPA!” I think this means cheers

because they always were happy and celebrating when they said it.I also walked around and looked at the many small merchandise stores. One

even sold Turkish delight. There were also good luck camels, silver jewelry, and soaps made of olive oil.They featured carnival games, like a hammer game and a bouncy house slide for

younger kids.They had a raffle for two free round-trip

tickets to Greece. I have no idea who won them, as I was not there during the drawing.

Some other activities for the weekend included cooking lessons, a tour of the cathedral, Greek language lessons, choir concerts, dancing demonstrations by both youth and adult dance groups, and more.

We listened to some music and watched people dance. They were dressed like their Greek ancestors.

The songs are lively songs that make you want to get up and dance, but they were up on stage performing, so it wasn’t like you could just jump up and join in.

I enjoyed this festival a lot and would encourage you to go next June.

OPA!!!

Greek Festival features food, music, fun

Scales, hair and feathers come from the same gene

The latest breakthrough in genetic research began with a naked dragon.

Not the fire-breathing kind in fantasy stories, but a bearded dragon that Swiss biologist Michel C. Milinkovitch saw while he was visiting a reptile breeder.

Instead of being covered with scales, the lizard just had plain, wrinkled skin, and Milinkovitch, who studies the way animals de-velop, was curious to know why.

He brought the odd animal back to his lab, where he and an assistant studied it and were delighted to find that the gene it was missing was the same gene that produces hair in mammals and feathers in birds.

Biologists have long known that birds and mammals, before they are born, have tiny structures on their skin from which hair or feathers grow.

But they had never found those

structures on the embryos of reptiles.

Now, knowing that all three things came from the same gene, they went back for another, closer look at unborn bearded dragons.

Sure enough, the structure was harder to find, but it was there, proving that many millions of years ago, scales, feathers and hair had come from the same place.

Once again, curiosity had led to a discovery! photo/ Obolton

By Ben Vanourek,10, a CK Reporter from Littleton

If you like mysteries or are just in love with paranormal activi-ty, then “School of the Dead,” by Avi, is perfect for you!

With its fast-paced action, you won’t want to put it down.Tony just wants to stay away from his weird Great Uncle Char-

lie, but it isn’t so easy to do when he moves in with Tony and his family.

Suddenly, he seems like this totally cool dude. At least, that is what Tony thinks – until it’s not funny anymore and his friends start to leave him because of his uncle’s weird talk about ghosts and bringing back the dead.

Tony doesn’t mind though, until Uncle Charlie’s last words to Tony about him joining Charlie in his death.

A couple of months after Charlie’s death, Tony and his parents move to San Francisco for better jobs and a great school.

The weird thing is that, it is the same school that Uncle Charlie went to when he was in grade school.

When crazy things start to happen, Tony starts to think that it is all going on because of Charlie’s death.

Tony starts to see things, things that he really doesn’t want to

be seeing. Is it because of the school or because of his family member’s

death? Could it be because of both? If you are already a little excited and scared, you should really

read “School of the Dead.”If Tony can figure out what is going on, it might save his life. It might also save the lives of other people, too!Most readers between 9 to 13 will enjoy this book, but really,

anyone with an eye for clues is going to love it!

Mystery will draw you into Avi’s latest novel

By Ella McAnally,10, a CK Reporter from Aurora

photo/Ben Vanourek

The Denver Post • 3

NASA’s Dawn mission has just wrapped up its year-long mission orbiting and

mapping the dwarf planet Ceres, after a similar mission around the asteroid Vesta.

Now the question is, will Dawn continue on to orbit and explore a third asteroid?

NASA apparently hasn’t decided yet. For the moment, they’re celebrating

Dawn’s success as the fi rst space craft to orbit an asteroid, and happily pointing out that Dawn wrapped up its mission June 30, which was Asteroid Day.

But a third asteroid had been discussed back in 2007 when Dawn was launched.

However, as the craft shifted from Vega to Ceres, it had some technical problems that caused it to use more of its fuel than had been planned.

It began to look like getting to a third asteroid wasn’t going to happen.

But Dawn did so well in establishing and maintaining its orbit around Ceres that it reportedly made up for at least some ofthat fuel.

Dawn has already fl own 3.5 billion miles, sent back 69,000 images and 132 gigabytes of data, and, if that’s all the probe manages to do, it was quite a lot.

Does the end of the Ceres visit mean sunset for Dawn?

photo/NASA JPL

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 1814, General Jacob Brown defeated the British in the Battle of Chippawa, near Niagara Falls, Ontario, so our answers this week will begin with “F” for “Freehand,” our fi ctional serial in which he appears.

1. A boxer who weighs 126 pounds or less fi ghts in this weight class.

2. Author of the “Ranger’s Apprentice” series

3. Park County town famous for its annual burro race

4. A cone-shaped kitchen utensil used for neatly pouring liquids into bottles

5. Old-fashioned way of expressing a period of two weeks or fourteen days

6. Helsinki is the capital of this nation

7. Extremely fast DC superhero, subject of a CW television series

8. What golfers shout to warn others of a ball coming their way.

9. Small bird with a strong, conical bill made for cracking seeds, common in the wild and with other species kept as pets.

10. She kept a diary during the years her family hid from the Nazis during World War II

(answers on Page Four)

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A 19-year-old Dutch student is taking time off from school to work on a project that may cut the Great Plastic Garbage Patch

in half within 10 years.Boyan Slat has invented a system he hopes

will skim plastic waste from the ocean without endangering marine life.

The Ocean Cleanup device uses linked fl oats similar to the booms used to contain oil spills, but these pillow-like fl oats have a barrier hang-ing two meters beneath them.

The fl oats are in a V-shape so that, as fl oating plastic comes into contact with the barrier, it fl ows into collection bins at the point of the V.

The movement is slow enough that fi sh and other marine animals can easily avoid getting caught in the boom.

It’s not a perfect solution to the problem of the 8 million metric tons of plastic bottles, bags, fi shing nets and other garbage that are added to the oceans of the world each year.

Not all of the garbage fl oats close enough to the surface to be collected by the Ocean Clean-up system, but Slat says putting the booms to

work in the area between Hawaii and California could remove half of that huge collection of trash within a decade.

The boom system will also be able to be set up near the mouths of major rivers to capture plastic trash before it goes into the oceans.

First, however, the Ocean Cleanup has to prove that it can stand up to storms, waves and currents.

The Dutch government is supporting Slat’s invention by paying to string a 100-meter test boom in the North Sea off the Dutch coast.

If the system can take the rough, stormy North Sea, experimenters say, it will hold up well in the waters of the North Pacifi c.

Slat dropped out of school, formed a non-profi t group to work on the Ocean Cleanup project and raised money to cover costs using social media.

He hopes to have the system set up in the Pacifi c by 2020, and says recycling the collected plastic will more than pay for the clean up.

Perhaps then he will go back to college and fi nish his studies.

Dutch teen works to take plastic from ocean

Above, the pillow-like fl oats that suspend the barrier that, if tests in the North Sea are successful, will collect plastic waste from the Great Plastic Garbage Patch between Hawaii and the West Coast. ( Photo/Ocean Cleanup)

Summer isn’ t just a time for lying under a tree, according to CK readers who answered our latest

question. But they were divided on just how planned their vacation time was.

A third reported being heavily booked for the summer, while just under half said they had some plans but not a full schedule. Less than a fi fth had left things unplanned, while a few are still in school.

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

How’s your summer shaping up?

A. Lots of planned activities; I’ll be busy -- 33%B. Some activities and travel, but some leisure -- 45%C. Very few plans at all -- 16%D. School doesn’t end for me in summer -- 6%

Now here’s our next question:How do you feel about the Olympic Games this summer?A. I’ll be glued to the television from start to fi nish!B. I have a couple of favorite events I’ll keep an eye on.C. I’ll watch some of it, but it won’t disrupt my life.D. Not my thing

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

In “The Secrets of Solace,” by Jaleigh Johnson, Lina Winterbock is an apprentice to the archivists of Ortana, a group who dedicate

their lives to discovering and studying objects that fall from the sky.

Lina should be studying, but the shadow of the Iron War between the Merrow Kingdom and the Dragonfl y territories has changed everything.

The strongholds of the archivists are a refuge to the victims of the war.

Lina spends her days exploring the vast rooms, tunnels, and secrets of the stronghold.

In a chamber Lina fi nds her best fi nd yet, an airship buried beneath boulders.

She needs help to dig it out, but she doesn’t know anyone she can trust with the secret.

Then she meets Ozben, a boy with a secret that could change the outcome of the Iron War.

If you are a fan of the Harry Potter series you might enjoy this book, but, although it seems interesting, the plot takes a while to develop, and the moments that made the book good were far and few between.

The world of the novel is highly developed and the author could make a much improved sequel if she would add humor and other moments to make it less bland.

We asked you, you told us:

Summertime is an active timeFantasy that never takes fl ight

By Carson Butler,13, 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. featherweight 2. (John) Flanagan 3. Fairplay 4. Funnel 5. fortnight 6. Finland 7. (the) Flash 8. Fore! 9. fi nch 10. (Anne) Frank

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 storiesOcean Cleanup

Scales, feathers and hair

NASA’s Dawn Mission

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

Chapter Eight - The Battle Begins

Our story so far: With the American fleet at the other end of Lake Ontario, the British take the opportunity to

launch an attack on Sackets Harbor. Caleb has ridden to tell General Brown that the British have been sighted.

The sky was just bright enough to chase away the stars as they arrived in General Brown’s

buggy with Caleb’s horse tied behind. General Brown ordered signal guns

fired and sent messengers, and, by noon, several hundred militia had arrived from the local farms and towns, most with their own guns and some who needed to be issued muskets, powder and shot.

Having arrived with the general, it seemed natural for Caleb to follow him as he talked to his officers and made plans. It must have looked natural, as well, because people handed him coffee for the general, and General Brown casually sent him on errands.

The British fleet – six naval ships and several smaller gunboats, followed by a large number of the bateaux normally used for carrying cargo and passengers on the big river – came in sight near noon, but there was no wind and they couldn’t maneuver close enough to shore to land. The Americans kept an eye on them while they continued to preparefor battle.

There were 250 Albany Volunteers on Horse Island, and Brown placed his local militia on the mainland, facing the only spot men could march ashore, a four-foot wide bar of land that lay just under the water. A long row of gravel, piled up by years of winter lake ice, provided a place where they could lie down and fire their muskets, protected from enemy gunfire.

“They’ll land on the island,” Brown predicted to his officers, gesturing up towards the buildings near the harbor. “It’s far enough away that they can come ashore without our cannons blowing their boats to pieces. As it is, the Old Sow will have a word or twofor them.”

There were some chuckles over this; “Old Sow” was an enormous cannon in the log fortat the edge of the harbor, and she could fire 32-pound cannon balls farther than thesmaller guns.

General Brown looked out over the lake, where several bateaux were rowing away from the fleet, along with gunboats and the long canoes of the Mohawk that had just been unloaded from the ships. “It looks like they’re coming,” he said. “Colonel Backus, if you would have your regulars form up below the fort, I believe we’ll be ready to receive our guests.”

“Wait,” someone said. “They’re turning back!”As they watched the boats change course, Alex came running down from the fort. “It’s

Chauncey! The fleet is back!” he shouted. He pointed, but Horse Island blocked their view.“It must be Aspinwall, up from Oswego with volunteers,” Colonel Backus said quietly. “If

the British fly from his small boats, all the better, but they’re fools if they do.”The bateaux were heading back to the ships, but the canoes simply changed direction.

“The Mohawk are going after them,” Brown observed, and soon the gunboats and bateaux joined in the chase.

“If he makes for shore, he’ll have a chance,” Backus said, but hours later, they learned what had happened: Twelve of the 19 boats were captured and only a little under 200 men, plus Aspinwall, found their way through the woods that night, arriving under a cold drizzle.

Brown ordered the Albany Volunteers to come off the island and take the position behind the gravel bar and moved his militia back into the woods behind them in case any British or Mohawk forces were following Aspinwall’s men down the shoreline.

And so the evening ended.By morning, little had changed and there was still no wind on the lake. Caleb and Alex

had slept in the woods with the militia and were standing by General Brown as he watched the British boats row toward shore.

“There’s one good thing,” Brown said. “They’ve given up getting their ships closer, so we won’t have to worry about their cannons.”

He motioned the boys closer. “There’s no telling how this day may end,” he said. “But it must not end with the British capturing our military supplies and towing away the General Pike. With those supplies, and if they finish building that ship, they would knock us off the lake completely and all of Upper Canada and the Northwest would be theirs. If we fall, one of you must race to the shipyard and give the order to set it all ablaze!”

They nodded, and Caleb glanced at Alex. It was clear, although General Brown had not said it, that he meant whichever of them was still alive must give that order.

Meanwhile, the Albany Volunteers were checking their muskets as they heard the sounds of men coming through the forest on the island, and Brown ordered the militia to be ready.

He waited until the British came from the woods onto the narrow ford, then militia and Volunteers fired at once and the first wave of redcoats fell.

The Volunteers immediately began reloading, but the reaction of the militia was different: They stood and ran away through the woods. General Brown shouted at them to stop, but he might as well have called after stampeding cattle.

The Volunteers fired again and began to fall back, and Brown signaled for the regulars nearer the fort to move forward. The British were gaining the mainland, but the Americans would make them pay for their progress.

Caleb was moving back up the slope with the Volunteers when he heard the general curse and saw a plume of black smoke rising behind the log fort. He looked around.

The shipyard was aflame, and Alex was gone!

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

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

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