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Nabi Hussain owes his life to a yellow plastic oil drum. The 13-year-old Rohingya boy couldn’t swim and had never even seen the sea before fleeing his village in Burma, a Southeast Asian nation also called Myanmar. But he clung to the empty drum and struggled across the water with it for about 21⁄2 miles, all the way to Bangladesh. The Rohingya, a mostly Muslim ethnic group in Burma, have been so desperate to escape the violence in their homeland that some are trying to swim to safety in neighboring Bangladesh. In just a week, more than three dozen boys and young men used cooking oil drums like life rafts to swim across the mouth of the Naf River and wash up ashore in Shah Porir Dwip, a fishing town and cattle trade spot. “I was so scared of dying,” said Nabi, a lanky boy in a striped polo shirt and checkered dhoti, a wrap that covers his legs. “I thought it was going to be my last day.”. Although Rohingya Muslims have lived in Burma for decades, the country’s Buddhist majority still sees them as invaders from Bangladesh. The government denies them basic rights, and the United Nations has called them the most persecuted minority in the world. Since August, after their homes were torched by Buddhist mobs and soldiers, more than 600,000 Rohingya have risked the trip to Bangladesh. “We had a lot of suffering, so we thought drowning in the water was a better option,” said Kamal Hussain, 18, who also swam to Bangladesh with an oil drum. Nabi knows almost no one in this new country, and his parents back in Burma don’t know that he is alive. He doesn’t smile and rarely maintains eye contact. Nabi grew up in the mountains of Burma, the fourth of nine children of a farmer. The trouble started two months ago, when Rohingya fighters attacked Burmese security forces. The Burmese military responded with a brutal crackdown. It has been accused of killing men, attacking women and burning homes and property. The security forces this week said they did nothing wrong. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is scheduled to visit Burma on Wednesday. Nabi’s family fled, heading toward the coast, passing dead bodies. But when they arrived at the coast with a flood of other Rohingya refugees, they had no money for a boat and a smuggler. Every day, there was less food. So after four days, Nabi told his parents he wanted to swim the delta to reach the thin line of land he could see in the distance — Shah Porir Dwip. His parents didn’t want him to go. One of his older brothers had left for Bangladesh two months ago, and they had no idea what had happened to him. They knew the strong currents could carry Nabi into the ocean. Eventually, though, they agreed, on the condition that he not go alone. So on November 3, Nabi joined 23 other young men, and his family came to see him off. “Please keep me in your prayers,” he told his mother, while everyone around him wept. Nabi and the others strapped the cooking oil drums to their chests as floats, and stepped into the water just as the current started to shift toward Bangladesh. The men stayed in groups of three, tied together with ropes. Nabi was in the middle, because he was young and didn’t know how to swim. Nabi remembers swallowing water, in part because of the waves and in part to quench his thirst. The water was salty. His legs ached. Just after sundown, the group reached Shah Porir Dwip, exhausted, hungry and dehydrated. Nabi is now alone, one of an estimated 40,000 unaccompanied Rohingya Muslim children living in Bangladesh. He looks down as he speaks, just a few feet from the water, and murmurs his biggest wish: “I want my parents and peace.”. Late afternoon on the next day, authorities spotted a few dots in the middle of the water. It was another group of Rohingya swimming to Bangladesh with yellow drums. They arrived at the same time as a pack of cattle — except that the cows came by boat.

Leandra Rees's fifth-grade class at Oak View Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland, is the ­November Class of Kids­Post. Many of her 21 students admire their parents, have their eyes glued to YouTube and want to travel the world. The kids had different — and specific — ideas for what kind of job they want when they're older. This is our third Class of Kids­Post for the school year. We will publish one each month. If you would like your class considered, ask your teacher to download our questionnaire at wapo.st/classofkidspost2017, have students fill it out, and send it, along with a class picture, to ­kidspost@­washpost.­com. Classes chosen receive a KidsPost Chesapeake Bay poster, books and Kids­Post pencils. Favorite author and favorite book: The class was split three ways on their favorite author. Cartoonist Raina Telgemeier of "Smile" fame, Jeff Kinney, author of the ­"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books, and Barbara Park's "Junie B. Jones" ­series tied for the top spot. Other popular selections were Kazu Kibuishi, writer of "Amulet," ­Nathan Hale's "Hazardous Tales" series and the "Scaredy Squirrel," created by Mélanie Watt. Favorite singer or musician: ­Canadian-born singer Alessia Cara got her start on YouTube and has quickly become a favorite with this class, which gave her the most votes. Other picks included Latin pop stars Nicky Jam and CNCO. Favorite game, sport or hobby: These kids love being active and outdoors. They picked soccer as their favorite activity, with playground games such as hide-and-seek and tag not too far behind. They also enjoy gymnastics and baking. Person, living or dead, you ­admire most: There was a lot of family love among these kids, with nearly all of them choosing their mom, dad or grandparents. Two kids chose the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. as their most admired figure. Favorite website or app: YouTube was the clear favorite of this class, with 11 votes. Second place went to Musical.ly, the social network that allows users to create videos with soundtracks. If you could go on a trip anywhere, where would you go? ­Almost everyone wants to go somewhere warm. Florida — ­specifically Disney World, for some — edged out Hawaii for the top destination. El Salvador and Guatemala were among the foreign favorites. Do you like to hear from friends by text, photo, video or postcard? Text messaging narrowly edged out videos for this class, 8 votes to 7. The majority of this class does not have a pet in their family, but those who do have dogs and fish. Favorite birthday food: Most of this class would want to eat pizza and cake. But there were some ­diverse answers, including the Ethio­pian spongy bread called ­injera, as well as pupusas, or ­Salvadoran stuffed tortillas. These kids are ready to save lives, with doctor leading the way with four votes. Tied at second were soccer player and police officer, while other professions included architect and astronomer. What would you invent to help others? The practical students won in this category. Three want to invent a machine that would print money (which hopefully they would use to help others). Other popular answers included a teleportation device and a flying machine. Read more from KidsPost: Mexican tradition inspires Raina Telgemeier book. Jeff Kinney created a new kind of comic hero. Middle-schoolers give pro football players money advice.

La Niña, the cool flip side to El Niño, has returned, forecasters said Thursday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said a weak La Niña has formed and is expected to stick around for several months. La Niña is a natural cooling of parts of the Pacific Ocean that alters weather patterns around the globe. La Niña typically brings drier conditions to the U.S. South and wetter weather to the Pacific Northwest and western Canada. Indonesia, the Philippines, northeastern South America and South Africa often see more rain during December, January and February in La Niña years. Last year’s La Niña was unusually brief, forming in November and gone by February. This one should hang around through at least March. While it may last a bit longer than last year’s La Niña, it should be just as weak, said Mike Halpert, deputy director of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. Texas A&M University agricultural economist Bruce McCarl said La Niña years are often bad for Texas and the surrounding region. U.S. production of most crops — except corn — generally goes down in La Niña years, according to McCarl’s research. The last major La Niña several years ago caused major crop damage, and Texas suffered a devastating drought, McCarl said. Because La Niña shifts storm tracks, it often brings more snow in the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys. “Typically La Niña is not a big snow year in the Mid-Atlantic,” Halpert said. “You have a better chance up in New England.”. Read more: Preparing for the next Snowzilla might be easier, thanks to satellite. Send in a weather drawing for our daily forecast and art gallery. How do meteorologists track storm systems?

It’s halftime for the 2017-2018 National Football League (NFL) season. All the teams have played eight or nine of their 16 regular-season games. Is it just me, or does this season seem less exciting than past years’? NFL television ratings are down. According to Nielsen, a company that keeps track of what people watch on television, 5 percent fewer people are watching NFL games than in 2016. And 18.7 percent fewer are watching than in 2015. No one is sure why there has been such a big drop. But here are some possible reasons that fewer folks are watching America’s favorite sport. Injuries: Football has always been a rough game, but the NFL seems rougher than ever. Maybe too rough. This season, some terrific players are on the sidelines. Quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay Packers), Andrew Luck (Indianapolis Colts) and DeShaun Watson (Houston Texans) are all out. Closer to home, the Washington Redskins are missing almost their entire offensive line as well as several defenders. It’s not much fun to watch a game when the trainers and team doctors are on the field as much as the players are. Parity: This is a fancy word to say there are no great teams in the NFL anymore. Looking at the standings after Week 9, 19 of the 32 teams have records between 5-3 (five wins, three losses) and 3-5. There are some good teams, such as the Philadelphia Eagles (8-1), New England Patriots (6-2) and the surprising Los Angeles Rams (6-2), but not enough. Maybe it’s hard for fans to get excited when so many teams seem to be stuck in the middle. Quality of play: Let's face it, some NFL games are dull. Coaches are so afraid of mistakes that they call too many screens, draws and short passes. That may be safe and smart, but it isn't very entertaining. However, every Saturday there are wild, hold-your-breath college football games. The winning quarterback, Baker Mayfield, threw for 598 yards and five touchdowns. The college kids may not be as good as the pros, but they are fun to watch. Protests: Since last season, some NFL players have been kneeling during the national anthem to protest police violence against people of color in the United States. Some NFL fans may be staying away from the games because they think the players' protests are disrespectful to the flag and people serving in the military. Whatever the reasons, it’s clear that fewer people are watching NFL games. It will be interesting to see if they stay away for the second half, too. Bowen writes the sports opinion column for KidsPost. He is the author of 22 sports books for kids. Read more Score columns: NFL shows what it means to be a team. Kenny Washington paved the way for black players in the NFL.

Democrat Ralph Northam beat back a challenge from Republican Ed Gillespie in the race for Virginia governor Tuesday. The election had been predicted to be close. But it ended with Northam, a doctor and Army veteran, winning 54 percent of the vote to 45 percent for Gillespie, a former head of the Republican National Committee. “As long as I’m governor, I will work hard to make sure we’re inclusive,” Northam said. Democrats also scored victories in the race for New Jersey governor and in New York City and Boston, where mayors easily won reelection. The results marked Republicans’ most significant day of defeat in the Trump presidency. Trump immediately tried to distance himself from the losses. “Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for,” Trump tweeted Tuesday night. Gillespie warned of the dangers of gangs, vowed to protect Confederate monuments and condemned national anthem protests by pro football players. Liberal activists cheered their successes as evidence of the anti-Trump energy they have long insisted was real despite poor results in special elections in the conservative states of Montana, Georgia and South Carolina. In New Jersey, Democrat Phil Murphy trounced Republican Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno, who served under Governor Chris Christie, who is also a Republican. Christie served two terms in a row and was not eligible to run for a third term. Senator Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat who is considering a presidential bid in 2020, said his party's gubernatorial victories in that state and Virginia were "the very first statewide rebuttal of the Trump administration.". Read more from KidsPost: NFL reacts to President Trump’s criticism. Charlottesville mourns woman killed in rally.

On a sunny October afternoon in a basement dance studio on Capitol Hill, young dancers shuffle, kick and swing each other around. Still in their school clothes, they laugh and smile and swirl to a jaunty tune played by their dance teacher, Shannon Dunne. She taps her feet and sways while she plays a concertina, a small instrument similar to an accordion. The dancers, most of them fifth- and sixth-graders who live in the neighborhood, come to learn two kinds of traditional Irish dance. One is set dancing, which involves four or eight people dancing in patterns. They also do sean-nos (pronounced SHANE-ohs) dancing, a free-form dance style handed down through generations. Dunne, who began studying sean-nos on trips to Ireland in 2005, is one of the few people to teach the style in the United States. “You’re by yourself, and there are different moves to go with the beat,” says 9-year-old sean-nos dancer Madeline Stevenson, “and you can express your true self.”. That expression comes through the feet hitting the floor in a spontaneous mix-and-match of heel-toe taps, shuffles, stamps, kicks and the loud noise their leather-bottom shoes make when they strike the dance floor. In August, Madeline and 18 fellow students traveled with their teacher to Ennis, Ireland, to compete at the All Ireland Music and Dance Competition. Evie Corr and her family traveled early so the 10-year-old could attend a week-long dance class in Ireland. “There were a bunch of Irish girls,” Evie says. “It was fun to meet them and learn about their culture. But really, they were just 10-year-old girls, just like me.”. The kids danced and sang their way through Ennis before and after the competition, even busking, or dancing on the street with a hat on the ground to accept coins from passing strangers who enjoy the entertainment. “Participating in a culture that’s not our own but that we were accepted into was really special,” Dunne says, “and I think the kids really got that.”. But competing in a foreign country in front of several hundred people can be nerve-racking. Madeline says that when you start doing what you love, you forget what you’re afraid of and do it for utter joy. “I just kind of made myself dance,” Madeline says, “and then it got so much easier.”. Kai Sage, 11, had his Irish grandparents watching when he competed in a “half set,” which involved four dancers, including Madeline. Even though the kids didn’t rank high in the 18-and-under competition, a judge awarded them a special medal because she loved the performance. She told them it reminded her of her childhood in Ireland when her grandparents would visit from the remote Aran Islands and her family would dance in the old style. Kai says he felt “almost too flattered” that she liked their dance and welcomed them so warmly. Back in the Washington area, the young dancers perform every month or so at concerts, fundraisers and festivals. This weekend, they’ll perform at the Maryland Irish Festival. “The thing that I love about this type of dance is that you’re expected to be yourself,” Dunne says. “If you’re a kid doing it, you have to learn the steps, but you also have to put your own style into it.”. The main requirement, she says, is having fun. “When I hear the music, I just love to correspond with it,” Madeline says. It’s hard to resist.”. What: The Maryland Irish Festival. When: Friday 6 to 11 p.m., Saturday noon to 11 p.m., Sunday noon to 6 p.m. Where: Maryland State Fairgrounds, 2200 York Road, Timonium, Maryland. (You'll find Shannon Dunne Dance students on the Tullamore Dew Stage of South Hall on Saturday at 1:15 p.m.). How much: Under 17, free; adults $15-$20. For more information: Visit mt.cm/maryland-irish-festival-2017 or irishfestival.com.s141542.gridserver.com. Read more: Irish dancers in the D.C. area polish their steps for national competition. Wheaton ice dance program is producing homegrown champions. Summer Book Club: ‘Dancing Home’.

A diagnosis of a scary-sounding disorder at a young age can cause fear and panic, but for a pair of twins, it inspired them to help others. Matthew Denchfield, 12, of Potomac , Maryland, was diagnosed at age 4 with amblyopia (pronounced am-blee-OH-pea-uh), also known as lazy eye. The disorder causes a miscommunication between the brain and the eyes, resulting in decreased vision in one eye. Symptoms are sometimes noticeable: One eye can wander off-center. But other people don't show any obvious symptoms. Matthew’s amblyopia was so severe that he was found to be legally blind after a routine vision screening at his school. Matthew followed a treatment plan to correct his vision to near-perfect while wearing glasses. After that experience, he and his family wanted to help other kids in need of vision care. “I was lucky that my parents could afford to buy glasses and treatment because most people don’t have that ability,” Matthew said. Matthew and his twin sister, Madison, set out to work with the Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington (POB). POB performed the vision screening at Matthew’s school and provides free services in many other Washington-area schools. Vision problems often must be spotted and corrected early in life — otherwise the damage can last a lifetime. The twins decided to create a simple project: a donation box where people of all ages could drop off their old or unwanted glasses. What started as a small box in their father’s office has turned into a network of boxes in Washington-area schools and businesses. The program is estimated to have collected more than 700 pairs of glasses in the past nine months, according to the POB. “The two of them, good and bad, are unstoppable when they have their minds set up,” said Heather Denchfield, Matthew and Madison’s mom. “Even when we were talking about [deciding] the number of boxes, initially, we said, ‘Don’t you want to set it a little lower?’ They said, ‘No, we’ll get it done,’ so we don’t doubt them anymore,” she said. The glasses the Denchfields collect for POB are distributed to local kids and adults, used for parts or given to an organization in New Jersey called New Eyes for the Needy, which then gives POB vouchers for new glasses. One of the schools POB serves is the Washington Jesuit Academy in Northeast Washington. The all-boys middle school is made up of children from low-income families. The free screenings provided in school are essential to the long-term health of kids who might go without annual vision checkups. Weldon Genies, 12, of Washington was able to play basketball and run track well enough without the proper eyewear, but in school he was having trouble reading and seeing the whiteboard. Weldon had been wearing glasses with too weak a prescription before POB screened him. The organization provided a proper pair of lenses, and it has made all the difference. “I thought my vision in my old glasses was pretty good, but I wasn’t able to realize I could see better with better glasses,” Weldon said. “Once I had [the new glasses], I was very satisfied and very thankful that the school had this program because they were very good and very kind throughout the process.”. To find out where you can donate a pair of glasses, visit youreyes.org/services/eyeglasses-needy/eyeglasses-recycling. Read more: It’s a dirty job, but these kids want to do it. Students are in the spotlight for doing good.

Fiji’s prime minister called for a sense of urgency in the fight against global warming Monday, telling negotiators at climate change talks in Bonn, Germany, that “we must not fail our people.”. The talks are the first major global climate conference since President Trump announced that the United States will pull out of the 2015 Paris accord unless he can get a better deal. Negotiators will focus on working out details of the Paris accord, which aims to limit global warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above the planet’s temperature in “preindustrial times” (generally 1850-1900). “The need for urgency is obvious,” said Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe “Frank” Bainimarama, the meeting’s chairman. “Our world is in distress from the extreme weather events caused by climate change.”. Diplomat Trigg Talley said that the U.S. position hasn’t changed since Trump’s announcement but that the nation will “continue to participate in international climate change negotiations.”. Diplomats from 195 nations, as well as scientists, lobbyists and environmentalists, are attending the talks. Read more from KidsPost: What is the Paris accord? How do we track climate change? Global warming threatens to wipe islands off the map.

A remote group of frizzy-haired orangutans on the Indonesian island of ­Sumatra seems to be a new species of great apes, scientists say. But the species may not be around much longer. Its numbers are so small, and its habitat so fragmented, that it is in danger of going extinct, say the scientists who studied it. A study published last week in the journal Current Biology said there are no more than 800 of the primates, which researchers named , making it the most endangered great ape species. The researchers say the population is highly vulnerable and its habitat is facing further pressure from development. “If steps are not taken quickly to reduce current and future threats to conserve every last remaining bit of forest, we may see the discovery and extinction of a great ape species within our lifetime,” they said. It’s the first species of great ape to be discovered by scientists in nearly 90 years. Up until now, science has recognized six great ape species: Sumatran and Bornean orangutans, eastern and western gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos. Some scientists also classify humans as great apes, but others argue for a separate categorization. The research is based on analysis of the skeleton of an adult male killed in a conflict with villagers, a study of the orangutans’ genes, and analysis since 2006 of behavioral and habitat differences. The primates live in about 425 square miles in the Batang Toru forest in Northern Sumatra. They differ physically from other orangutans because of their frizzier hair and smaller heads. Their diet and habitat, along with the male’s long-distance calls, also make them unique. Russell Mittermeier, head of the primate specialist group at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, called the finding a “remarkable discovery” that puts pressure on the Indonesian government to keep the species alive. Matthew Nowak, one of the study’s authors, said the Tapanuli orangutans live in three pockets of forest that are separated by nonprotected areas. “For the species to [survive] into the future, those three fragments need to be reconnected via forest corridors,” he said. The authors are also recommending that development plans for the region be stopped by the government. “It is imperative that all remaining forest be protected and that a local management body works to ensure the protection of the Batang Toru ecosystem,” Novak said. The head of conservation of natural resources and ecosystems at Indonesia’s Forestry and Environment Ministry, who goes by one name, Wiratno, told a news conference in Jakarta that most of Batang Toru forest became protected in December 2015. “We are deeply committed to maintaining the survival of this species,” Wiratno said. The Batang Toru orangutan population was found during a field survey by researcher Erik Meijaard in 1997, and a research station was established in the area in 2006. It was not until 2013, when the adult male skeleton became available, that scientists realized how different the population was.

Nearly half of Hawaii’s coral reefs were bleached during heat waves in 2014 and 2015, and fisheries close to shore are declining, a group of scientists told the state’s lawmakers. The scientists from the Nature Conservancy briefed the lawmakers Thursday about what they called unprecedented for Hawaii’s sea life. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials said 56 percent of the Big Island’s coral were bleached, along with 44 percent along West Maui and 32 percent around Oahu. The scientists said more severe and frequent bleaching is predicted. “In the 2030s, 30 to 50 percent of the years will have major bleaching events in Hawaii,” said Kuulei Rodgers of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology. When ocean temperatures rise, coral expel the algae they rely on for food. This causes their skeletons to lose their color and appear “bleached.”. Coral can recover if the water cools. But they die if high temperatures persist. Eventually reefs degrade, leaving fish without habitats and coastlines less protected from storm surges. As for Hawaii’s fish, University of Hawaii researchers compiled data for 15 years and found a 90 percent decline in overall catch from the past 100 years, which includes fish such as ulua, moi and oio. “What we found was pretty overwhelming,” University of Hawaii scientist Alan Friedlander said. “About 40 percent of the species will be classified as overfished. The correlations are more people, less fish.”. Friedlander suggested expanding marine reserves and said rules to discourage the catching of young fish help. Those who fish argued against more regulations. “If the fishermen don’t stand up and come down here and fight for fisherman’s rights now, we’ll lose more than we can possibly ever imagine,” said Makani Christensen of the Hunting, Farming and Fishing Association.

The 2017-2018 National Basketball Association (NBA) season started about two weeks earlier than usual. The earlier start will give players more days off to rest during the long — 82-game — regular season, which will end as it typically does in mid-April. That’s a good reminder for kids who may be playing more than one sport a season or playing on multiple teams at the same time. All athletes, from top-flight NBA players to 12-year-olds, need time to let their body rest. Okay, the advice portion of this column is over. Let’s look at the big stories in the NBA for this season. The Wizards: The Washington Wizards look ready to take a big step. The Wizards have won between 41 and 49 regular-season games in each of the past four years. If they stay healthy, I think the Wizards will win more than 50 games this season. The starting five is solid, led by the standout backcourt of John Wall and Bradley Beal. Otto Porter is becoming an all-around star. If Coach Scott Brooks can develop some dependable bench players, the Wizards could surprise some people. The Thunder: Last year, guard Russell Westbrook won the NBA's Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. He also averaged a triple double — that's at least 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists per game — for the entire season. The last person to do that was Oscar Robertson during the 1961-1962 season. The Oklahoma City Thunder added two all-star forwards — Carmelo Anthony and Paul George — to help Westbrook. So will the Thunder be a new super team? Basketball is more than taking shots and scoring points. The three Thunder stars will have to learn to play together and share the ball. In addition, Anthony has never been a strong defender. Defense wins championships. The Warriors: Most of the best NBA teams have three top players. The Golden State Warriors have four: forwards Kevin Durant and Draymond Green as well as guards Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Maybe that's why the Warriors have won two of the past three NBA titles. Can they do it again? I don’t see why not. Almost the entire 2016-2017 team is back. And Durant, Curry, Thompson and Green are in the prime of their careers. With a high-scoring offense and a tough defense, the Warriors should be hard to beat. LeBron: Since 2011, LeBron James has made it to the NBA Finals, including three years when his team won the title. That's an amazing seven straight seasons. Can James make it eight? His Cleveland Cavaliers will miss sidekick Kyrie Irving, who’s now with the Boston Celtics. I am not sure new teammates Isaiah Thomas, Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose will be as good a fit. Maybe some team will break James’s streak of seven finals. Maybe a team named the Washington Wizards. Read more Score columns: We shouldn’t be ranking 9-year-old basketball players. Playing one sport year round isn’t smart for kids. In its early years, the NBA blocked black players.

Women in Saudi Arabia are angry about the government’s decision to grant citizenship to a female robot that, unlike them, does not need a male guardian or need to cover its head in public. Social media was abuzz with questions about whether the robot, Sophia, which debuted at a technology conference in Riyadh last week, will be treated like women in the conservative kingdom. “It hit a sore spot that a robot has citizenship and my daughter doesn’t,” Hadeel Shaikh, a Saudi woman whose 4-year-old is not a citizen because the girl’s dad is Lebanese. Women in Saudi Arabia who are married to foreigners cannot pass on citizenship to their children. Shaikh is worried about the future of her daughter, who has only a residency card. "I want her to feel welcomed even if I am not here," Shaikh told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. “I’m wondering if robot Sophia can leave Saudi Arabia without her guardian consent!” tweeted Saudi feminist Moudi Aljohani, who is based in the United States. The discussion comes as Saudi Arabia has begun to increase women’s rights. The kingdom announced in September that women will be allowed to drive. Read more from KidsPost: Saudi Arabia will allow women to drive. In Congo, a girl’s life is focused on school and family. What’s school like around the world?

Water plays an important part in the winners of this year's Children's Africana Book Awards in the young readers category. (pronounced gee-zo gee-zo) by Emily Williamson, a greedy spider pollutes it, and in "The Storyteller" by Evan Turk, a boy uses it to defeat a powerful desert spirit. The two books also explore the African art of storytelling, said Brenda Randolph, director of Africa Access and chairwoman of the award committee. Randolph founded the awards 25 years ago to help kids learn more about Africa through books. “There is a strong oral tradition in Africa,” she said by phone from her office in Washington. Storytellers often perform for an audience of all ages. A free family event Saturday at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art gives you a chance to hear stories and meet Turk, Williamson and other Africana Award-winning authors. “Gizo-gizo” means “spider” in Hausa (how-za), one of the languages spoken in Ghana. At the Hassaniyya Quaranic (Ha-sa-nee-ya Ker-an-ic) School in the city of Cape Coast, Williamson and her students wanted to write an original folk tale about a modern problem: pollution. They chose a spider as their main character because tricky arachnids often appear in African tales. For three years, Williamson and her students wrote, illustrated and refined their story about a spider that throws trash and chemicals into a lagoon that is shared by many animals. But when he eats the lagoon’s sick fish and becomes sick himself, the spider decides to clean up his mess. The book owes much to the “students’ memories of listening to their grandparents telling them stories [and to] their everyday experiences and imaginations,” said Williamson in an email from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she is a graduate student in anthropology at Boston University. Turk wanted to create a book about the power of stories when he visited Morocco in 2012 and learned that the storytelling tradition was disappearing. Storytellers “were mostly not telling stories in public anymore, having become too old to compete with the noise and music” there, Turk said in an email from his home in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. In “The Storyteller,” a thirsty boy receives a brass cup that fills with water whenever he listens to an old man’s stories. When a giant djinn (jin), or spirit, from the nearby Sahara Desert stirs up a sandstorm, the boy retells the stories and uses their water-generating power to push back the djinn. While researching the book, Turk traveled to Morocco several times and interviewed elderly storytellers. Moroccan art and craft inspired his illustrations. He learned from carpet weavers how to create page borders that resembled carpet patterns. To paint the water, he used a natural dye called indigo. Sugary green tea brushed over paper and held over a flame became the color of sand. On his most recent research trip, Turk met with some young Moroccans in the city of Marrakesh. They are learning from master storytellers and want to “keep the art form alive,” Turk said. He interviewed them and watched them tell stories. “I was so excited,” Turk said. These new storytellers will carry this powerful tradition into the future.

Two women from Hawaii who say they were lost at sea on a sailboat for months never activated their emergency beacon, the U.S. Coast Guard said, adding to a list of inconsistencies that cast doubt on their survival tale. Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava said they left Hawaii on May 3 for Tahiti but ran into storms that damaged the boat. The U.S. Navy rescued them last week 900 miles southeast of Japan, thousands of miles off course. The women had told the Associated Press that they had radios, satellite phones, GPS and other emergency gear, but they didn’t mention the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, or EPIRB. A Coast Guard review of the incident and interviews with the women revealed that they had an EPIRB aboard the boat but never turned it on. The device communicates with satellites and would alert authorities in minutes. Appel said Tuesday that she thought it should be used only if you are likely to die in the next 24 hours. Officials have said key parts of the women’s account are not consistent with weather reports or geography.

Not many U.S. holidays celebrate our ancestors or the spirit world. Halloween and Día de los Muertos are two occasions to do so in the United States, but around the world there are many more festivals and holidays for commemorating the dead. The Spanish colonists brought the customs of European medieval festivals and the “gigantes y cabezudos,” or giants and bigheads. The gigantes y cabezudos were elaborately and ornately made of papier-mache, and they are still fashioned this way in Costa Rica. Towns stage parades with the costumed characters teetering about with their larger-than-life heads. Traditionally, costumes draw their inspiration from Costa Rican mythical creatures, but many share the Halloween spirit of making fun of politicians, athletes and other celebrities. In 1997, the Costa Rican government declared October 31 as Día de las Mascaradas, according to Tania Robles, an anthropologist and artist with the Costa Rican Ministry of Culture and Youth. “In Costa Rica, there is an important influence from [U.S.] culture, so Halloween was an extended celebration at the time,” Robles said by email from Costa Rica. Defining the date of celebration, she added, was “intended to be the beginning of the return to the local traditions.”. Near the end of summer, the Chinese celebrate the Hungry Ghost Festival, when it is believed that the gates to the spirit world open and ghosts scour the earth for offerings. Families place the offerings — usually food and paper made to look like money or personal items — on an altar outside their home. The paper items are then burned to send them into the spirit world. Additional offerings are also burned to please the spirits of those who don’t have living relatives. In nearby Nepal, there are several holidays similar to Halloween in the United States. Tihar, the festival of lights, is held each year in late autumn. Children dress up, walk door-to-door and perform for their neighbors, who give them candy and money. Families place lights around their homes and celebrate animals, such as crows and cows, that are culturally important. Dogs, for example, are given floral garlands and red tikas, or marks, on their brows as a sign of admiration. During Gai Jatra, another Nepali holiday, families bring cows into the streets to commemorate the spirits of their deceased loved ones. Cows are sacred in Nepal, as well as in other countries such as India, and represent the deep respect families have for their ancestors and gods. While the holiday is about remembering the dead, there’s a lot of fun to be had during the festivities. “Recently, it has become a festival where you can make people laugh, you have satires, comedy shows [and] festivals,” said Santosh Lamichhane, the president of the Nepali American Friendship Association. These holidays, full of lights and memories of loved ones, make the spirit world a little less spooky. Whether you decide to celebrate Halloween, Día de los Muertos or another otherworldly holiday, there are plenty of ways to keep the spirit alive this fall. Read more from KidsPost: How does Mexico celebrate Day of the Dead? Halloween has become scary big, but it’s beginnings were humble. Some of our favorite kids homemade Halloween costumes.

Former campaign officials for President Trump were charged Monday with crimes related to the investigation of whether the campaign worked with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election. Paul Manafort, who was campaign chairman, and his former business associate Rick Gates were charged with representing the Ukrainian government and a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine from 2008 to 2014 without telling the U.S. government they were doing so. The two also were charged with lying when U.S. officials asked them about ties to those groups. The Justice Department says Manafort and Gates worked together to break U.S. laws and then tried to hide those crimes. The other eight charges involve money. They include not telling the U.S. government about bank accounts in foreign countries and not paying taxes on millions of dollars transferred to the United States. If found guilty, Manafort and Gates face fines and decades in prison. It was announced Monday that a third campaign official, George Papadopoulos, admitted that he lied to the FBI about his contacts with Russians during the campaign.

Gary wasn’t used to being around people. If anyone came too close, he’d lash out. He was perfect for the job. Because at the “Working Cats” program, no manners is no problem. Philadelphia’s Animal Care & Control Team (ACCT) established the program about four years ago to place unadoptable cats — the biters and the skittish, the swatters and the ones who won’t use a litter box — into jobs as mousers at barns or stables. The shelter recently expanded the program to move cats that were less-than-ideal pets into city jobs at factories and warehouses as a sort of environmental, or “green,” pest control. The animals are microchipped, vaccinated and free of charge. “Part of the reason cats became domesticated was to get rid of the rodent population,” said Ame Dorminy, ACCT’s spokeswoman. “We took advantage of their natural propensity to hunt and made an official program out of it.”. Cats that are identified as a good match for the program are kept in a separate aisle at the shelter in a row called “TTA” — time to adjust. On a recent visit, a low growl could be heard from a cage housing a male named Spike, whose intake sheet listed his qualifications: hissing, swatting, spitting, can’t be picked up. A few doors down, Prince was standoffish at the rear of his cage. Just because cats don’t want to be petted or snuggle on a lap doesn’t mean they can’t have good lives, Dorminy said. “A lot of these cats feel more comfortable when they can be themselves and use natural behaviors,” she said. “Then they’re more open to human interaction because they feel more confident.”. Todd Curry wasn’t exactly sure what was inside the dumpster next door to Philadelphia’s Emerald Windows showroom, but it seemed like a free buffet for rats. "It was almost comical," he said, comparing it to a scene in the animated movie "Ratatouille" with seemingly hundreds of rats streaming out of the dumpster. Traps didn’t work, said Curry, the company’s vice president of sales, so they brought in Shelley from ACCT’s program. Soon, there was evidence that Shelley had caught a few of the rats. Now the rodents just stay away. And Shelley, who was given to the shelter after biting her family’s kids, has come out of her shell, craving petting and attention, Curry said. “The only reason she was here was for the rats, but it has turned into a lot more than that,” he said, adding that she functions as a workplace stress reliever. “It’s nice to see these cats put to use, not put down.”.

It’s time to clean out the toy box and make room for new arrivals. Toymakers have been working hard to come up with the next must-have plaything. Is it on these pages? The mother-daughter duo are the toy experts behind the website Oppenheim Toy Portfolio (toyportfolio.com). They see hundreds of new toys each year and get kids across the country to rate them. “Coding” is big this year, Joanne Oppenheim says. Also, “we’ve never seen so many toys that run on apps and screens of smart devices.” And there are more online videos that help with craft and building projects. Girls are shown on games and building sets that once would have been marketed only to boys. “On the flip side, we are also seeing more boy dolls this season,” she says, “encouraging boys to tap into their nurturing side.”. Here are some of Oppenheim Toy Portfolio’s top picks for 2017. The prices are those suggested by the manufacturer. Shop around and you might find a better deal. This family game promises nonstop silliness. Players pick five cards and race to be the first to do whatever tasks are on them. Cry like a baby? Put a sock on your ear? There are 500 tasks, so no two games are alike. And there's no computer involved, so everyone — ages 5 to 95 — can play. Qwingo starts simply but requires strategy to finish. Players call out numbers and roll a die with icons on it. The object is to list those numbers in ascending order on a score sheet in the column that matches the icon on the rolled die. The strategy involves not calling out numbers your opponents want. Up to five can play this game, or you can go solo. Go Nuts for Donuts! A table of tasty treats awaits up to six players in this hot-from-the-fryer card game. The cards represent mouthwatering doughnuts with varying point values. Collect the most doughnuts (er, points) and you'll be hungry to play again and again. One drawback: You'll also be hungry for some real doughnuts, so plan ahead. And don't forget to get a carton of milk. Teens seem to love them as well. The pieces interlock in endless combinations for an a-MAZE-ing new challenge each time you play. Make your marbles bounce, zigzag and swirl as they shoot through tubes and down the path you've created. Who could resist a cuddly, one-of-a-kind doll made from your own drawing, or a doll that looks just like you, your pet or someone you love? Send in your artwork or photo, and Budsies will do the rest. These hand-stitched, 18-inch dolls take about a month to make, but you’ll get updates as you wait. Not one, not two, but three robots are waiting to be built, painted and played with. Each kit includes three sheets of stickers, 12 paint pots and two brushes. Movable arms and legs make these bots perfect for pretend games after you make them. If robots aren't your thing, Kid Made Modern has lots of other make-me kits, including bongo drums. Unbored Time Capsule. Time capsules are peeks back into history. Someday you, your kids or even grandkids may want to know what life was like now. This kit has great ideas for interviewing family and friends and saving memorable items. Kid testers loved the adjustable date stamp and photo storage sleeves. You'll like this gift today but even more in 20 years. Perfect Craft Heart Keepsake Box Kit. Mix learning and fun along with the plaster as you pour and mold a heart-shaped keepsake container. The mess is minimal. And there's enough material and paint for two boxes, so you can make one for Mom and keep the other for yourself. Watch what happens when water is mixed with the plaster powder. It's not magic — it's science. Mega Construx American Girl McKenna’s Gymnastics Competition. McKenna and her friend Toulane are going for the gold in gymnastics. Whether on the balance beam or uneven bars, they're confident that they'll be on the winners' podium when it's over. But just in case, there's a cast and crutches among the 302 pieces in this set. Will the girls have gold medals and flower bouquets when the event is over? You're the judge. It took thousands of workers 10-plus years to build the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. But they didn't have Playmobil's easy-to-assemble design. The mummy looks harmless, but watch out for tricky traps and puzzles, skeletons and spiders. As with all build sets, the small pieces are choking hazards, so be sure to keep them away from any King Tots in the house. Laser Pegs' family of light-up toys keeps growing. Like earlier kits (featuring dinos, race cars and trucks), there's not just one way to build this space cruiser. Follow the directions or don't. Either way it's fun. Then flip the switch and watch your creation glow and pulse. For bigger projects, the pieces work with other major blocks such as Lego and Magformers. Lego Creator 3-in-1 Park Street Townhouse. It's a three-level townhouse, a busy cafe and a two-story suburban home all in one box. Which do you want to build first? The townhouse folds out so you can enjoy the detailed interior, which includes a flat-screen TV and a fireplace. With 566 pieces, this set isn't for building-block beginners. But once it's done, you'll want to move right in. If K’nex ruled the world, every kid would have an amusement park in his or her bedroom. The company's newest ride is this lunar launch coaster. Stomp on the launchpad (no batteries!) and blast your rocket ship into space — four feet high, in this case. Toy testers agreed: Houston, we have no problem with this thrilling space adventure. Star Wars Droid Inventor Kit. The Force shows no sign of going away. So join the Star Wars crew and build your own mini R2-D2, complete with 20 sounds from the blockbuster films. You can play with the toy as is, but to really bring your droid to life, you'll need access to an iPad, iPhone or Android. The free app has 16 special missions and other challenges. Love Star Wars? Check out the Simon Star Wars Darth Vader Game (). Jump into action when the helicopter or ambulance arrives at this three-story, fully equipped hospital. From the high-tech X-ray lab to the waiting-room fish tank, nothing has been left out. Once you've built the hospital, follow the doctor as she makes her rounds, and check on the newborn in the nursery. There's so much to see and do, the fun is infectious. America didn't get its first female president in 2017, but it did get its first American Girl boy doll. Meet Logan, 18 inches of gray-eyed, brown-haired adorableness. He's the drummer in Tenney Grant's country western band. But if you want to hear him play, you'll have to also order his fab drum set ($68). Logan's hands have been specially formed so he can keep the beat. This toolbox introduces younger kids to simple computer coding. Build Vernie the robot (it can throw darts! ), Frankie the cat (it purrs) or three other models. You need a tablet to download the free app that gets you started. (Compatible tablets are listed online.) Warning: Grandma may tsk-tsk at your robot's farting noises, but we think you'll love them. Read more from KidsPost: Toy Fair offers sneak peek on what’s to come for the holidays. Get holiday book ideas from our Readers’ Corner.

Colin Meloy wants to inspire kids to open their imaginations to the world of art and fantasy. He just hopes they don’t take his latest novel, about a band of child pickpockets, too literally. "Thievery is clearly not morally right, but I think there is room for it in the [language] of children's literature with 'Oliver Twist' and 'Robin Hood,' " Meloy said. "And in this case, I would hope kids would be more taken over by the magic of it and how these kids are able to exist on the fringe and manipulate reality in a way that a magician would.". Meloy, 43, author of the new middle-grade novel "The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid," is best known to the world as the frontman of the popular indie rock band the Decemberists, but he began carving out his place in the children's literature world with the best-selling trilogy "The Wildwood Chronicles.". His new book is set in 1961 and tells the story of 11-year-old Charlie Fisher, the son of a U.S. diplomat, who is finding his place in his new home of Marseille, France. The inspiration for the author’s newest novel came from a magazine profile of magician Apollo Robbins, who is considered one of the best theatrical pickpockets. There is an important difference between pickpocketing and theatrical pickpocketing. The art that Robbins performs ends with the return of the items that were taken. The other is a crime. Meloy was so interested in Robbins and his art that he read the 1955 book “Whiz Mob,” which details the language of the pickpocketing world and inspired Meloy’s new book. “I think in many ways it’s the vocabulary, glossary and culture of pickpocketing for kids to get lost into,” Meloy said. The stories Meloy writes feature illustrations by Carson Ellis, who is also Meloy’s wife. The geography and design of Marseille was an important influence on the story and its illustrations. Ellis, 42, had been to the French port city multiple times, but her trip with Meloy was the singer’s first visit. They were awed by the city’s beauty and how its layout lends itself to exploration and mystery. “I was so in love with the architecture, and I wanted the world of the book to feel vibrant and, like, madcap,” Ellis said. In the book, Charlie is adjusting to his new home when he befriends Amir, a local boy who had stolen Charlie’s pen. Amir introduces Charlie to pickpocketing and the Marseille whiz mob, a team of child bandits. Charlie’s wish to escape from his life becomes more than he asked for once he’s faced with the consequences of theft. Meloy’s jump from stage to page would not surprise fans of the musician’s work. The Decemberists embrace fantastical stories. (One of their songs is a first-person tale of a sailor trapped inside a whale.) But the connection between Meloy’s songwriting and children’s stories was less clear because his lyrics are sometimes mature and dark. Meloy and Ellis are parents — to Hank, 11, and Milo, 4 — but didn’t create the book for the boys. They said they were thinking more about their own favorite books as kids. “I know the kind of books I read when I was 11 or 12. I was already moving into reading Stephen King novels,” Meloy said. “I think that those kids are ready and able to unpack some more of the complex or challenging issues that this book presents.”. “It feels like a book for 12-year-olds,” Ellis said. “I think I would’ve loved it when I was that age.”. Read more from KidsPost: Alex Rider author was a spy who never got caught. Texting tale inspired by century-old letter writer. Mexican tradition inspires Raina Telgemeier’s new graphic novel, ‘Ghosts’.

Even presidential pooches can be shamed on social media. French President Emmanuel Macron’s dog, Nemo, interrupted a meeting his owner was having with government officials Sunday when the dog peed against a fireplace in the Elysee Palace. The footage, captured by a French TV channel, showed Nemo interrupting the gathering as the sound of him peeing caused those present to turn around and then giggle. “He’s doing something quite exceptional,” Macron said, laughing. Asked by a junior minister whether it happened often, Macron said: “You have triggered completely unusual behavior in my dog.”. Nemo, a black Labrador-griffon mix, was adopted from a shelter in August by Macron and his wife, Brigitte, and named after Captain Nemo, the hero of Jules Verne's book "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.". The video has circulated widely on social media sites worldwide, causing much amusement. Read more from KidsPost: Pups on parade: Hundreds of dogs are dressed up for NYC event.

The animal kingdom is chock-full of critters that look like something out of a nightmare. Although some of them have earned their bad reputations, others are far less frightening than they seem. Here are a few seemingly spooky species you should get to know a little better. The hundreds of spiders that fall under the tarantula category can grow so big you might have trouble holding them with one hand. The so-called Goliath birdeater is a perfect example of a misunderstood tarantula; it rarely eats birds. Lots of even freakier-looking arachnids, such as the whip spider, are also relatively harmless — although some can pinch you a little if they get scared. They’re not vampires. Mostly. Vampire squids are neither vampires nor squids: They’re related to squids and octopuses, but they’re actually the last of an ancient group that belongs in neither category. And instead of blood, they eat bits of creatures and junk that sinks into the deep sea. We know less about vampire squirrels, but scientists are pretty sure the myths about them sucking deer blood are false. The rumors probably started because the fluffy beasts have unusual (and weirdly threatening) tufts on their ears. Vampire deer do have fangs, but they use them for fighting, not eating. Vampire bats are the only critters in the bunch that definitely drink blood, but the natives of Latin America seldom go after humans. If one is silly enough to bite you, rabies is a bigger concern than blood loss. Scientists who trawl the bottom of the ocean for new species pull up some unfortunate-looking organisms. But you've got to be weird to survive down there. Maybe you need giant eyes to see in the dark — or can give up eyes entirely. But even if they could get to the shallow water you swim in, most of these animals would have no interest in harming you. Take the ghost shark: It looks like someone's bad attempt at a shark puppet for a horror movie, but it doesn't have a reputation for attacking humans. Slow lorises seem too adorable to be real. But those cute little arms hide glands full of toxins. When threatened, slow lorises can lick their glands to create a painful bite. Some humans who are particularly sensitive to loris goo swell up or even have trouble breathing when bitten. Given that — and the fact that the animals are endangered — you shouldn’t ever try to tickle a cute little loris. You’re way better off getting cuddly with a tarantula. Read more from KidsPost: How to dress your pets safely this Halloween. Among brainy sea creatures, killer whales are some of the smartest. Narwhal exhibit sheds light on mysterious underwater mammal.

In sports, some losses are worse than others. Much worse. I’m not talking about the Washington Nationals’ heartbreaking 9-8 loss in their fifth and deciding playoff game with the Chicago Cubs. The Nats and Cubs were evenly matched. Both teams won more than 90 games during the regular Major League Baseball (MLB) season. Both teams were loaded with star players. Even at the last at-bat, it seemed that the series could go either way. The Nats’ loss to the Cubs was a disappointment. The failure of the United States men’s national soccer team to qualify for the 2018 World Cup was a disaster. Unlike many pro sports in which player drafts and rules on spending money are designed to make the competition more even, the qualifying rounds for the World Cup are not even at all. Big, wealthy countries regularly are matched against smaller, poorer countries. Look at the estimated 2017 populations of the six countries in the section the United States played in to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. The differences in wealth among the six competing nations are even greater. By some calculations, the United States is almost 900 times (!) as wealthy as Honduras or Trinidad and Tobago. And 300 times as wealthy as Costa Rica or Panama. Despite these enormous advantages in resources, the U.S. team finished fifth in the section, with a record of 3-4-3 (three wins, four losses and three ties) and lost a crucial, final game to last-place Trinidad and Tobago, 2-1. For the first time since 1986, the U.S. men will not play in the World Cup. So why aren’t the American men better in soccer? The American women are terrific — they have won three World Cups and four Olympic gold medals. First, American boys and men have choices of many sports to play. I suspect a lot of potentially talented soccer players are playing shortstop, center field, point guard or wide receiver. Don’t you think the Nats’ Trea Turner or Michael A. Taylor would be pretty good on the soccer field? Or how about LeBron James as a goalkeeper? Still, the United States should have enough good players to beat small countries such as Honduras and Panama. The team has 19-year-old scoring phenom Christian Pulisic, but it hasn’t produced many other creative playmakers. The Nats will be back next season. My guess is they will make the playoffs and have another chance for the World Series. The World Cup is played only every four years. The U.S. men will not have a chance to appear on soccer’s biggest stage until 2022. Read more: World Cup-winning women’s team of 1999 worked hard on team-building. For U.S. women’s soccer team, no unsung heroes. Kenny Washington paved the way for black players in the NFL.

The novelty of an extended school break has worn off for many kids in Puerto Rico, where classes have been canceled since Hurricane Maria swept across the island last month. Alanys Arroyo and her little brothers have been cooped up in a school that has been turned into a shelter for those whose homes were destroyed September 20 in the storm. Alanys, 15, reads and helps her mother clean up. The boys kick around a soccer ball. They are bored. “The days are long,” Alanys said as she washed the family’s few clothes in a garbage pail. It's not any easier on her mother, Yahaira Lugo, who has started to despair about how to keep her four children occupied. "What do I do with them all day?" "There's nothing. Our books are gone, and there's no place to go.". The storm caused at least 48 deaths and knocked out the power for the island of 3.4 million people. All 1,113 public schools are closed, although 167 are serving as community centers and 99 others are being used as shelters. About 70 schools are too damaged to reopen. Some schools are set to hold classes Monday, but the entire system will reopen no sooner than October 30. Alanys’s 9-year-old brother, Nataniel, said it feels weird to be staying at a school but not going to class. “I didn’t know I liked school that much until I couldn’t go,” he said. In darkened classrooms at the Ramon Marin Sola Elementary School, as rain poured down outside, fourth-graders played Connect Four and Parcheesi. Others worked on a Hurricane Maria journal, writing about what they bought before the storm and what they lost, and what they hope for their homes. "We're trying teach them how to be happy again," said school director Zoraya Cruz. "We're not worried about the curriculum right now. We want them to feel comfortable and safe.". Many students and young people left for the United States mainland, although the exact number is not known. Because the storm followed shortly after Hurricane Irma, which came close to the island without making a direct hit, students have had only about six weeks of class since the school year started on August 14. Education Secretary Julia Keleher would like to get the school system's 345,000 students back to class as soon as possible. But it's a matter of competing needs, she said. Yes, kids need to get their education and parents need them in school so they can go back to work. But campuses need to be repaired and cleaned, and about 10 percent are still being used as shelters. "You ask yourself: Is it my rush to get that family out? Because if that family is the family of the child that I am educating, who am I serving here by getting them out faster?" Read more from KidsPost: Government relief is slow to reach Puerto Rico after storm. See how Hurricane Irma has taken its toll on Caribbean islands. Hurricane hunter Cathy Martin flies straight into the storm.

Lego has unveiled a set of figures celebrating the women of NASA. The 231-piece set features Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut, and Mae Jemison, the first black woman to travel in space. Also included in the set are figures of astronomer and educator Nancy Grace Roman and computer scientist Margaret Hamilton. Lego versions of the space shuttle Challenger, the Hubble Space Telescope can be put together with the set. A miniature version of Hamilton’s workspace at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as she was programming software for the moon landing is also featured. The set is the brainchild of Maia Weinstock, an MIT employee who proposed a women of NASA collection through the Lego Ideas program. “My dream would be to know that the first human on Mars — or an engineer or computer scientist who helped her get there — played with the Lego Women of NASA as a child and was inspired to pursue a [science, technology, engineering and math] career as a result,” Weinstock said in a Lego news release. The set retails for $24.99 and goes on sale November 1. Astronaut encourages kids to flip for STEM. NASA engineer Molly White works on spacecraft Orion.

A drawing contest became a life-changer for 13-year-old Benny Benson. The year was 1927. The Alaska ­American Legion sponsored a ­design-the-Alaska-flag contest for children in the seventh through 12th grades. Alaska wasn’t even a state yet — it was a territory — but some people thought that having an official flag was a good first step toward gaining statehood. Of 142 entries submitted from territory schools, Benny’s design was chosen because of its simplicity: eight gold-colored stars on a bright blue background. Seven stars form the Big Dipper, part of the Ursa Major constellation. The large eighth star in the upper-right corner represents the North Star. Benny’s written description of his design stated: “The blue field is for the Alaska Sky and the forget-me-not, an Alaskan flower. The North Star is for the future of Alaska, the most northerly in the union. The Dipper is for the Great Bear — symbolizing strength.”. Benny’s prize was a gold watch with his flag emblem engraved on the back. He also received $1,000, equal to about $14,000 today. In a TV interview years later, Benny recalled the moment his name was announced as the winner. “I darn near fell out of my seat!” With a hearty laugh, he added, “And school closed for the rest of the day.”. It was a nice change from the sadness of Benny’s early childhood. When he was 3, his family lost its house in a fire and his mother died of pneumonia (pronounced nuh-MO-nyuh). Because his father was unable to care for him or his younger brother, the boys lived in a group home for children until they graduated from high school. Benny later used his contest award money to further his education — learning to repair diesel engines and eventually becoming an airplane mechanic in Kodiak, Alaska. In 1959, 32 years after Benny won the contest, Alaska became our 49th state, and his flag has waved proudly ever since. Benson died in 1972, but he is still remembered fondly throughout Alaska. The Kodiak airport is named for him, as are several roads and a school. A stone memorial to the teen stands in the coastal town of Seward, where he lived in 1927. Denis McCarville, head of AK Child and Family of Anchorage, said that each year, on July 9, Alaska Flag Day, Benny is remembered with pride, song and the retelling of his story. “It is said, as a boy when people would come to see the ‘famous’ designer of the Alaska flag, he would usually find a way to be out in the woods far away from the attention.”. “As a grown man,” McCarville added, “Benny became used to the attention, while remaining humble. A friend of his once said that Benny was probably grand marshal of more parades in Alaska than anyone of his time.”. In a 1971 television interview, Benson, then 57, said, “I think the biggest thing that ever happened was when they flew the Alaska flag to the moon with other state flags” on the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. “I think that was quite a deal.”. "Alaska's Flag," the official state song, incorporates Benny Benson's description of the flag he designed. Listen to the song at wapo.st/AlaskaStateSong. For more about the song's history, visit wapo.st/AlaskaSongHistory.

Whales and dolphins — both members of the cetacean family — are among the brainiest beings. Scientists have now identified differences among them that are tied to relative brain size. A study of 90 cetacean species published Monday found that those with larger brains exhibit more complex social structures and behaviors, with the killer whale and the sperm whale leading the way. Dolphins and whales "are extremely playful; they learn from each other, have complex communication," said biologist Susanne Shultz of the University of Manchester in Britain. "One problem for understanding just how smart they are is how difficult it is to observe them and to understand their marine world. Therefore, we have only a glimpse of what they are capable of.". Researchers created a database of brain size, social structures and cultural behaviors across cetacean species. The group of species with the largest brain relative to body size were large dolphins, such as the killer whale and the pilot whale, Shultz said. Killer whales’ food preferences are one of their complex behaviors. Other big-brained cetaceans also show sophisticated behaviors. Mother sperm whales, for example, organize babysitting duties to protect their young while they hunt for food. Bottlenose dolphins use sea sponges to protect their beaks while foraging for food, and they live in structured communities. Some of the largest cetaceans — including the blue whale — were on the low end of relative brain size.

It didn’t set a world record, but the winner of the 44th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California, was the heaviest pumpkin in the history of the competition. A forklift hoisted the giant pumpkin onto a scale last week in downtown Half Moon Bay, near San Francisco. It registered 2,363 pounds, making it the seventh win for grower Joel Holland of Sumner, Washington. Cindy Tobeck won the contest last year with a pumpkin weighing 1,910 pounds. Tobeck brought a beefier entry this year, but its 2,002 pounds fell short of Holland’s pumpkin. Holland took home $16,541, or $7 per pound, for his gigantic gourd. But the coveted title of world-record holder eluded him. That honor goes to Mathias Willemijns of Belgium, whose 2016 European champion weighed a whopping 2,624 pounds.

Caroline Goldstrom’s fifth-grade class at Silverbrook Elementary School in Fairfax Station, Virginia, is the October Class of Kids­Post. Many of her 25 students have dogs, enjoy soccer and love pizza. But when it comes to what they want to do when they grow up, nearly all have different ideas. This is our second Class of KidsPost for the school year. We will publish one each month. If you would like your class considered, ask your teacher to download our questionnaire at wapo.st/classofkidspost2017, have students fill it out, and send it, along with a class picture, to ­kidspost@­washpost.­com. Classes chosen receive a KidsPost Chesapeake Bay poster, books and Kids­Post pencils. Favorite author and favorite book: Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson series, edged Jeff Kinney of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" fame as top author. Other favorites include Natalie Babbitt, who wrote "Tuck Everlasting," and Roald Dahl of "The BFG.". Favorite singer or musician: This group of students really loves pop music, with Taylor Swift receiving five votes from the class. Imagine Dragons and Katy Perry were close behind in second and third place. One student wrote in that their favorite music is by the composer Beethoven! Favorite game, sport or hobby: The beautiful game, soccer, dominated this category with nine votes, while dance received five votes. Playing basketball came in third with four votes. Person, living or dead, you ­admire most: Almost half of the students in this class have the most respect for a family member, whether it is a parent, a sister or a great-grandmother. Several students agreed, however, that suffragist Susan B. Anthony and abolitionist Harriet Tubman were admirable women. Favorite website or app: This class loves many websites and apps, but the winner was YouTube, with four votes. The game Minecraft was a close second. If you could go on a trip anywhere, where would you go? It's a tie! These kids want to travel one day to Paris, France, or the state of Hawaii.­. Do you like to hear from friends by text, photo, video or postcard? Seven students prefer to receive a text, while six prefer to watch their friends' videos. A lot of the students have dogs: Six have one, and three have two. One kid's home has a lot of pets — 11 of them! A snake, three lizards, two guinea pigs and five fish live with this student. Favorite birthday food: Who doesn't love pizza? This class ­definitely does. It was the winning answer, with seven students who want pizza for their birthday. What do you want to be when you grow up? Three students would like to be teachers, and two would like to be veterinarians, but no one else in the class had the same answer. The class has an aspiring chemist, nanotechnologist, singer, model and astronaut. What would you invent to help others? Most of the class wants to invent some kind of medical device, but four students want to come up with a cure for cancer. Others want to build houses that would never flood and cars that could use water for fuel. Read more from KidsPost: Astronaut encourages kids to flip for STEM. Alex Rider author was a spy who never got caught. Surfing competition lets dogs ride the waves.

Not everyone is celebrating the return of the wild turkeys. After being wiped out from New England in the 1800s, the birds have stormed back in what’s considered a major success story for wildlife restoration. But as they spread farther into urban areas, they’re increasingly clashing with residents who say they destroy gardens, damage cars, chase pets and attack people. Complaints about troublesome turkeys have surged in Boston, Massachusetts, and its suburbs over the past three years, causing headaches for police and health officials called to handle problems, according to city and town records provided to the Associated Press. It’s a familiar problem for some other U.S. towns from coast to coast that have been overrun by turkeys in recent years. Boston city officials say they received at least 60 complaints last year, a threefold increase over the year before. Nearby Somerville, Belmont and Brookline have seen similar upticks, for a total of 137 turkey gripes since the start of last year. “Several years ago it was more of an isolated situation here and there,” said David Scarpitti, the wild turkey and upland game biologist for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. “Now it’s starting to spread into communities all around Boston.”. Often the complaint is little more than a wayward turkey blocking traffic, but in at least five cases turkeys became so aggressive that police said they had to shoot them as a matter of public safety. Some area residents have suffered minor injuries from the birds, including a 72-year-old woman who told police she was bruised in August after a gang of turkeys scratched and pecked her during a walk. Turkeys in the wild are far stronger and faster than the ones that land on Thanksgiving tables, experts say. Males in particular are driven to show physical aggression as a way to climb the social pecking order, and they sometimes view humans as potential competitors. “Turkeys don’t really mean to harm people — it’s just tied to their social dynamics within the flock,” Scarpitti said. “They lose perspective that humans are humans and turkeys are turkeys. They just want to assert dominance over anything.”. Even the earliest Americans picked up on that characteristic, with Ben Franklin famously writing that the turkey is a “bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his farm-yard with a red coat on.”. In the town of Brookline, Tess Bundy has come to hate the turkeys that roost behind her home and often come charging when she leaves. She called police in April after a big tom repeatedly launched itself at her and her infant daughter, backing down only after Bundy whacked it several times with a shovel. “They’re terrible. Every year they’re worse,” said Bundy, a history professor at Merrimack College. “I really do think that they’re a menace to the town.”. Wildlife experts say much of the problem can be blamed on residents who leave out food for turkeys, which entices flocks to settle in and helps them survive winters. Towns with similar problems in New Jersey, Iowa and Oregon have banned turkey feeding in recent years. But the idea hasn’t spread to the Boston area, where some residents say they enjoy the return of native wildlife. Not far from two sites where turkeys were shot by police, Brookline resident Suzette Abbott says she’s had no problems with the turkeys that roam her block. “I don’t think they’re dangerous,” Abbott said. “In the spring they look pretty amazing when the males are displaying their colors. I think they’re quite beautiful if you actually look at their feathers.”.

The Boy Scouts of America will admit girls into the Cub Scouts starting next year and establish a new program for older girls geared toward achieving the Eagle Scout rank. Founded in 1910, the Boy Scouts have undergone major changes in the past five years, agreeing to accept openly gay youth members and adult volunteers, as well as transgender boys. The expansion of girls’ participation, announced Wednesday after unanimous approval by the organization’s board of directors, is arguably the biggest change yet. The Girl Scouts of the USA, which had tried to discourage the Boys Scouts from making this move, said they remained committed to their single-sex mission. “Girl Scouts is, and will remain, the scouting program that truly benefits U.S. girls by providing a safe space for them to learn and lead,” the Girl Scouts said in a statement. Many scouting organizations in other countries allow both boys and girls, and use gender-free names such as Scouts Canada. But for now, the Boy Scout label will remain. “There are no plans to change our name at this time,” spokeswoman Effie Delimarkos said in an email. Under the new plan, Cub Scout dens — the smallest unit — will be single sex. The larger Cub Scout packs will have the option to welcome girls and boys. The program for older girls is expected to start in 2019 and will enable girls to earn the same Eagle Scout rank that has been attained by astronauts, admirals and government leaders. Boy Scout leaders said the change was needed to provide more options for parents. “The values of scouting — trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind, brave and reverent, for example — are important for both young men and women,” said Michael Surbaugh, chief scout executive. The announcement follows many months of outreach by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), which distributed videos and held meetings to discuss possibility expanding girls’ participation beyond existing programs, such as Venturing, Exploring and Sea Scouts. Surveys conducted by the Boy Scouts showed strong support for the change among parents not connected to the scouts, including Hispanic and Asian families that the BSA has been trying to attract. Among families in the scouting community, the biggest worry, according to Surbaugh, was that the positive aspects of single-sex comradeship might be threatened. “We’ll make sure those environments are protected,” he said. During the outreach, some parents expressed concern about possible problems related to overnight camping trips. Surbaugh said there would continue to be a ban on coed overnight outings for scouts ages 11 to 14. Cub Scout camping trips, he noted, were usually family affairs with less need for rigid polices. The Girl Scouts, founded in 1912, and the BSA are among several major youth organizations in the United States experiencing sharp drops in membership in recent years. Reasons include competition from sports leagues, busy family schedules and a perception by some families that they are old-fashioned. As of March, the Girl Scouts reported more than 1.5 million youth members, down from just over 2 million youth members in 2014. The Boy Scouts say current youth participation is about 2.35 million, down from 2.6 million in 2013 and more than 4 million in peak years. Unlike the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts have maintained girls-only status for all their programs. The empowerment of girls is at the core of its mission, said Andrea Bastiani Archibald, a psychologist who provides expertise on development for the Girl Scouts’ national programming. “We know that girls learn best in an all-girl, girl-led environment,” Bastiani said.

The National Hockey League (NHL) season has gotten off to a flying start for the Washington Capitals. Sports Illustrated predicted that our hometown team would win the Stanley Cup this season. Then the Caps went out and won two of their first three games, with 11-time all-star Alexander Ovechkin scoring an amazing seven goals. (Check out Thursday's paper to see how the Caps did Wednesday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins.). So does this mean the Caps will march through the regular season and then the playoffs to win the Stanley Cup for the first time? It’s a long season — 82 games plus playoffs — and a lot can happen. But Washington should be good again. Even with Ovechkin, the Caps are certainly not a one-man team. Washington has several players — Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov and T.J. Oshie — who scored more than 50 points (that’s goals and assists) last season. And maybe this will be the year 22-year-old winger Andre Burakovsky becomes a star. Braden Holtby is as good as any goaltender in the NHL. So the Caps should be set on defense, too. All the pieces are in place for the Caps to win a third straight President’s Cup. That’s the trophy that goes to the NHL team with the best record during the regular season. Of course, doing well in the regular season and winning a Stanley Cup are two different things. Some Washington hockey fans think the Caps are “cursed” when in the playoffs. One look at the team’s history shows you why they think this way. According to research done by Washington Post sports columnist Thomas Boswell, in the 34 seasons from 1984 to 2017, the Washington Capitals have: • blown either a 2-0 or 3-1 game lead in a playoff series 10 times;. • lost the seventh game of a playoff series at home 13 times, including last May, when they lost 2-0 to the Penguins in the conference semifinals;. • lost to a lower-seeded team — in other words, a team they should have beaten — seven times in a series that went fewer than seven games. That is an unbelievable and sad record. No wonder some Capitals fans think their team will never win it all. Of course, I am sure there were plenty of Chicago Cubs fans who thought their team would never win a baseball World Series. The Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years last season. Sports is a place where things that are never supposed to happen do happen. Maybe this will be the season the Caps surprise everyone and win the Stanley Cup. They are good enough to do it. Bowen writes the sports opinion column for KidsPost. He is the author of 22 sports books for kids. Read more Score columns: NFL shows what it means to be a team. Sportswriter Mike Lupica can thank his son for inspiration. Why playing one sport year round just isn’t smart.

As wildfires continued to blaze across Northern California, the state’s top firefighter, Ken Pimlott, said that investigators have not yet determined the cause of any of the 17 major fires. California’s most dangerous wildfire season comes in autumn, when summer heat and insects have left brush dead and dried-out, and when winds are especially hot, dry and strong. “This is traditionally California’s worst time for fires,” Pimlott said Tuesday. Pimlott said firefighters typically respond to 300 blazes a week during this season, but nearly all are extinguished quickly and with minimal damage. However, conditions were ripe for wildfires after record rains last winter created an abundance of vegetation, which dried, then combined with low humidity and unusually high winds to create fast-moving infernos. None of the major fires have been contained. Napa County Fire Chief Barry Biermann said fires had been moving too fast and unpredictably for firefighters to attack them directly. Biermann and others said resources are stretched thin as firefighters battle so many major blazes simultaneously. More from KidsPost: Smokey Bear turns 70, still on mission to prevent wildfires. Where to collect fall leaves. California gets its own state dinosaur — after 66 million years. Narwhal exhibit sheds light on mysterious underwater mammal.

That’s one way scientists in the Arctic study the mysterious and hard-to-find whales. Just off a rocky beach, they set out a whale-size net marked with a bright buoy. Because the sun shines 24 hours a day in the Arctic summer, researchers take shifts day and night to watch the buoy. When it wiggles and pulls, the person on watch might shout, “Whale in the net!”. That’s when the scientists put on cold-water survival gear called dry suits. Then they jump into a boat and head out to the net. If they have caught a narwhal, the first thing they do is bring it to the surface so it can breathe. Then they gently haul the speckled whale to shallow water, being careful not to damage its spectacular spiral tusk. The scientists work quickly and quietly. They measure the animal, which is usually 13 to 20 feet long. They also help a veterinarian get samples of its skin and blood. Before releasing it, they attach a satellite transmitter to its dorsal ridge (the line along its backbone). For the next year, the transmitter will send data back to the scientists, helping them track the narwhal’s migration and diving patterns. The transmitter also sends information about water temperature and how salty the water is. “There is so much to learn about narwhals and their environment,” says research scientist Mari­anne Marcoux from Fisheries and Oceans Canada. “We don’t know much.”. Studying narwhals is tough because of the animals’ harsh habitat. So what do we know about narwhals? A lot of what scientists know comes from the Inuit, a native Arctic people who have lived alongside narwhals for thousands of years. Scientists estimate there are only about 80,000 narwhals, which live in waters off northern Canada, Greenland and Russia, surviving on halibut, cod, shrimp and squid. They are listed as “near threatened” by the International Union of Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Some say the narwhals’ tusks inspired stories of unicorns. Slightly off-center, a male’s tusk (it’s a tooth that can grow 10 feet long) protrudes from its upper jaw, always spiraling to the left. There are many theories about their purpose. The sensitive tusks may provide a narwhal information about water temperature. It may serve as a kind of wand used to stun fish to make them easier to eat. Other theories say the tusk is used for attracting females, fighting other males, breaking through ice or maybe fighting off predators such as killer whales. “This is one of the least-known animals in the world,” says William Fitzhugh, the curator of a new exhibit about these marvelous mammals at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The exhibit, which Marcoux also helped create, includes a reproduction of a narwhal that seems ready to swim through the display. It also includes real narwhal tusks and skulls and carved Inuit artwork. You can measure yourself against the height of a narwhal tusk and listen to the underwater sounds of the Arctic. There’s also recent scientific information about narwhals and Inuit stories of life in the Arctic. “The Arctic is a vast and untouched part of our world,” Fitz­hugh says. Visiting this narwhal exhibit is a great way to see what this part of the world is like and feel a part of it. What: "Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend," an exhibit about narwhals and life in the rapidly changing Arctic. Where: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, 1000 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington. When: Through 2019. For more information: Ask a parent to visit naturalhistory.si.edu/exhibits/narwhal.

If you could ask an astronaut orbiting in space any question, what would it be? Students from several Washington-area schools got to do that recently at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum as part of its “STEM in 30” program. Among other things, they wanted to know: Is it hard to move around up there? How do you know when it’s time for bed? What if you get sick? In a live video from space, astronaut Randy Bresnik was ready with the answers. He even had some props: freeze-dried food, floating candy and, in case of illness, a high-tech barf bag. Bresnik began a six-month stay on the International Space Station in July. The station's six-member crew has three Americans. As they orbit about 250 miles above Earth, they are doing experiments about living and working in space. Part of their job is telling young people about the challenges and rewards of space travel, something you might do in your lifetime. Bresnik has two children, ages 11 and 7, making him the ideal astronaut to star in a “STEM in 30” webcast. The 30-minute shows aim to hook students your age on STEM subjects — science, technology, engineering and math — in fun, creative ways. Bresnik floated around the space station module to display weightlessness. He showed how liquids form bubbles that also float if they escape their containers. He pinged an airborne candy ball off the camera before gulping it down. The crew exercises 90 minutes a day to stay fit. . . you’ve got to be careful not to shake your head too far. The space station travels five miles per second, circling Earth every 11⁄2 hours. Because the crew sees 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every 24 hours, they rely on their watches to tell them when it’s bedtime. Bresnik’s space hobby is taking photos. The colors and views from up there are “amazing,” he said, and every cloud is different. The crew members also watch lots of movies in their free time. “STEM in 30” broadcasts are interactive. Students can connect from anywhere using the Internet and submit questions for the experts. About 650 kids came to the Smithsonian to see Bresnik’s live video. “It was really cool,” said Emily Steed, 11, a sixth-grader at Providence Elementary in Fairfax County. “It’s not every day you get to actually talk to an astronaut in space.”. She’s in ninth grade at Washington’s Phelps High, which focuses on architecture, construction and engineering. Seeing Bresnik makes her want to become an engineer even more than before, she said. One of the toughest parts of space travel is missing your family. Amina asked Bresnik how he copes with that. He said it’s hard but no different from what military families face when a parent is overseas. He talks to his wife and kids a lot via email and satellite phone. One of the biggest thrills is the launch. The thrust of the four-booster rocket is like riding the fastest roller coaster, he said. And it lasts for 81⁄2 minutes! “STEM in 30” hosts Beth Wilson and Marty Kelsey think they have the best jobs ever. “A middle school student can’t fly out to an aircraft carrier or jump out of an airplane. There have been 32 webcasts since the program began in 2014. Topics they talk about and demonstrate include the Wright brothers, hot-air balloons, the Tuskegee Airmen, kites and moon rocks. Visit the archive at airandspace.si.edu/connect/stem-30. You can also check out future shows. The next show, on October 18, is called "Landing a Really Fast Plane on a Really Big Boat." Your hosts will teach math and science from the flight deck of the nuclear-powered carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower. (Always get an adult’s permission before visiting a website.

“It stuck to the roof of my mouth,” said Luca Duclos-Orsello. He’s talking about when he was 11 years old and his mother, Elizabeth, smushed creamy Marshmallow Fluff and gooey peanut butter into his mouth, and he licked her fingers clean. He was laughing so hard he couldn’t talk, and the goo was so thick he could hardly breathe. Mother and son had just won the Fluffernutter sandwich-making contest in 2013 at the annual Fluff festival in Somerville, Massachusetts. That suburb of Boston is where candymaker Archibald Query invented Marshmallow Fluff in 1917 and where Fluffernutters, a New England tradition, were born. The sandwich race required Luca’s mom to wear a blindfold and to run her hands under his arms from behind. While he gave instructions — “Fluff on the right, peanut butter on the left” — they first had to make a Fluffernutter, and Luca then had to take one big bite. When he swallowed it and could speak, the two of them had to sing the Fluffernutter song. “Oh, you need fluff, fluff, fluff, to make a Flutternutter,” they sang, gasping for air and covered with sticky fluff. “Mom was so cool,” Luca remembers, explaining that instead of using the little plastic knives that the competitors had been given to spread the Fluff and peanut butter, “Mom just used her fingers. . . . And made a mess, fast.”. That’s the messy magic of Query’s invention: It’s easy to use and eat. Before his invention, marshmallow creams, or fluffs, were made in small batches by hand, with sugar and egg whites whipped into a foam or gooey paste. Harder forms of marshmallow, used for s’mores and roasting, are made with gelatins and pectin — which are also used to make jellies and jams — so they keep their shape. The Somerville festival salutes Query because he figured out how to rig electric mixers, cookers and coolers to whip up big clouds of sugary white fluff, used today in fudge, icings, pies, pastry fillings, candies and other sweets. You might be surprised to learn that marshmallows date at least to ancient Egyptians and Romans. In ancient days, people dug marsh mallows — bushes that grow near swamps and rivers, including the Potomac — out of the ground as an edible vegetable, and they boiled the roots into a syrup. Egyptians mixed marshmallow syrup with honey to make sweets, while Romans sipped it raw as a cure for bad breath and dandruff. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has bottles of Marshmallow Health Pearls: hard little marshmallow nuggets sold as cures for headaches and liver problems in the 1890s. While marshmallows are still eaten throughout the Mediterranean area, marshmallow products in America no longer use actual syrup from marsh mallows. Marshmallow Fluff has not changed much over the years. Query sold the recipe around 1920 to candymakers H. Allen Durkee and Fred Mower. They spread the word about fluff and ways to use it, including a sandwich they called the Fluffernutter. The Durkee-Mower company still makes fluff in nearby Lynn, Massachusetts. But Somerville claims the sticky treat as its own. “We’re going to have a big party to celebrate 100 years of fluff,” said Mimi Graney, a local historian and author of “Fluff: The Sticky-Sweet Story of an American Icon,” to be published in February. She said this year’s centennial party includes a science fair, a fluff art exhibit, a cooking contest, fluff bowling, fluff eating contests and pin the tail on the fluff. There’s a fluff sandwich-making contest, too, “But Mom and I aren’t doing it this year,” said Luca, who’s now 14. “I’m getting too old for that.”. Read more from KidsPost: The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History celebrates inventions. Young entrepreneurs aim to show and sell. Driving school offers lessons on the Model T.

We know that you and your friends will probably be dressing up this Halloween, but what about your pets? About 16 percent of American families celebrating the holiday will dress up their animal companions, according to the National Retail Federation. Maybe your pet already rocks a sweater in the cold, but most animals aren’t used to wearing clothing or accessories. So how to keep your furry friend festive but also safe and comfortable? It’s important that their costumes don’t have too many small parts, such as buttons or strings, that they could eat, said Lori Bierbrier, director for community medicine for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Your cats or dogs won’t know the difference between their costume and their chew toys, so an adult should supervise dress-up time. An adult who can watch for signs of distress should put the costume on the pet as well. “Look for something the least intrusive,” Bierbrier said. Something that covers the face, such as a mask or an oversize hat, is a bad idea because it could prevent your pet from seeing, breathing or eating, she added. A sign that it’s time to take off the costume is changes in your pet’s behavior. If they’re growling, scratching themselves a lot or hiding, it’s a sure sign that they aren’t enjoying the costume. Some animals like to dress up, but others don’t, so keep them in costume only for as long as they seem happy. If you have your heart set on trick-or-treating with your dog, Bierbrier recommends getting him or her used to the costume ahead of time. Dress up your pup a few weeks before Halloween for short amounts of time, offering rewards so that the dog sees the costume as a good thing and not a sudden, unpleasant surprise. Otherwise, it might feel like you’re giving your pet a treat, but they probably won’t find it as sweet. Dressing up your dog? Or maybe your turtle will have a top hat? Have a parent upload photos of yourself with your best-dressed pets to wapo.st/petcostumes, and you could be featured in a future issue of KidsPost. Five entrants will be randomly selected to receive a KidsPost Halloween-themed prize package, including four tickets to the Imagination Stage production of "Charlotte's Web.". Read more from KidsPost: Get inspired for your own Halloween costume with these kids’ costumes. Ever wonder why we decorate for Halloween? Here’s a short history. Get energized for a night of trick-or-treating with this roasted pumpkin hummus recipe.

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a group of mostly young activists pushing for a global treaty to ban the bombs. The award of the $1.1-million prize comes amid heightened tensions over both North Korea’s aggressive development of nuclear weapons and President Trump’s persistent criticism of the deal to stop Iran’s nuclear program. The prize committee, which is based in Oslo, Norway, wanted “to send a signal to North Korea and the U.S. that they need to go into negotiations,” Oeivind Stenersen, a historian of the peace prize, told the Associated Press. “The prize is also coded support to the Iran nuclear deal. I think this was wise because recognizing the Iran deal itself could have been seen as giving support to the Iranian state.”. The Switzerland-based ICAN has campaigned actively for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted by 122 countries at the United Nations in July. On September 20, the first day the treaty was open for signature, 51 countries signed it and three submitted their ratifications. The treaty needs 50 ratifications to go into force, which advocates are confident will happen. The United States, Russia, Britain, France and China all boycotted the negotiations; India, Pakistan and North Korea did not vote. Last month in Berlin, Germany, ICAN protesters teamed up with other organizations to demonstrate outside the U.S. and North Korean embassies against the possibility of nuclear war between the two countries. The group “has been a driving force in prevailing upon the world’s nations to pledge to cooperate . . . in efforts to stigmatize, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons,” Norwegian Nobel Committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said in the announcement. The prize “sends a message to all nuclear-armed states and all states that continue to rely on nuclear weapons for security that it is unacceptable behavior. We will not support it, we will not make excuses for it,” ICAN Executive Director Beatrice Fihn told reporters Friday in Geneva, Switzerland. She said that she “worried that it was a prank” after getting a phone call just minutes before the official Peace Prize announcement was made. Fihn said she didn’t believe it until she heard the name of the group being proclaimed on television. “We are trying to send very strong signals to all states with nuclear arms, nuclear-armed states — North Korea, U.S., Russia, China, France, U.K., Israel, all of them, India, Pakistan — it is unacceptable to threaten to kill civilians,” she said. Anita Friedt, the U.S. acting assistant secretary of state for arms control, told the U.N. General Assembly this week that it would be irresponsible for the United States to support the treaty, citing the threat from North Korea.

Take a deep breath. It’s a nervous time of year. The Washington Nationals begin their Major League Baseball (MLB) playoff season with a best-of-five-games series against the Chicago Cubs on Friday. I go back and forth. Sometimes, I’m sure the Nats will beat the Cubs and go all the way to the World Series. Other times, I think they will lose their fourth playoff series in six years. Here are some reasons I’m sure the Nats will win. Record vs. playoff teams: The playoffs are different. Only the best teams are still around. No more games against the Philadelphia Phillies or Cincinnati Reds. Even though Washington had an easy schedule and won the National League East Division by 20 games, they also played well against playoff teams. The Nats had an excellent record of 17-12 (17 wins and 12 losses) against playoff teams. The Cubs weren’t so good. They were only 11-21 against playoff teams in 2017. Hopefully, the Cubs will keep losing against our playoff team — the Nats. Starting pitching: No team in baseball can match the Nats' two top starters: Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg. Washington has an unbelievable 86-31 record during the past two seasons in games when Scherzer or Strasburg started. That means the Nats win almost 75 percent of the games when Scherzer or Strasburg is on the mound. Healthy lineup: The Nats had lots of injuries this season. Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, Jayson Werth and Michael A. Taylor missed big chunks of the 2017 season. All those players are back, and the Nats have their starting lineup for the first time in a long time. That means the Nats should be able to score runs even against some of the best pitchers in the National League. But there are also reasons I’m nervous the Nats may lose to the Cubs and disappoint their fans again. The Cubs: Chicago is no pushover. They won the World Series in 2016, breaking a 108-year streak in which the Cubs had not won one. These Cubs know how to win pressure-packed games. Chicago is also red-hot. The Cubs have the most wins of any team in the National League since the all-star break, with a record of 49-25. (The Nats were 45-29). Luck: A five-game series is usually close, and one play can make a big difference. A blooper may drop in, or someone may make an unbelievable play on a scorching line drive. Anything can happen, and that's what makes playoff games fun but nerve-racking to watch. The good news is that the first two games start early and are not on school nights (Friday and Saturday). So young Nats fans can stay up for all nine innings. So watch. But take a deep breath. Bowen writes the sports opinion column for KidsPost. He is the author of 22 sports books for kids, including nine baseball books. Read more Score columns: Nationals bench players get them through tough times. Playing one sport year-round isn’t smart, even if you want to go pro.

The Trump administration announced Wednesday it will not list the Pacific walrus as a threatened species based on diminished Arctic Ocean sea ice, concluding that the marine mammals have adapted to the loss. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said they cannot determine with certainty that walruses are likely to become endangered “in the foreseeable future,” which the agency defines as the year 2060. The decision could be challenged in court by environmental groups, which say a decline in Arctic Ocean sea ice due to climate change is a threat to the walruses’ future. The agency said in 2011 that walruses deserve the additional protection of being declared threatened, but delayed a listing because other species were a higher priority. The agency revised the decision based on new information, said Patrick Lemons, the agency’s marine mammals management chief. “Walrus demonstrated much more ability to change their behaviors than previously thought,” Lemons said. Their ability to rest on shorelines before swimming to foraging areas makes the threat of less sea ice uncertain, he added. Older male walruses spend summers in the Bering Sea, which is west and south of Alaska. Females with calves, however, ride sea ice north as it melts in spring and summer all the way through the Bering Strait into the Chukchi Sea. The ice provides a moving platform, giving walruses a place to rest and nurse, and protection from predators. In the last decade, however, ice in the Arctic Ocean has melted far beyond the shallow continental shelf over water too deep for walruses to reach the ocean floor. Walruses instead have gathered by the thousands on beaches in northwestern Alaska and Russia, where smaller animals are vulnerable to being trampled in stampedes if the herd is spooked by a polar bear, hunter or airplane. In the past six years, Lemons said, protections put in place in Alaska and Russia have greatly reduced trampling deaths. Walruses also have shown a willingness to swim great distances — 130 miles or more — from coastal haul-outs to prime foraging areas. The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned to list walruses in 2008 because of diminished sea ice tied to global warming. Arctic sea ice this summer dropped to 1.79 million square miles, about 610,000 square miles below the 30-year average. Lemons said the Fish and Wildlife Service used climate models showing the Chukchi Sea between northwest Alaska and Russia could be ice-free in the summer by 2060. But he said information collected in the past six years makes predicting the walruses’ fate uncertain beyond then, so the decision was made not to list the species. Shaye Wolfe, climate science director for the Center for Biological Diversity, wrote the listing petition filed in February 2008. She said last week that the group would probably sue if walruses were not listed as a threatened species. Read more from KidsPost: Kids can help protect endangered animals. Gray wolves will stay on endangered species list. Pandas and humpback whales are conservation success stories.

Rita Williams-Garcia's "Clayton Byrd Goes Underground" was among five books named to the shortlist Wednesday for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. "Clayton Byrd" is about a boy who loves hanging out with his grand­father and other blues musicians. After his grandfather's death, Clayton runs away in hopes of joining the band. ­Williams-Garcia has written 12 children's books, including National Book Award finalist and Newbery Honor book "One Crazy ­Summer." "Clayton Byrd" was the only middle-grade novel to make the shortlist. Four young-adult works are also contenders for the National Book Foundation's annual award. They are "American Street" by Ibi Zoboi, "Far From the Tree" by Robin Benway, "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter" by Erika L. Sánchez and "What Girls Are Made of" by Elana K. Arnold. The foundation will announce a winner at November’s National Book Awards, which will also honor adult fiction, nonfiction and poetry books. Read more from KidsPost: Rita Williams-Garcia talks about ‘Gone Crazy in Alabama’. Girl sees segregation up close in ‘Midnight Without a Moon’. Graphic novel ‘March: Book 3’ wins 2016 National Book Award.

As a kid, Anthony Horowitz loved playing spy in the large garden of his house in Stanmore, England. He and his sister Caroline even had secret names: 008 for him, Mademoiselle X for her. “We used to sneak under the fence and spy on the people” in a nearby suite of offices, said Horowitz, the author of the best-selling Alex Rider novels, about a teenage spy. “Luckily, we were never caught.”. In Horowitz's new book, "Never Say Die," Alex gets caught several times by ruthless villains, but his cool spyware helps him to escape. He can turn his laptop into an eavesdropping device — and a bomb. But will these gadgets be enough to combat the villains' poison-tipped darts and enormous stolen helicopter? On October 13, Horowitz will talk about his book at the International Spy Museum in downtown Washington as part of a “Spooky Spy Family Night.” In addition to meeting Horowitz, you’ll be able run secret missions, crack spy codes and don disguises with the help of makeup artists. And see if you can get a glimpse of Horowitz’s favorite spyware from history, including a lipstick pistol and an Enigma cipher machine from World War II. Horowitz took a break of about six years from writing the Alex Rider novels to work on projects for adults. "I wrote 10 books about Alex and intended to stop," Horowitz said, "but I felt that I'd left him in a bad place after 'Scorpia Rising' and decided to . . . give him another adventure.". This new adventure takes Alex from San Francisco to Cairo, Egypt, and the French beaches of Saint-Tropez — all places that Horowitz has visited as well. “It’s important to describe everything accurately,” he said by email from his home in the center of London, England, where he can see St. Paul’s Cathedral from his window. Exotic travel isn’t the only thing that Horowitz and his young hero have in common: They were both bullied at school. Alex may be a well-trained spy, but he still has to put up with the jeers, threats and punches of guys who gang up on those who are younger and smaller. “It’s strange that bullying never seems to go away,” Horowitz said. “It’s why I now work for a charity called Kidscape, [which] helps children who are being bullied, either at school or on the Internet, by showing them how to handle the situation without violence or confrontation.”. Horowitz never seems to run out of projects or ideas. Alex Rider is being adapted for television, and Horowitz is involved in the process though not writing the scripts. And Alex returns next summer in a new novel, “Secret Weapon.” Horowitz also is working on novels for adults about two world-famous characters — James Bond and Sherlock Holmes — whose original authors have died. This is “quite a challenge,” Horowitz said. “[Authors] Ian Fleming and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were such brilliant writers that I really have to raise my game to write like them.”. Despite his busy schedule, Horowitz always makes time for his wife and two sons and for long walks to the Thames River with his dog. “All writers need to get out of the house,” he said, then offered this advice: “Get out, have adventures! You need something to write about.”. What: Anthony Horowitz will speak and sign books at "Spooky Spy Family Night.". Where: International Spy Museum, 800 F Street NW, Washington. When: October 13 from 6 to 9 p.m. How much: $14 per person. Children must be accompanied by adults, with at least one for every five children. Purchase tickets by phone or at spymuseum.org/spookyspy. Best for: Ages 7 to 13. For more information: Call 202-654-0933 or check the website spymuseum.org. Read more from KidsPost: Four books about the wonders of books and writing. ‘Captain Underpants’ author talks about new character. Kelly Barnhill talks about her Newbery-winning book, ‘The Girl Who Drank the Moon’.

Three U.S.-based scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for detecting faint ripples flying through the universe — the gravitational waves predicted a century ago by Albert Einstein. Rainer Weiss of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Barry Barish and Kip Thorne of the California Institute of Technology won the 2017 prize for a combination of highly advanced theory and equipment design, Sweden’s Royal Academy of Sciences announced. The scientists were key to the first observation of gravitational waves in September 2015. When the discovery was announced several months later, it was a sensation among not only scientists but also the general public. “These gravitational waves will be powerful ways for the human race to explore the universe,” said Thorne, speaking by phone from California. The prize is "a win for Einstein, and a very big one," Barish said. Gravitational waves are extremely faint ripples in the fabric of space and time, generated by some of the most violent events in the universe. The waves detected by the laureates came from the collision of two black holes about 1.3 billion light-years away. A light-year is about 5.88 trillion miles. Ariel Goobar of the Royal Academy said the winners' work meant "we can study processes which were completely impossible, out of reach to us in the past.". "The best comparison is when Galileo discovered the telescope, which allowed us to see that Jupiter had moons. And all of a sudden, we discovered that the universe was much vaster than we used to think about," Goobar said. With the technology that the three developed, "we may even see entirely new objects that we haven't even imagined yet," said Patrick Sutton, an astronomer at Cardiff University in Wales. The first of the 2017 prizes was announced Monday with the medicine prize being given to three Americans studying human body clocks. Prizes in chemistry, literature and peace also will be awarded this week. Read more from KidsPost: Last year, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for literature. At 17, Malala Yousafzai was the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Fifth-grader Dominic Feder Di Toro bounds to the curb on Connecticut Avenue on a busy Monday morning, his backpack bouncing to the rhythm of his pounding feet. He glimpses the bright white walk sign beckoning from the other side of the six-lane road. He looks back at his friends. “We got it,” he tells them in an authoritative tone. The fifth-graders bunch up, step into the crosswalk and hustle across the street. The volume of their chatter rises above the rumble of a trash truck turning the corner, a convoy of impatient tour buses caught at the red light and the distant siren of an emergency vehicle. Dominic — or Nic, as his friends call him — and the gaggle of friends he’s walking with attend Oyster-Adams Bilingual School in Northwest Washington. Together on a “walking school bus,” these kids trek through an urban jungle every day to get to school. “I love walking with my friends to school,” Lizey Leibovich says. “This way, we have half an hour to hang out before school. And when you get to school, you can say, ‘I just walked a mile.’ You just feel good.”. The miles add up, even though these kids have so much fun they hardly notice that they’re walking more than five miles a week or nearly 200 miles in a school year. The walking school bus is an idea that’s gaining traction in the Washington area as a way to encourage kids to walk to school. So what is a walking school bus, exactly? “It’s like a carpool, except we walk,” says 10-year-old CJ Stanton, who “rides” with Nic and Lizey. “There are different little stops, and the group just keeps getting bigger and bigger with more and more kids the closer we get to school.”. At one stop, their friend Zara Escobar runs out from her apartment building. Some mornings, she grabs mints from the building’s front desk to share with her friends. A walking school bus such as theirs involves students walking a planned route with a parent “driver” every day or even just once a month. Other versions meet at designated spots from which “riders” walk to school together. In Vienna, Virginia, students at Vienna Elementary participate in “Walking Wednesdays” and “Biking Fridays” each week. “Even on rainy days, the walking school bus is fun,” says Jennifer Hefferan, who works for the D.C. Department of Transportation. Part of her job is to help schools create safe routes for kids to get to school. “Splashing in puddles is fun, and walking is fun. Our feet have power.”. Walking school buses (or “walk pool” as Nic, Lizey, CJ and Zara’s group calls it) help parents save time because they take turns supervising the walk. It also saves energy and cuts down on neighborhood traffic. Having fewer cars on the road means better air quality and less gasoline used. It also provides kids an opportunity for exercise and fun. But there are rules, such as being on time, staying on the sidewalk and crossing only on green lights and within the crosswalks. Nic says another rule is that “your feet should move way faster than your lips.”. “But that doesn’t usually happen,” Ruthie Williams points out. “Because Nic’s usually singing,” adds Ruthie’s twin sister, Georgie. On Wednesday, schools around the world will celebrate the fun of walking with friends and the power of pedestrians (and their feet) on International Walk to School Day. Capitol Hill students will meet in Lincoln Park that day for a rally before school. Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School holds an annual “Walk and Roll” event in which kids walk to school from a drop-off point, hiking up the steep hill that leads to the school with cheerleaders cheering along the way. Parents driving to school that day have to pay a $1 car “tax.”. Lafayette Elementary in Washington’s Chevy Chase neighborhood organizes multiple walking school buses and awards prizes for all participants. In Takoma Park, Maryland, on Walk to School Day, student walkers at Rolling Terrace Elementary will carry banners and honor student safety patrols. The school will host an outdoor assembly, with police officers and community leaders talking about the importance of walking or biking and why it’s good for everyone. “Part of Walk to School Day is about safety and encouraging parents and students to choose walking and biking over driving,” says Lucy Neher, who works as the Safe Routes to School coordinator for the city of Takoma Park. It’s also teaching pedestrian safety to walkers and teaching drivers to be more careful around pedestrians. “It wakes up kids’ minds and their senses,” she says. It also builds what she calls “street smarts” and helps kids maintain a connection to the outdoors. Neher recalls a boy who said he felt famous on Walk to School Day. “He thought it was a parade,” Neher says. “There’s nothing about walk pool that’s not good,” says Lizey Leibovich’s mom, Meri Kolbrener, who started the “bus” that travels 1.3 miles each morning from Woodley Park to the Adams campus of Oyster-Adams Bilingual School. The “bus” runs every day unless it’s colder than 25 degrees outside or it’s pouring rain. Kolbrener says the effort invested in setting up what she calls “walk pool” saves parents hundreds of hours throughout the school year. “It’s one of those ‘it takes a village’ moments where the parents are taking care of each others’ kids one morning a week,” she says. Here’s Kolbrener’s advice for how families can start their own walking school bus: • Create a route that participants agree on. • Insist that the kids take responsibility for getting to the bus on time. If a kid is late, he or she will have to catch up. • Keep the bus schedule strict, but allow changes if necessary. • Use technology: Collect every parent’s cellphone number so you can communicate easily. (Safe Routes to School also has a walking school bus guide at bit.ly/1jWm0lU.). To learn more about International Walk to School Day and see pictures of kids taking part in walk-to-school events, check out www.walkbiketoschool.org. Always ask a parent before going online.

Near Arlington’s courthouse, three unusual round wooden objects are attracting attention and exploration by people of all ages. Some think they look like amusement park rides. To Hadley Christiansen, 3, of Arlington, “they look like salad bowls.”. Hadley was close. This urban furniture exhibit, on display until November 1, is called “Meeting Bowls.”. Two of the designers, Emilio Alarcón and Eva Salmerón, from Madrid, Spain, recently visited Arlington to talk about these unique seating areas. Collaborating with two other artists in Madrid, they create interactive public art — art that encourages people to become a part of it rather than just being observers. Then they partner with community groups around the world — in this case, Arlington Arts — to see how their ideas work. “A circle is the perfect geometric shape,” Alarcón said. Salmerón adds: “It’s impossible to be silent in a Meeting Bowl. The design, with sides resembling open window blinds, seats eight and gives visitors a sense of looking out from a cozy room. An earlier version of the bowls, which rocked, appeared in New York’s Times Square in 2011. These bowls will travel to Miami after leaving Arlington. The designers’ company is called “Mmmm . . . ,” like the sound you might make when coming up with a new idea. For example, “Mmmm, what if . . . ?” Salmerón said the group chose the name because “anyone can pronounce it as they wish.”. Arlington resident Harvey Fayhee, 7, and his family enjoy outdoor family meetings, often including a child-chosen topic. Harvey and his mom, dad, sister Charlotte and grandma recently sat inside a Meeting Bowl while discussing mermaids. “I like these because you can see each other’s faces while talking,” Harvey said. “They would give kids, especially shy kids, the chance to get to know each other.”. “You can see the personality of a community,” said Salmerón, “by watching how people react in and out of the bowls.”. Alarcón noted, “People in the United States seem very interactive, open to conversation.”. Recently, Stephanie Ochoa, 10, and her brother Luis, 5, visited the meeting bowls while helping their dad with his vegetable stand at the nearby farmers market. After climbing inside and sitting quietly across from each other while looking around the bowl, they relaxed and began chatting. “I think this could work,” said Stephanie, smiling. Salmerón’s son, Nico, 10, who lives in Madrid, was one of the first kids to try the Meeting Bowls six years ago. In an email, he described thinking of them then as “mysterious” and “like flying saucers.”. “I know the Meeting Bowls are going to amuse you,” Nico said. Would you step inside one if other people were already there? Duke Shackleford, 10, of Arlington considered it while watching people use the bowls as he enjoyed breakfast nearby with his dad. “If it was just kids my age, I’d be more likely to go in,” he said. What is next for Mmmm . . . ? They would like a permanent place for the Meeting Bowls, Salmerón said, and “we want to make a playground.”. Upon hearing of that dream, Duke exclaimed, “I would love that!”. Read more from KidsPost: At corn mazes, getting lost is part of the fun. Where to collect fall leaves. Kids in Parks encourages families to hit the trails. What: Public art called "Meeting Bowls.". Where: 1310 North Courthouse Road, Arlington. When: Daily until November 1. Hint: On Saturdays, the Arlington Farmers Market next door is open from 8 a.m. to noon. Metered parking in lot or on street; free parking in garage below 2150 Clarendon Boulevard during the farmers market. Special event: A closing party for the exhibit on October 28 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The free event will include snacks, a walking tour and the opportunity to meet interactive artist Linda Hesh at her nearby exhibit, “Put the ‘i’ in C_vic.”. For more information: Ask a parent if you can visit publicart.arlingtonva.us.

The leader of Spain’s Catalonia region called Monday for help from European leaders in working out the region’s move to be independent. The request comes a day after a violent crackdown by Spanish police trying to block Catalonians from voting on whether they wanted to separate from Spain. Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont said he would file a complaint against Spanish police after officers fired rubber bullets, smashed into polling stations Sunday and beat back protesters with batons. Puigdemont urged Spain’s national police reinforcements to leave the area. Spanish authorities said police acted professionally. And Spain’s interior minister said that the 5,000 extra officers sent to Catalonia would stay as long as necessary. Catalan officials say an overwhelming majority of voters supported independence, but Spain’s central government has repeatedly condemned the referendum as illegal. Most European governments haven’t backed Catalonia’s independence, fearing the same thing could happen in other nations. The Catalan president said the regional parliament plans to declare independence in the next few days. So far, the European Union, the United States and most international bodies have backed Spain in its stance against Catalan independence. The E.U. on Monday urged all sides in Spain to move from confrontation to dialogue. "These are times for unity and stability," E.U. Catalonia, with the city of Barcelona as its capital, represents one-fifth of Spain's economy. Polls consistently show that while most of its 7.5 million residents favored a referendum, they are roughly evenly split on independence from Spain. Those in favor of secession argue that the region contributes more to the national government than it receives in return. Catalonians already enjoy a wide measure of autonomy but the central government still controls taxation and other financial levers, as well as infrastructure projects. Read more from KidsPost: Britain votes to leave the European Union. How has Europe changed over the past century? Festival picks the best gelato in Europe?

An owl that was hit by a truck last spring and traveled from Massachusetts to New Hampshire wedged between the truck cab and trailer is ready to hunt crawfish and moles again. The bird’s wings and tail feathers were shattered and it showed signs of head trauma after the bird was discovered by the truck driver and turned over to an owl rehabilitator in Epping, New Hampshire. Jane Kelly helped care for the owl over the past six months and said the bird, named Trucker, was released Saturday in Wilmington, Massachusetts, where the mishap originally occurred. Kelly said the owl was ready to take flight and head home. New Hampshire Fish and Game conservation officer Chris McKee said it’s a miracle the owl survived the ordeal. He said the owl was probably trying to hunt for rodents along the highway when it collided with the truck. Truckers Will Sword and Tyler Buckley, based in Londonderry, New Hampshire, were on the road in Massachusetts when they heard a bang. At first, they thought the truck had hit a tree. But when they stopped and Buckley got out to investigate, he was shocked to see an owl trapped between the cab and the cargo hold. He recalled it was flapping its wings and trying to escape. New Hampshire State Police referred them to Kelly, who advised the truckers to gently remove the bird from the truck with heavy gloves to avoid the sharp talons, keep it warm with a blanket and place it in a box. “It’s been a long haul,” said Kelly, who runs a rehabilitation and education center for birds of prey. She said besides signs of head trauma, the owl seemed to be an older bird that may be getting cataracts, or cloudy eye lenses. Read more from KidsPost: Local farms raise unusual birds that are native to Australia. Kids compete in the World Series of birding. Monarch butterflies could use your help.

Hassan Youssef was 10 years old when a local Syrian composer discovered his talent: a deep, powerful voice that was particularly well-suited to traditional songs. It wasn’t long, however, before Syria’s grinding civil war nearly shattered Youssef’s hope of polishing his natural gift. He and his family left their home in a suburb of Damascus and traveled to Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley to become one of the millions of Syrians living in refugee camps around the region. When the Action for Hope Music School announced it was seeking talented children among the refugee community in Lebanon to train, Youssef’s family encouraged him to enroll. A year and half later, the now-14-year-old Youssef is one of two dozen children who graduated from the program, which was capped by a busy and lively concert in a central Beirut theater this month. Youssef, a lead singer in the concert, had come a long way from the early days of the war when a mortar round — a type of bomb — fell near his family’s home. “We only heard the sound of a mortar. It fell near us,” said Youssef, whose shy manner contrasts with a confident performance of traditional Syrian songs. “When we looked it had apparently brought down a whole building. That is all I remember.”. Music, he says, “makes one forget everything. Music is the most important thing.”. Youssef is one of nearly 3 million children who have been displaced by the war. In Lebanon, there are more than 1 million registered refugees, nearly half of them children. The United Nations-funded Action for Hope program Youssef attended has trained 24 of those displaced children for over a year and a half. It also aims to preserve the musical heritage of Syria and the region, offering classes in theory and the history of Arabic music, and teaching students the oud or buzuq, stringed instruments used in classical Arabic and Turkish music, as well as traditional songs from different parts of Syria and the region. The crowd at the graduation concert, many of them proud family members, cheered enthusiastically as the children played more than a dozen songs from Syria, Egypt and Turkey. The crowd sang along and clapped. Youssef received a long cheer after performing an old, deep-voiced song. Basma el-Husseiny, director of Action for Hope, said the music school offers children who have lived through a trauma a way to express themselves and stop thinking of themselves as victims. It emanates from the ability to create and at the same time to appreciate creativity,” Husseiny said. “This strength is needed by people who are marginalized, deprived and undergoing difficult circumstances much more than the rich.”. Fawaz Baker, a Syrian music adviser for the project and the former head of a music academy in Aleppo, said he picked 24 children from 200 students who applied. He chose to train them in a wide range of songs from the region. “We tried to diversify, so that the children can choose in the future,” he said. Action for Hope is now taking its program to Jordan, where 20 new Syrian students have enrolled to learn music.

A different kind of driving lesson — in a vehicle with a top speed of 40 miles per hour that hasn’t been produced in nearly a century — is gaining traction in western Michigan. More than 500 people, including at least one too young to get a license, have learned to drive a Model T at the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners this year. “[At] first, I was terrified. Absolutely terrified that I was going to break something, but then you realize that these things were built bulletproof,” said Keith Maes, a 49-year-old from Kentwood, Michigan, who was one of two dozen people who took part in a recent Model T class. The four-hour class costs $105 and includes three student drives and three ride-and-observe sessions inside Henry Ford’s motorcar for the masses. The cars were produced from 1908 to 1927. Instructors such as Jim Brand are there every step of the way, sometimes needing to hand-crank the Model T if the novice drivers stall it, or cause it to stop running. Brand is a longtime Model T fan. Really long. The 92-year-old drove Model T’s as a teenager living in Dearborn, Michigan, Henry Ford’s home town and the current home of the auto company he pioneered. Brand has a 1926 model that he drives in parades, at graduations and weddings. “I owned three Model T’s in high school. They were cheap. High school kids look for cheap cars,” said Brand, a retired college professor who lives in Stanwood, Michigan. Once the students complete the course, they attend a graduation ceremony, where they are presented with a book about the Model T, a DVD of vintage newsreel footage and a driving school certificate. Maes received his certificate on a day when history was made. Alan Bennett from suburban Detroit became the youngest person ever to complete the class — an achievement that was noted at the ceremony. “It was fun, really, because I only did go-carts before,” said the 12-year-old, whose father, a designer with General Motors, cheered him on and took pictures as his son went on the various drives.

What team has the most World Series Championships? Getty Images. True or false: The World Series champions were always awarded rings. Which two teams have not made it to a World Series? Seattle Mariners and Baltimore Orioles. Seattle Mariners and Washington Nationals. Chicago Cubs and Washington Nationals. San Diego Padres and Washington Nationals. What ballclub is the only one in Major League history to win a World Series in the three cities it called home? Athletics. AP. Who threw the only perfect game in playoff history? Which player was nicknamed "Mr. October" for his outstanding playoff performances? Babe Ruth. Barry Bonds. True or false: There has always been a wild card team in the playoffs.

With the controversy swirling around President Trump and the National Football League (NFL), I thought it might be a good time to talk about teams and being a good teammate. At a rally in Alabama on Friday, the president spoke about the NFL players who have knelt or sat down during the playing of the national anthem to protest police violence against people of color across the United States. Trump called the peaceful protesters mean names and said NFL team owners should get rid of any players who “disrespect our flag.”. On Sunday, NFL players and some owners showed the president what it means to be a team. When the national anthem began at NFL stadiums everywhere, players stood, knelt down, sat, held hands, locked arms, raised fists or stayed in their locker rooms. They did different things to show how they felt, but they did them together. And isn’t that what being a team is all about? Professional football teams wear uniforms that make them look alike, but they are all different people. Some are from the country; others are from the city. Some are religious; others never see the inside of a church. And they certainly do not hold the same views on such complicated social issues as how the police treat people of color. But they put these differences aside to work together to become the best team they can be. That’s why I think it’s important for kids to play team sports, which help them learn to get along with other kids and become good teammates. A good teammate encourages the other players and doesn’t call them names or drag them down. A good teammate makes everyone feel important and part of the team. I often tell kids and their parents that most kids who play recreational sports do not go on to play sports in high school. Very few high school athletes play in college. So if we are not teaching our young athletes to become better teammates and better people, we are missing the point of youth sports. Kids will be on lots of teams during their lives. Students putting on a school play or putting out a school newspaper are a team. People on a job are a team. And even the United States — a huge country with people from many races and backgrounds — is a team. Those teams don’t succeed by calling people names or saying they are not wanted. Teams do a lot better when their members work together and respect one another. We need everyone, from President Trump down to the benchwarmers of a neighborhood soccer squad, to be good teammates. And I’m glad NFL teams are showing us how. Bowen writes the sports opinion column for KidsPost. He is the author of 22 sports books for kids.

Many people in Puerto Rico have seen no government help since Hurricane Maria tore up the U.S. territory last week, leaving nearly all 3.4 million people on the island without power and most without water. “We’re waiting.”. The recovery has largely been a do-it-yourself affair for many residents outside San Juan, the capital. People collect water from wells and streams, clear roads and repair their own homes. Several thousand U.S. federal employees are in Puerto Rico, but they are mostly visible in San Juan. They have supplied generators to hospitals and food and water to hard-hit communities. They have fixed power at the airport and are working on the island’s electrical grid. Governor Ricardo Rosselló and Jenniffer González-Colón, the island’s representative in Congress, say they intend to seek more than $1 billion in federal aid. Still, it is hard to avoid the fact that the response looks different from previous ones. After hurricanes in Louisiana, Texas and Florida, waves of trucks from power companies in other states descended in long convoys, something that is obviously not possible on an island 1,000 miles southeast of the U.S. mainland. After the devastating earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, the U.S. military sent ships, and the skies over Haiti seemed to be filled with heavy-lift helicopters and planes carrying emergency relief, though the scale of that disaster was far worse. Hurricane Maria was the strongest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in nearly 100 years, and officials say the cost of recovery will be much larger than that of the punishing Hurricane Georges in 1998. Whatever the final bill, Valentin just hopes it will factor in people like her. "If FEMA helps us, we are going to build again," she said.

Click here for craft projects. Hooray for fall! Even though you’ve put away your bathing suit, there are lots of new outdoor adventures for the crisp, cool days ahead. One of the best ways to spend free time this fall is to savor the beauty of leaves once their bright green color gives way to incredible hues of oranges, reds and yellows. You don’t have to join travelers heading to Skyline Drive to enjoy autumn’s splendor because there are plenty of local parks to explore. Let’s look at some free fall foliage spots nearby . . . Patuxent River Park, 16000 Croom Airport Road, Upper Marlboro. (www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/drivepg.asp). Wetland and river views offer a wonderful opportunity to see nature at its finest. Enjoy a special “Kids Day in the Kountry” on October 12 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event includes pony rides, pumpkin decorating and woodworking and blacksmithing demonstrations. (For more information, go to www.pgparks.com/page60559.aspx. Or, your family can enjoy a Sunday-only drive through the park, featuring woods, fields and marshes along the Patuxent River. The 4.3-mile route includes opportunities to get out and enjoy the setting. Scott’s Run Nature Preserve, 7400 Georgetown Pike, McLean (use the parking lot at the intersection of Route 193 and Swink’s Mill Road). (www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/scottsrun). Some paths require scrambling over rocks, but the most direct route to the Potomac River is by a wide, rolling, half-mile gravel path at the back of this parking lot. Have fun crossing the creek twice on concrete steppingstones. At the river, you’ll find gorgeous views and a surprise waterfall. (www.nps.gov/rocr). Few fall scenes can top those found in this urban park. Winding paths, huge rocks, gentle streams, an amazing nature center . . . Rock Creek Park has it all. The nature center offers free maps of the park’s 32 miles of trails. The park will celebrate its 123rd birthday Saturday with the Rock Creek Park Day Festival from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event includes two hikes, animal programs, a Civil War program, pony rides and a history of the park.

About this time of year, corn grows “as high as an elephant’s eye.” That’s a line from a song in a musical called “Oklahoma!,” but Virginia and Maryland also have plenty of golden stalks tall enough to get lost in. And getting lost is part of the fun at several area farms, where mazes cut into greenery spread across acres. From high above, a scene is visible — a superhero or perhaps a movie character. But on the ground, it’s just dirt paths that twist, turn and sometimes dead-end. Thankfully, there are clues and games to help you navigate (and even flags to signal for help). Once you have conquered the maze, the farms offer many reasons to stick around: games, rides, crafts and food. As several farms say, it’s much more fun than “a walk in the stalks.”. The maze known for its corny themes strikes again with “Pirates of the Corn-ibbean.” In addition to the five-acre maze, activities include giant slides, hayrides, an obstacle course and pumpkin slingshots. There are also farm animals to pet and pumpkins for sale. Where: 4501 Old Tavern Road, The Plains, Virginia. Saturday-Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Additional days and hours beginning in October.). How Much: $11, $9 age 12 and younger, free for age 3 and younger. For more information: Call 540-456-7339 or visit­­ ­cornmazeintheplains.com. A firetruck, an ambulance and a police car are part of the seven-acre first-responders-themed maze at Montpelier. The experience includes games to play while in the maze. (There’s also a smaller maze for little brothers and sisters.) Admission includes rides on a 100-foot hill slide, hayrides, pedal carts, a roping range, a moon bounce, crafts and a bonfire. Pumpkin patch and pumpkin chunkin’ are an added cost. Where: 1720 Crain Highway North, Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Saturday 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Also Friday evenings in October.). How much: $12, free for age 2 and younger. For more information: Call 410-320-0464 or visit ­montpelierfarms.com. The theme for this year’s 12-acre maze is “America’s Superheroes,” with designs honoring the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. Other activities include wagon rides, giant slides, piglet races, tug-of-war, jumping pillows and “farmer golf.” Pumpkins for sale. Fireworks on Friday and Saturday evenings. Where: 5620 Butterfly Lane, Frederick, Maryland. When: Daily through October 31. Monday-Thursday 1 to 7 p.m., Friday 1 to 10 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. How much: $10-$17, free for age 2 and younger. For more information: Call 301-620-9316 or visit ­summersfarm.com. TEMPLE HALL FARM. The farm’s 20-acre corn maze features scarecrows, pumpkins and other symbols of fall. The festival includes a hay fort, jumping pillows, paintball, farm animals, corn cannons and pig races. Pumpkins and pumpkin blaster are additional charge. When: Until November 7, Friday 5 p.m. to 10 a.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. How much: $8-$11 ages 3 to 11, $10-$14 age 12 and older, free for age 2 and younger. For more information: Call 703-779-9372 or visit novaparks.com/parks/temple-hall-farm-regional-park. WAYSIDE FARM. Pokémon is the star of this year’s 10-acre maze. There are also pig races, a pumpkin playhouse, a jumping pillow, slides and a goat walk (similar to a high-wire act). When: Saturdays and Sundays until October 29. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (See website for holiday and evening hours.). Where: 5273 Harry Byrd Highway, Berryville, Virginia. How much: $10 per person, free for age 2 and younger. For more information: Call 540-539-3276 or visit ­waysidefarmfun.com. Read more from KidsPost: Kids in Parks encourages families to hit the trails. Bring fall color inside with leaf crafts.

Saudi Arabia says it will allow women to drive for the first time in the ultraconservative kingdom beginning next summer. The kingdom, which announced the change Tuesday, was the only the country in the world to bar women from driving and for years had received negative publicity internationally for detaining women who defied the ban. The announcement, which has been welcomed by the United States, represents a significant opening for women in Saudi Arabia, where women’s rights have steadily and slowly gained ground over the years. The government granted them the right to vote and run in elections in late 2015. But Saudi women remain largely under the control of male relatives who act as their guardians. They can’t accept jobs, for example, without a guardian’s permission. Some very conservative religious leaders in Saudi Arabia, who have power in the courts and schools, had warned against allowing women to drive. They argued it would corrupt society and lead to sin. But King Salman and his young son and heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, have recently given women more freedoms. They were allowed into the country’s main stadium in the capital, Riyadh, for national day celebrations. The stadium had previously been reserved for all-male crowds to watch sporting events. The king and his son have also opened the country to more entertainment and fun. Starting in June women will be able to get licenses, the official Saudi Press Agency reported. A committee will be formed to look into how to implement the new order. Women in Saudi Arabia have long had to rely on male relatives to get to work, run errands and simply move around. The more affluent have male drivers and more recently, in major cities, women could access ride hailing apps such as Uber and Careem. Women’s rights activists since the 1990s have been pushing for the right to drive, saying it represents their larger struggle for equal rights under the law.

Four new books celebrate the unlimited possibilities of books, old and new. Two that focus on libraries show the power of collecting and protecting the past. The other two explore what inspired present-day authors when they were kids and how they pursued their craft. Any and all of these books could inspire you to write down your own ideas and stories. The British Library has 400 miles of shelves, 15 floors (five below the ground) and 150 million items, so this slim, dynamically illustrated book can only hint at what it holds and preserves. Highlights include the library’s oldest book (dating from the 7th century), its biggest (a gigantic atlas that requires six people to lift), as well as the original manuscripts of such famous books as “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” An early set of William Shakespeare’s plays is so valuable that it’s kept deep underground in a bombproof room. Arturo Schomburg (1874-1938) was a treasure hunter who was interested in historical knowledge rather than money and jewels. He searched for the important but little-known contributions that people of African heritage had made to the world. Carole Boston Weatherford’s descriptions and Eric Velasquez’s illustrations make clear how tirelessly Schomburg searched for books, pamphlets and art that could “tell our stories, proclaim our glories.” They also provide intriguing mini-portraits of the people (such as Benjamin Banneker and Phillis Wheatley) who inspired Schomburg. Although he died about 80 years ago, his library in New York City is a national historic landmark, as big and bustling as ever. Is it hard to imagine that the authors and illustrators you admire ever struggle with their work? This fun book goes back to where all of these children’s book legends started — a time when they were kids trying to get their ideas onto paper. The 26 entries, each of which features a childhood photograph, include the pages of a chapter book Marla Frazee wrote and illustrated when she was in third grade, a book created by Grace Lin when she was in middle school, and a poem written by 12-year-old Kwame Alexander to his adored mother, who, of course, framed it. With humor and swift pacing, the author of the “Joey Pigza” books and “Dead End in Norvelt” spills all of his writing secrets about making stories out of everyday life. The key, he says, is writing ideas down as you have them and then giving them structure and emotion. He shares his early stories and explains how he developed into the observant author he has become. It will probably make you want to read Gantos’s stories as well as to create your own. Read more on books from KidsPost: Beyond “Captain Underpants”: Dav Pilkey talks about new ‘Dogman’ book. Two boys get a lesson in courage in Jason Reynolds‘s “As Brave as You”. Childhood accident inspires Ruth Behar’s latest book.

It took about 66 million years, but a duck-billed creature has won recognition as California’s state dinosaur. Governor Jerry Brown announced Saturday the signing of a bill making (pronounced Aw-gus-tin-o-lo-fus) the official dinosaur of the Golden State. “Highlighting a dinosaur that has such a deep connection to our state will stimulate interest in paleontology and science overall, particularly with children,” assembly member Richard Bloom said in March, when he introduced the bill. Fossilized remains of the plant­eater that lived from 66 million to 100 million years ago have been found only in California. Several other states and Washington, D.C., also have official dinosaurs. Washington’s dinosaur is called “Capitalsaurus.” The fossil of the only known specimen was found on Capitol Hill by construction workers in 1898. The giant beast is believed to be a meat-eater that lived 95 million to 130 million years ago. Later that year, Maryland named the , a large, long-necked creature, its official dinosaur. The plant eater lived in the state around the same time as its neighbor Capitalsaurus. Read more from KidsPost: Newly named dinosaur makes T. rex look tiny.

It wouldn’t feel like fall without the sight, smell and oh-so-familiar crunch of fallen leaves. But why do some trees change their colors — and then give up their leaves — as autumn sets in? First, a bit about why leaves are usually green. Humans have to eat food to get the nutrients that keep us alive, but plants use the sun to power photosynthesis (pronounced fo-toe-SYN-thuh-sis), which turns water and the carbon dioxide in air into delicious, nutritious sugar. The secret to this sweet process is chlorophyll (CLORE-o-fill), which absorbs sunlight and happens to be green. As winter approaches, the sun stays up for less time every day. That makes it hard for chlorophyll to keep trees sugared up, leaving them dependent on extra food from the summer. Trees stop producing new chlorophyll, because doing so would be a waste of energy, and soon there’s none left. That explains where the green goes. But where do all those oranges and reds and yellows come in? Chlorophyll usually steals the spotlight, but leaves also contain other pigments (that’s a substance that provides color), including the ones that make carrots orange and turn egg yolks yellow. Without chlorophyll’s green, these pigments finally make themselves known. Sometimes, trees also produce the same red pigments that give raspberries their color. Leaves make those red pigments only in the fall, and scientists aren’t sure why it happens. But it must be for a good reason, because it takes a lot of sugar — which the tree needs to save up as much as possible. One guess is that these deep reds help protect dying leaves from sun damage, allowing them to collect energy just a little longer. They may also serve as a warning to animals that might otherwise eat or lay eggs on the leaves. The exact coloring of fall foliage is the result of a mix of these red, orange and yellow pigments. So environmental conditions that change how much there is of each — such as sun exposure, soil moisture and temperature — can make a big difference. Colors vary by species, too. Eventually, sunlight and frost kill off all pigments but tannin, which is brown. The very cells of the leaf will break down as well, making them fragile and dry. Meanwhile, the tree creates corklike cells to seal itself off from its leaves, even creating a sort of scab where each one connects to the branches. Eventually wind or some other disturbance will break the dying leaf away, leaving the tree with a tiny scar. That’s how we get those brilliant bursts of color — and wonderful leaf piles to hop around in. In the spring, trees get to make new leaves and start the whole process again. Feltman is the science editor for Popular Science Magazine.

A young girl at Yankee Stadium in New York City was injured by a 105-miles-per-hour foul ball off the bat of third baseman Todd Frazier during Wednesday’s game against Minnesota, leading some players to call for protective netting behind home plate to be extended. The Yankees said the girl was taken to a hospital for treatment, and New York manager Joe Girardi said he had been told by team security that she was okay. The game was delayed for about four minutes while she was attended to and then carried from the seats in the bottom of the fifth inning. “I thought of my kids. I have two kids under 3 years old, and I just hope she’s all right,” Frazier said. “I know the dad or whoever it was that was with them was trying their hardest, but the ball’s coming at 120 miles an hour at them and the ball’s hooking. So it’s like if you’ve never seen a ball like that, which most people in the world haven’t, it’s very tough.”. Twins players also were distressed, and second baseman Brian Dozier and the Yankees’ Matt Holliday had tears as they said prayers at second base. “Number one, you don’t bring kids down there. And number two, every stadium needs to have nets. That’s it. I don’t care about the . . . view of the fan or what. It’s all about safety.”. Major League Baseball issued recommendations for protective netting or screens in December 2015, encouraging teams to have it in place between the ends of the dugouts closest to home plate. “We gave some guidelines two years ago, and what we have done since then is that we have encouraged the individual clubs to engage in a localized process, look at their own stadiums — every stadium’s different — and to try to make a good decision about how far the netting should go in order to promote fan safety,” said Commissioner Rob Manfred on Wednesday night. A boy was struck on the head by a portion of a broken bat at Yankee Stadium on May 25, and a fan sitting beyond the first-base dugout was hit by a 105-miles-per-hour foul ball July 25. Girardi recalled a fan being badly injured while he was playing for the Chicago Cubs and said new ballparks “are more intimate” with “fans closer to home plate.”. “I’m for making everything as safe as possible for everyone at the ballpark — players, too,” Girardi said.

Mike Lupica has done almost everything a sportswriter can do. He has written a newspaper column for more than 40 years, co-written books with sports legends Reggie Jackson and Bill Parcells, and hosted a television sports show. But kids know Lupica as the author of more than 25 sports books for young readers including such best-selling titles as "Travel Team," "Heat" and "QB 1.". I talked to Lupica last week before he spoke to a roomful of fans at the Chevy Chase Library in Maryland. KidsPost: Did you play sports as a kid? Mike Lupica: I played baseball, basketball, one year of football and ran cross-country. But my best sport was probably golf. KP: How did you get into sportswriting? ML: I tell kids my journalism school was that I wrote for three school newspapers when I was at Boston College. I also wrote articles for the Boston Globe and Boston Phoenix [newspapers]. After college, I went to New York, and a week later I was covering the New York Knicks [basketball team]. KP: What did you learn as a kid that helps you as a sportswriter? ML: All I ever wanted to do was to write. So when I was 10 years old, I was writing mysteries and adventures with me as the main character. In high school, I wrote columns of one-liners that are similar to my "Shooting From the Lip" columns now. ML: I had no plans to write for kids. Then my son got cut from a basketball travel team. Two days later, I was telling [National Basketball Association] Coach Jeff Van Gundy about my son. He said, "If this was a movie, you would take all the kids who got cut, make your own team, and they would win the big game.". So I took all the kids who had been cut, hired a coach and became the general manager of a rogue travel team. ML: They got better. In the last game, they beat a team that had crushed them at the beginning of the season. They had been knocked down, but they got up. But I couldn’t let go of the story of the team. The story became “Travel Team,” my first book for kids. It sold 500,000 copies and changed my life as a writer. KP: Your latest book — "Lone Stars" — is about concussions and brain injuries in football. Why did you write about that? ML: The book is my way to get in on the conversation parents and kids are having about football. The book is not preachy; it just lays things out. Clay's mother is an important character. She is a football fan, but she is also a mom. KP: What do you want kids to get out of your books? ML: The solid foundations of any childhood: friendship and loyalty. If you are not a good friend and teammate, you are going to have trouble in my books. Bowen writes the sports opinion column for KidsPost. He is the author of 22 sports books for kids.

Mexicans labored amid ruins Wednesday to revive their capital the day after an earthquake left more than 200 dead, reduced buildings to rubble and brought one of the world’s largest cities to a halt. At a partly collapsed Mexico City school, there was some good news: Rescuers said they found a surviving child. Helmeted workers sifted through debris as they tried to reach the girl at the Enrique Rebsamen school. Tuesday’s 7.1-magnitude quake struck on the 32nd anniversary of a 1985 earthquake that killed thousands in Mexico. Hours before it hit, people across the country had held earthquake drills. In a video message released late Tuesday, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto urged people to be calm and said authorities were moving to provide help as 40 percent of Mexico City and 60 percent of nearby Morelos state were without power. But, he said, "the priority at this moment is to keep rescuing people who are still trapped and to give medical attention to the injured people.". Mexico City Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera said buildings fell at 44 sites in the capital alone as high-rises across the city swayed. Hundreds of thousands of panicked people ran into the streets. At the site of a collapsed apartment building in the city, rescuers passed pieces of rubble across four city blocks to a site where they were dumped. Where a six-story office building collapsed, sisters Cristina and Victoria Lopez Torres formed part of a human chain passing bottled water. “We are young. We didn’t live through ’85. But we know that it’s important to come out into the streets to help,” Victoria Lopez said.

A 7.1-magnitude earthquake jolted central Mexico on Tuesday, killing at least 104 people as buildings collapsed in plumes of dust. Thousands fled into the streets in panic, and many stayed to help rescue those trapped. Scores of buildings collapsed into mounds of rubble or were severely damaged in Mexico City and nearby states. Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said 44 buildings collapsed in the capital alone. Mancera said at least 30 had died in Mexico City, and officials in Morelos, just to the south, said 54 had died there. Governor Alfredo del Mazo said at least nine had died in the State of Mexico, which also borders the capital. The U.S. Geological Survey calculated its magnitude at 7.1 on the Richter scale and said it was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 75 miles southeast of Mexico City. In Mexico City’s Roma neighborhood, which was struck hard by the 1985 quake, piles of stucco and brick fallen from buildings littered the streets. At least one large parking structure collapsed. At a nearby market, a worker in a hard-hat walked around the outside warning people not to smoke as a smell of gas filled the air. Market stall vendor Edith Lopez, 25, said she was in a taxi a few blocks away when the quake struck. She said she saw glass bursting out of the windows of some buildings. She was anxiously trying to locate her children, whom she had left in the care of her disabled mother. Pictures fell from office building walls, objects were shaken off flat surfaces and computer monitors toppled over. Earlier in the day workplaces across the city held preparation drills on the anniversary of the 1985 8.1-magnitude quake, which killed thousands of people and devastated large parts of Mexico City. Much of Mexico City is built on former lake bed, and the soil is known to amplify the effects of earthquakes even hundreds of miles away.

Some people say “gelato” is the Italian word for “ice cream.” Don’t believe them, cautions Gabriele Poli, founder of the Gelato Festival, a yummy competition that named its 2017 European champion last weekend in Florence, Italy — and is about to come to the United States for the first time. There are technical differences between the two treats: Gelato typically has about half the fat of ice cream and is made with less air, a process that intensifies the flavor, Poli explains. But more important than such details is gelato’s historical significance: It brought together ice, dairy and sugar for a treat that would become world famous. It dates back to the Renaissance, an important period in European history when there were many advances in art, architecture, science . As legend has it, says historian Zeffiro Ciuffoletti (pronounced choo-fo-LET-ti), the inventor was a smart guy named Bernardo Buontalenti (bwohn-tah-LEN-ti, a name that means “good talents”). He worked for the powerful Medici family, and in 1559, he. was put in charge of throwing a big party for important visitors from Spain. To wow them, he unveiled a recipe unlike anything they had tasted. Rich people couldn’t get enough of the stuff, Ciuffoletti says. When sugar and ice become widely affordable a few hundred years later, gelato became a food everybody could enjoy. That includes Poli, a self-described “gelato addict,” whose mission since launching the festival in 2010 has been to help people get to know gelato. In addition to tasting different flavors and talking to chefs, attendees are invited to stare through the windows of the Buontalenti Lab, a truck equipped with blast freezers, turbo­mixers and other machines that help create something lickable. “The coolest thing is this: All of the gelato you can taste at the festival is made in the truck,” Poli says. And all of it is something you’ve never tried before. “The flavor needs to make people dream,” adds Poli, who believes each cone at the festival should contain a story. These tasty tales were on display a few days ago as 16 competing chefs — each a winner from a series of preliminary competitions held across Europe — served up their creations on a hilltop overlooking central Florence. “This is a fusion of two cultures, the best of Italy and the Middle East. Tell me what you think,” was Akash Vaghela’s (va-GEH-lah) pitch for Creme dela Baklava, topped with pieces of flaky pastry and a dash of crushed pistachios. It’s his expression of gelato as a woman, he explained. Leaning over the counter, David Equi shared that he had handpicked the raspberries for his sorbet in Scotland. (Sorbet counts because it’s made like gelato, only with water instead of dairy.). Massimiliano Scotti of Vigevano, Italy, who won first place, locked eyes with each person who approached him, and promised his simple blend of milk, honey and rice was how gelato is meant to be. Washington, D.C., resident Jacqueline Policastro, one of some 50,000 people attending the festival, was gobbling it all up. “Having the world’s best in the place where it started is bucket list for me,” she said between licks of a lemon-curd flavor. She and her husband, Mike McCarthy, planned their entire Italian vacation around the festival. With fans like that, no wonder Gelato Festival America kicks off in Boulder, Colorado, on September 29, before bouncing to three other Western cities. Next year, Poli says, the plan is to bring competitions to eight more spots, including one near Washington. “There is a big need for this,” he adds, noting that Americans consume more frozen desserts than anyone else in the world and insisting that more of it should be gelato. Policastro’s tip for first-time festivalgoers: Pace yourself. “It’s harder than I thought to finish all of these,” she said. And then she lined up for another cone. Victoria Jordan Rodriguez of the James Beard Foundation, who served on the expert panel in Florence, suggests swirling your spoon around the cup to check consistency. “It shouldn’t be too hard, or too stretchy,” she says. And chunks of ice are a no-no. As for flavor, her advice is to consider the balance and freshness of the ingredients. Gelato Festival America's first stop is in Boulder, Colorado, September 29 to October 1. Ticket pricing and other details are available at gelatofestivalamerica.com. Washingtonians can root for Gianluigi Dellaccio (jon-lu-EE-gee dell-AH-cho) — an experienced gelato competitor — whose Dolci Gelati has cafes in Shaw, Takoma Park and Old Town Alexandria. Another local is Thomas Marinucci, of Fairfax, Virginia, who recently completed his studies at Carpigiani Gelato University. (He attended in Bologna, Italy, but the school also has a new American campus near Chicago, Illinois.) He hasn’t established a location yet, so the festival is the only place to try his Strawberry Cheesecake Crunch. Just as in Europe, judging for the festival will be divided 50/50 between a panel of experts and the public. What’s new in Boulder is the introduction of an all-kids jury, which will award a prize to its favorite. After Colorado, the Gelato Festival will head to Santa Barbara, California, October 20-22. The final two competitions will be in Arizona: in Scottsdale, October 27-29, and Tucson, November 3-5.

But the fact is, American kids spend just minutes each day noodling around outdoors and more than seven hours parked in front of electronic screens. That’s not healthy. And it’s a big reason 1 in 3 U.S. kids is overweight. Kids in Parks, a program of outdoor family adventures, wants to change that. Kids can sign up for the free program and earn prizes by visiting some of the program's 157 trails. Kids in Parks was started in 2008 by the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation in North Carolina. Today it has trails in 10 states, including Virginia and Maryland, as well as the District of Columbia. They’re called TRACK trails. TRACK stands for Trails, Ridges, Activities and Connections for Kids. It’s also the name of the program’s mascot dog. Aiden Buchanan signed up a few months ago and has been on seven TRACK trails. “It’s good exercise, and it’s fun for the family to do together,” says Aiden, 8, who lives in Alexandria. Each TRACK trail has a detailed hiking map and brochures of what to see and do there. Some examples from our 15 local trails: ●Identify forest bugs in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountain Park. ●Sharpen your birdwatching skills on Theodore Roosevelt Island in the District. ●Go on a 11⁄2 -mile scavenger hunt near the White House. ●Hike through history at Manassas National Battlefield in Virginia. If you can talk the family into a road trip, head for the Oconaluftee River Trail in western North Carolina. More than 14,000 Cherokees live in the area. On the TRACK trail, you’ll learn about their native legends and how their ancestors used plants and trees for medicine, food and making arrows. “Sometimes we find live animals,” Aiden says of the hikes that he and his little sister, Braylin, have taken. “I got to be up close with a salamander. . . . It was neat to take pictures of it.”. On a hike in Virginia’s Prince William Forest Park, the kids’ mom was about to take a photo of them on a bench when she noticed something. As Aiden tells it: “She said, ‘Don’t freak out, but come over here. There’s a snake under that bench.’ ”. The park has 17 species of snakes, only two of which are venomous. Aiden and Braylin’s snake, which was more than three feet long, was not, they learned later. Still, it was a great tale to put in their TRACK nature journal. After kids visit a TRACK trail and answer a few questions about it online, they get a park sticker and credit toward prizes such as a magnifying lens and a backpack. Virtual medals are awarded for those who meet extra goals. Kids in Parks Director Jason Urroz says kids have had more than 370,000 TRACK adventures. More than 10 percent of those who sign up are first-time hikers, and more than 40 percent return. While Kids in Parks encourages kids to enjoy nature today, it’s also looking at the bigger picture. Says Urroz: “If we don’t get kids connected now, in the future when they’re the voting public, who’s going to stand up and say these places are important — not only to our health but to the environment, clean water and clean air?”. He hopes to some day be an environmental engineer, “cleaning up parks and neighborhoods. Read more: Explore national parks as a Junior Ranger. Where to find nature preserves. Cool things you might not know about national parks. Kids in Parks has five TRACK sites each in Maryland and the District and 16 in Virginia. Some sites around the country offer biking, paddling and disc golf. Check out all 157 sites at kidsinparks.com.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s favorite animal is a hedgehog. She loves spaghetti and chicken soup and dreams of being an astronaut for a day. Those were some of the personal details the chancellor revealed Sunday while answering questions from children at a special news conference a week before the country’s general election. Merkel, 63, listened to a variety of questions during the Berlin event, which was attended by more than 150 children. While some teens nervously read questions off notepads about farming and plastic pollution in oceans, younger children mostly were curious about Merkel as a person. “When did you lose your first tooth?” a girl asked while playing with her own wiggly tooth. “When I started school and was about the same age as you,” Merkel said, smiling. The German leader also said that her favorite color is cornflower blue and that she loves swimming and gardening. Merkel, who has led Germany for almost 12 years, faces top challenger Martin Schulz in Sunday’s election.

Danish Ismail/Reuters. What day is the September equinox? Why does the Earth have seasons? Because of the tilt of its axis. Because of the orbit of Earth around the sun. Because of the atmosphere. Because of Earth's distance from the sun. Katherine Frey/The Washington Post. How long do seasons last on Earth? European Science Agency. Which of these planets in our solar system has the longest seasons? Mercury. When it turns fall in the United States, what season will it be in countries in the Southern Hemisphere, such as Australia or South Africa?

Riley Trone’s sixth-grade class at Oak View Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia, is the September Class of KidsPost. Many of his 26 students have dogs, watch YouTube and crave ice cream. This is our first Class of Kids-Post for the school year. We will publish one each month. If you would like your class considered, ask your teacher to download our questionnaire at wapo.st/classofkidspost2017, have students fill it out, and send it, along with a class picture, to kidspost@­washpost.­com. Classes chosen receive a KidsPost Chesapeake Bay poster, books and Kids­Post pencils. Favorite author and favorite book: Jeff Kinney and his "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series received five votes, the most among these sixth-graders. J.K. Rowling and "Harry Potter" received two votes for a ­second-place finish. Other authors mentioned included Lois Lowry, Tim Green and Raina Telgemeier. Favorite singer or musician: The students enjoy mostly pop and rock music, but from several eras. The Beatles edged out Justin Bieber, AC/DC and Elvis Presley, who was known as the king of rock-and-roll. Favorite game, sport or hobby: Basketball and baseball tied with five votes apiece. Soccer came in second with three votes. Person, living or dead, you ­admire most: It was another tie, this time between Mom and Dad. Nearly one-quarter of the class chose either or both parents. Several said, "They are always there for me.". Favorite website or app: YouTube was the runaway favorite of this class with 11 votes. In second was another video-playing site, ­Musical.ly. If you could go on a trip anywhere, where would you go? ­Hawaii claimed the most votes, four, of these future world travelers. Italy and Los Angeles, California, both received two mentions. Other fun destinations included Greece, Singapore and the South Pacific island Bora Bora. Do you like to hear from friends by text, photo, video or postcard? The students appreciated photos from friends the most. After that, a text or a video were equally favored. In last place (who would have guessed?) was the postcard. Dogs were the preferred pet among these kids. Twelve students said they had at least one at home. Second place was a tie: Five students had cats, and five had no pets. Favorite birthday food: They don't all scream for ice cream, but five do. Three more wanted ice cream cakes or ice cream sandwiches, so clearly these students are dairy lovers. But they also like steak, which received three votes, and sushi, crab and pizza, which tied for third with two votes apiece. What do you want to be when you grow up? Four students would like to follow in Mr. Trone's footsteps with a career in teaching. Baseball player was the ­second-most-popular profession, and lawyer came in third. What would you invent to help others? Almost one-quarter of the kids mentioned a robot, but there were many ideas of what that robot would do. A device that would ­allow people to teleport had the second-most votes. Most unusual idea: a thinking cap, “for when you don’t have any good ideas.”.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft disintegrated in the skies above Saturn early Friday in a final, fateful blaze of cosmic glory, following a remarkable journey of 20 years. Confirmation of Cassini’s expected demise came about 7:55 a.m. That’s when radio signals from the spacecraft — its last scientific gifts to Earth — came to an abrupt halt. The radio waves went flat, and the spacecraft fell silent. Cassini actually burned up like a meteor 83 minutes earlier as it dove through Saturn’s atmosphere, becoming one with the giant gas planet it set out in 1997 to explore. But it took that long for the news to reach Earth a billion miles away. The only spacecraft to ever orbit Saturn, Cassini showed us the planet, its rings and moons up close in all their splendor. Perhaps most tantalizing, ocean worlds were unveiled on the moons Enceladus and Titan, which could possibly harbor life. Dutiful to the end, the Cassini snapped its “last memento photos” Thursday and sampled Saturn’s atmosphere Friday morning as it made its final plunge. Program manager Earl Maize made the official pronouncement: “This has been an incredible mission, an incredible spacecraft and you’re all an incredible team,” Maize said. “I’ll call this the end of mission.”. Flight controllers wearing matching purple shirts stood and embraced and shook hands. More than 1,500 people, many of them past and present team members, had gathered at California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for what was described as both a vigil and celebration. Even more congregated at nearby California Institute of Technology, which runs the lab for NASA. NASA’s science mission director, Thomas Zurbuchen, made note of all the tissues inside JPL’s Mission Control, along with the customary lucky peanuts. Team members were clearly emotional, he said. “These worlds that they found, we never knew were there, are changing how we think about life itself,” he said. “And so for me, that’s why it’s truly a civilization-scale mission, one that will stand out among other missions, anywhere.”. Project scientist Linda Spilker noted Cassini has been running “a marathon of scientific discovery” for 13 years at Saturn. “So we’re here today to cheer as Cassini finishes that race,” she said. The spacecraft tumbled out of control while plummeting at more than 76,000 miles per hour. Project officials invited ground telescopes to look for Cassini’s last-gasp flash but weren’t hopeful it would be spotted against the vast backdrop of the solar system’s second biggest planet. This Grand Finale, as NASA called it, came about as Cassini’s fuel tank started getting low after 13 years exploring the planet. Scientists wanted to prevent Cassini from crashing into Enceladus or Titan — and contaminating those unspoiled worlds. And so in April, Cassini was directed into the previously unexplored gap between Saturn’s cloud tops and the rings. Twenty-two times, Cassini entered the gap and came out again. The last time was last week. The leader of Cassini’s imaging team, Carolyn Porco, a visiting scholar at the University of California at Berkeley, was so involved with the mission for so long that now, “I consider it the start of life, part two.”. Cassini departed Earth in 1997 and arrived at the sixth planet from our sun in 2004. The hitchhiking European Huygens landed on big moon Titan in 2005. Nothing from Earth has landed farther. Three other spacecraft previously flew past Saturn, but Cassini was the only one to circle the planet. In all, Cassini collected more than 453,000 images and traveled 4.9 billion miles. It was an international effort, with 27 nations taking part. The final price tag was $3.9 billion. Scientists are eager to go back and explore the wet, wild worlds of Enceladus and Titan. Proposals are under consideration by NASA, but there’s nothing official yet. In the meantime, NASA plans sometime in the 2020s to send an orbiter and lander to Europa, a moon of Jupiter believed to have a global ocean that might be compatible for life. “Yes, we really want to go back” to Saturn, Zurbuchen said. “It’s such a wonderful system, we don’t want to leave it alone.”. Read more space-related stories: Space station astronauts get supplies and ice cream. NASA scientist Ellen Stofan is helping to plan human trips to Mars. Keep up with NASA’s Journey to Mars.

Panda-watchers can exhale. There will be no baby panda in Washington this year, the National Zoo announced Thursday. Mei Xiang (pronounced may-SHONG), the National Zoo’s female giant panda, is not expecting, the zoo announced in a news release. In May, she had undergone a medical procedure to help her become pregnant. Zookeepers had been watching Mei for several weeks because her behavior and rising hormone levels suggested she might have a cub on the way. Sometimes zoo veterinarians can spot a cub on an ultrasound, a test that human moms get that shows a picture of an unborn baby. Back in August, zoo research veterinarian Pierre Comizzoli explained to KidsPost why performing an ultrasound on a giant panda isn’t as helpful as with people. “She’s a pretty large animal, and the fetal development is pretty tiny,” Comizzoli said. (At birth, a giant panda is usually four to six ounces, about the size of a stick of butter.). The zoo reported that Mei’s hormone levels were back to normal Thursday. That means her body either reabsorbed a tiny embryo or she had “pseudopregnancy” (SOO-doh-preg-nan-cee), which is when a panda acts pregnant but isn’t, the zoo said. Mei Xiang is 19 years old, which is near the age when she will no longer be able to have cubs. She has given birth to three surviving cubs: Tai Shan (ty-SHON), who is 12; Bao Bao (rhymes with now-now), who is 4; and Bei Bei (bay-bay), who is 2. China, which lent Mei Xiang and adult male Tian Tian (t-YEN t-YEN) to the National Zoo in 2000, requires that all giant panda cubs be sent to its panda research center about the time they turn 4. Tai Shan and Bao Bao both live in China, but Bei Bei will stay at the National Zoo for the next 18 months or so. The zoo’s panda house, which had been closed since September 1 to give Mei some quiet time, will reopen Saturday.

For more than 100 years, American League teams have gone on winning streaks of varying lengths — short ones, long ones, double-digit ones. Nothing, though, like the one the Cleveland Indians have pieced together. A streak for the ages. Moving past the 2002 Oakland Athletics, the Indians set the AL record with their 21st straight win on Wednesday, 5-3 over the Detroit Tigers, to join only two other teams in the past 101 years to win that many games in a row. The Indians, a team with its sights set on ending the majors’ longest World Series title drought, matched the 1935 Chicago Cubs for the second-longest streak since 1900. And in doing so, they separated themselves from every AL team since the league was formed in 1901. “Who would’ve ever thought that we’d be in this situation?” right fielder Jay Bruce said. Cleveland is within five wins of catching the 1916 New York Giants, who won 26 straight without a loss but whose century-old mark includes a tie. “I think they’re enjoying themselves,” manager Terry Francona said as clubhouse music boomed in the background. “They should. I think what’s kind of cool about our game is when you do things, and you do them the right way, I think it means more. Our guys are playing the game to win, the right way.”. The Indians haven’t lost in 20 days, and they’ve rarely been challenged during this late-season run in which they’ve dominated every aspect of the game. During their streak, which began with a 13-6 win over the Boston Red Sox on August 23, the Indians have been superior in every way possible. Cleveland’s starters have gone 19-0 with a 1.70 ERA, they’ve outscored their opponents 139-35 and trailed in only 4 of 189 innings. Incredibly, the Indians have hit more home runs (40) than their pitchers have given up in total runs. Cleveland opens a four-game series Thursday against Kansas City, which was outscored 20-0 on its three-day visit last month. Some parents kept their kids home from school and brought them to Progressive Field to see a once-in-a-lifetime event Cleveland residents may remember more than any solar eclipse. They cheered every two-strike count like it was October and there was something much bigger on the line. The Indians have viewed the streak as a perfect postseason warm-up as they try to end a World Series title drought dating to 1948.

Two quarterbacks are big stories as the 2017 National Football League (NFL) season gets started. Let’s look at both. New England Patriots superstar Tom Brady may be the greatest quarterback in NFL history. Just look at his numbers. ●Five Super Bowl championships. ●Almost 62,000 career passing yards. ●456 career touchdown passes. Last year, Brady had one of his finest seasons, passing for 28 touchdowns while throwing just two interceptions. Then he led the Patriots to a thrilling 34-28 comeback victory over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI. (“LI” is 51 in Roman numerals.). But there is another important number in Brady’s athletic résumé: He turned 40 years old on August 3. Brady has talked a lot about playing several more years in the NFL. The hard truth, however, is that almost no one has been a top NFL quarterback after age 40. Brett Favre had a terrific season when he was 40, throwing for 33 touchdowns and more than 4,200 yards. By the next season, however, Favre was done. Warren Moon was a Pro Bowl quarterback at age 41. But just like Favre, he was no all-star after that. Brady looked old last week in the Patriots’ 42-27 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Maybe he can bounce back. But even the greatest athletes are defeated by time. The big story with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is that he is not playing. You may remember that Kaepernick started a controversy last season by sitting or kneeling during the national anthem. Kaepernick said, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” Other athletes have protested in similar ways. Kaepernick became a free agent after the 2016 season, meaning he could sign a contract with any team that wanted him. Problem is, no team wants him. Lots of people think the NFL teams are “blackballing,” or refusing to sign, Kaepernick because of his protests. It’s hard to believe that not even one team could use a 29-year-old player who has started 58 NFL games, thrown for 72 touchdowns and run for 13 more. Kaepernick has also played — and played well — in six playoff games, including Super Bowl XLVII (47). It’s particularly hard to believe that no one wants Kaepernick when you look at NFL rosters and see at least 14 quarterbacks who have never thrown a single pass in an NFL regular-season game. There are a dozen more quarterbacks who do not have Kaepernick’s experience or accomplishments. My sense is that Kaepernick would be playing if he had stood during the national anthem. Read more about sports: Should colleges let football players risk hurting their brains? Atlanta zoo names cockroach after Tom Brady. Playing one sport year round isn’t smart. Bowen writes the sports opinion column for KidsPost. He is the author of 22 kids sports books, including football books "Touchdown Trouble," "Quarterback Season" and "Double Reverse.

Such no-frills toys as the paper airplane, sand and play food are among 12 finalists being considered for a place in the National Toy Hall of Fame. The contenders for 2017 were announced Tuesday. Also up for the honor are the board games Risk and Clue, the Magic 8 ball, Matchbox cars, My Little Pony, the PEZ candy dispenser, Transformers, the card game Uno and the Wiffle ball. Two or three toys will be inducted November 9 into the Strong museum in Rochester, New York, where the hall is located. The inductees are chosen on the advice of historians, educators and others for their innovation, popularity over time and ability to inspire creative play. The winners will join the 62 toys already in the hall of fame, including the swing, Fisher-Price Little People and the game Dungeons & Dragons, all of which were added last year. The hall was established in 1998 and was originally located in Salem, Oregon. The National Toy Hall of Fame has this to say about the finalists: ●Clue: The game that challenges players to solve a murder was introduced in 1947 and remains one of the top 10 best-selling board games of all time. ●Magic 8 ball: Over the past 70 years, millions of people have posed questions and waited for a floating answer — such as "ask again later" or ''signs point to yes" — to appear. or other answer. ●Matchbox cars: The miniature cars debuted in 1952, and by 1960 they were selling at a rate of 100 million a year. They remain a top seller for Mattel. ●My Little Pony: The miniature pastel ponies were introduced in the 1980s and reintroduced in 2003. They outsold Barbie for several years at their peak. ●Paper airplane: Leonardo da Vinci may be among the most famous to make flying machines out of paper, writing about it in the 15th century. ●PEZ: What began as a breath mint in 1927 was transformed into a small brick of candy dispensed by a collectible mechanical box featuring pop-culture characters. ●Play food made of various materials has been filling the plates at pretend tea parties and picnics for generations. ●Risk: The war and strategy board game was published in the United States in 1959. Its innovative mechanics ignited renewed interest in strategy games in the 1970s. ●Sand: Historians believe that even the earliest humans played in the sand, and records from the 1800s document the building of sand castles and other sculptures. ●Transformers: The mid-1980s line was marketed with an elaborate backstory supported by a Marvel comic-book series, cartoon series, animated movies, electronic games and goods including its own cereal. The latest movie was released in June. ●Uno: Easy to learn and quick to play, the card game has players dispose of the cards in their hands. ●Wiffle ball: The perforated plastic ball has been batted and thrown since 1953. Inventors determined that designing it with eight oblong slots provided the best performance.

If you think you can write or draw the next “Batman” or “Big Nate,” you might want to set your sights on a comics convention this weekend in Maryland. The Small Press Expo, also known as SPX, has showcased independent comic artists and publishers in Bethesda, Maryland, since 1994. This year’s festival, held Saturday and Sunday, will feature artists selling and showing off their art in booths in a large convention hall. People who attend — even kids — sometimes bring artwork and sell it to other artists they meet. Unlike larger comics conventions, Small Press Expo focuses on D.C.-area artists and publishers. But the festival has grown so popular that people attend from across the country. Cartoonist Matt Dembicki of Fairfax, Virginia, is a longtime SPX exhibitor. He has brought his sons Adam, 12, and Roman, 9, to the festival for years. Adam started drawing comics at age 5. His stories are often about U.S. history and World War II. Roman followed in his father’s and brother’s footsteps at age 3 and prefers creating superhero comics. Roman and Adam go to SPX to sell their artwork but also to get inspired. “I like to see other people’s works — people will make T-shirts and comics,” Adam said. “I just enjoy walking around and looking at the different types of ideas people have.”. Roman is working on a comic called “Wildwind,” which is about a superhero who can control the wind, while Adam is brainstorming about his next project while balancing school and sports. Their dad said he, too, enjoys seeing the wide variety of comic formats and the materials used to make them. “Sometimes people use crayons to color their books, and all of a sudden that opens it up,” Matt Dembicki said. “It kind of breaks those barriers of what most people think comics should be and should look like.”. One artist at the expo who may be especially inspiring to kids is cartoonist Tillie Walden. Walden, 21, has been drawing since she was very young, but she started seriously focusing on comics at 17. She graduated from the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont and began publishing her comics on her website and Twitter account. Walden has earned many awards — including the SPX’s Ignatz Award for outstanding artist — for her comics and graphic novels. “What the Small Press Expo does — and the Internet can do for young creators — is just show you how much potential there is in the industry,” she said. “Especially something like SPX, there’s such a wide range of creators making so many different things, and yet they all come together and all find success there.”. Walden and Dembicki mentioned the sense of community that exists among artists at Small Press Expo because of their shared passion. “Everyone I know who goes to SPX and these sorts of conventions says the same thing — where they go to SPX and leave feeling more motivated to draw and create,” Walden said. What: Small Press Expo. Where: Marriott Bethesda North Hotel & Conference Center, 5701 Marinelli Road, North Bethesda, Maryland. When: Saturday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday noon to 6 p.m. How much: Age 12 and younger, free; age 13 and older, $15 Saturday, $10 Sunday, $20 weekend pass. For more information: A parent can visit smallpressexpo.com.

Rita Williams-Garcia's "Clayton Byrd Goes Underground" and Laurel Snyder's "Orphan Island" were among 10 books nominated Tuesday for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. “Orphan Island” is the story of nine children who live on an island where one child mysteriously arrives and one child leaves every year. Snyder has written five other middle-grade novels and several picture books. "Clayton Byrd" is about a boy who loves hanging out with his grand­father and other blues musicians. After Grandpa's death, Clayton runs away in hopes of joining the band. ­Williams-Garcia has written 12 children's books, including National Book Award finalist "One Crazy ­Summer.". The two middle-grade novels joined eight young-adult works that are contenders for the National Book Foundation’s annual award. A panel of judges chose the 10 titles and will narrow this list down to five finalists by early October. The foundation will announce a winner at November’s National Book Awards, which will also honor adult fiction, nonfiction and poetry books. The long list of nominated books: ●"All the Wind in the World" by Samantha Mabry. ●"American Street" by Ibi Zoboi. ●"Clayton Byrd Goes Underground" by Rita Williams-Garcia. ●"Far from the Tree" by Robin Benway. ●"The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas. ●"I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter" by Erika L. Sánchez. ●"Long Way Down" Jason Reynolds. ●"What Girls Are Made of" by Elana K. Arnold. ●"You Bring the Distant Near" by Mitali Perkins.

A new school year is starting. No, not yours. We’re talking about the newest class in the Hero Dogs training program. These special pups were handpicked before they were born to become service animals for wounded military veterans. At 8 to 12 weeks old, the puppies leave their mothers and join Hero Dogs in Montgomery County, Maryland. There, they are house-trained, learn to walk on a leash and are taught basic commands. Over the next year or so, the puppies go everywhere with their trainers to become comfortable around people and other animals. At 18 months, the puppies learn special skills. Injured veterans often have trouble doing things that used to be easy, such as walking up stairs, shutting doors or turning light switches off and on. During this part of training, the puppies learn to do these types of tasks and more. Just like you change as you get older, so do the puppies. Some may be better at one job, so they will get added training in that area. Usually by the time a dog turns 2, it is matched with a veteran based on its energy, behavior and skills, along with the veteran’s experience, lifestyle and needs. After pairing, each team spends a few weeks in a cabin at the Hero Dogs facility, learning to live together. Over the next several months, they get more training to make sure everything is going smoothly. If it is, they graduate from the program, and the dog goes home with the veteran. For one Labrador retriever named Gracie, it took a couple of tries to find the right home. She was 4 last year when she was paired with Air Force veteran Michael Harris, who served in the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1970 and now lives in Waynesboro, Virginia. Gracie, named after Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, a pioneer in computer technology, is spunky. “She’s not your typical Lab that runs into a room and loves everybody,” Harris says. But she quickly adjusted to him and learned ways to help him manage the stress caused by his military service, a problem that surfaced five years ago. Now, if Harris has a nightmare, Gracie will climb into bed and nuzzle him. If that doesn’t wake him, she can turn on the light switch. One of her most important skills is distracting Harris when he gets worried, especially in crowded or noisy places. She nudges him with her nose or puts her head in his lap. This helps him focus on her and eases his anxiety. In public, Gracie wears a red vest that says “Hero Dogs” and “Service Dog in Training.” At restaurants, she sits under the table. On airplanes, she sits under the seat in front of Harris. Other travelers usually don’t know she’s there unless the flight crew knows them and calls out, “Hey, Gracie’s coming on board!”. More than 55 dogs have entered the Hero Dogs program since its start in 2009. The most recent class has five puppies, ranging in age from 11 weeks to 23 weeks: Bert, Nick, Jaz, Raymond and Bartley. Every now and then, a dog has health problems or other complications that keep it from becoming a service dog. Some become therapy dogs instead. They provide comfort and affection to people but are not trained to do specific tasks. For Hero Dogs and other service animals, it’s a special life. “Gracie was waiting on me, and I was waiting for Gracie,” Harris says. “I can’t imagine being without her.”. What: A Hero Dogs information session for potential volunteers and applicants. When: Sunday 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Where: Gaithersburg, Maryland. How much: Free, but online registration is required. For more information: To register and find out more about Hero Dogs, ask an adult to go to hero-dogs.org. Read more animal stories: Program in Thailand rescues street dogs and finds them new homes. Working with horses isn’t horsing around.

R.J. Palacio's book "Wonder" has inspired millions of kids. It's the story of a disfigured boy named Auggie who attends school outside his home for the first time as a fifth-grader. And it has prompted many discussions about courage, friendship and choosing to be kind. For reader Claire Juip of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, the book’s message didn’t hit home the first time she read it. But two life-changing events caused Claire to reread it and reflect on it for the Library of Congress’s 2017 Letters About Literature contest. The first event was finding out that her older brother, Jake, was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called Friedreich’s ataxia (FA). “FA makes your nerve cells die so you can’t walk and eventually you need a wheelchair,” Claire wrote in her letter. “Because I love to read, I was looking for a book where the characters felt how I felt.”. At that point, Claire said she could relate to Auggie’s sister, Via, who appreciated his smarts and humor and didn’t focus on his appearance. Then Claire was diagnosed with FA. She reread the book, putting herself in Auggie’s shoes. Claire wrote the letter before telling friends and classmates, and she admitted that she worries about how they will react when her symptoms become more noticeable. “I really hope that everyone in the world will read your book because someday when I am different than I am now, I want people to be nice to me, and I think your book teaches people that,” wrote Claire, who’s now 10. The letter earned Claire first prize among fourth- through sixth-grade entrants and an opportunity to meet Palacio at this month’s National Book Festival in Washington. “I probably wouldn’t know what to do with my diagnosis if I hadn’t read ‘Wonder,’ ” she told the author. Palacio said she was honored that the book had helped Claire and was happy that the fifth-grader was spreading the message about kindness. “We all have to step up and remind people about what matters,” she said. What: Letters About Literature. What you need to do: Read a book, poem or speech and write a letter to the author about how the work inspired or influenced you. The author can be living or dead. Who can enter: Students in grades four through six; seven and eight; and nine through 12. What you can win: National winners in each of the three categories above will receive $1,000. Honor winners will receive $200. States award various prizes to their winners. How to enter: Go to read.gov/letters for state deadlines (December-January) and to download the entry form. What: Toyota Dream Car Art Contest. What you need to do: Create an original piece of art featuring a dream car. What you can win: In each category, $750 for first place, $500 for second place and $250 for third place. All winners will receive a framed copy of their artwork and art supplies and, if selected for the world competition, the possibility of more prizes. Who can enter: Age 7 and younger; ages 8 to 11; ages 12 to 15. How to enter: Go to tfsinthecommunity.com/dreamcar for details and entry forms, which can be submitted October 1 through January 31. What: C-SPAN StudentCam competition. What you need to do: Make a video related to a part of the U.S. Constitution that is important to you. What you can win: $5,000 grand prize for individual or team with $750 for winners' school. Prizes from $250 to $3,000 for honorable mentions up to first prizes. Who can enter: Middle school and high school students. How to enter: Go to studentcam.org for tips and details on how to submit. Entries are due January 18.

Juliana heard about it from her brother. Marina found out during a class discussion in second grade. It’s hard to forget when you first learned that you were born on the day of the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history — September 11, 2001. On that day, 19 hijackers took control of four planes. Two crashed into skyscrapers in New York City; a third hit the Pentagon in Arlington. The fourth plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field. In all, nearly 3,000 people died. “I felt a little alone, to be honest,” the District’s Marina Pariser said about finding out she was born on such a tragic day. But she is not alone. There were 13,238 babies born in this country on Sept. 11, 2001. Six of those babies — all from the Washington area and turning 10 on the historic date — talked to KidsPost about how being born on such a significant day has affected them. All of them have mixed feelings. “It’s, like, sort of hard to feel sad because it’s the day that I was born, but I still do feel sad,” said Juliana Bonilla of Gaithersburg. “A lot of bad things happened on that day, but then, a lot of good things were happening on that day, too,” said the District’s Arkilah Henry. If there’s anything these kids know, it’s that something wonderful can happen at the same time as something terrible. Perhaps no one knows that better than William Faber of South Riding. William’s grandfather, a former colonel in the Army, was supposed to be at the Pentagon on the morning of the attacks in the part of the building that was hit by a hijacked plane, killing 189 people. But because his grandson was due to be born, he didn’t go to work that day. “He came to the hospital because of me,” William said. A lot of kids don’t know much about the attacks, which are often simply called “9/11.” But Aidan Shaw of New Market, Maryland, said that having a September 11 birthday makes him “a little more curious than my friends” about the subject. In a strange coincidence, Aidan’s grandfather was born on the day of another terrible attack, on December 7, 1941. That’s when Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing 2,403 Americans and bringing the United States into World War II. Back then, people said they would always remember where they were when they heard about Pearl Harbor; it’s the same way for people who were alive for September 11. Several kids said they light a candle, hang a flag or say a prayer on their birthday to honor 9/11 victims, but they also focus on what’s good about that day. As Marina put it, “we celebrate it as a sign of new hope.”. And this year’s birthday is extra special, said Michael Briscoe of the District. “I’m going to the double digits!”.

Hurricane Irma plowed past the Dominican Republic on Thursday after devastating a string of Caribbean islands and killing at least 10 people as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century took aim at Florida. With winds of around 180 miles per hour, the storm lashed several small islands in the northeast Caribbean, including Barbuda, St. Martin and the British Virgin Islands, tearing down trees, flattening homes and causing widespread damage. The eye of the hurricane passed north of Puerto Rico early Thursday, battering the U.S. territory with high winds and heavy rains and leaving about 1 million people without electricity, Governor Ricardo Rosselló said. The U.S. National Weather Service said Puerto Rico had not seen a storm of Irma’s magnitude since 1928’s Hurricane San Felipe, which killed 2,748 people in Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico and Florida. France’s Interior minister says Irma has killed at least eight people and left 23 injured on French Caribbean island territories. Speaking on French radio France Info, Gerard Collomb said the death toll in Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthelemy could be higher because rescue teams have yet to finish their inspection of the islands. The other two confirmed deaths were on the islands of Anguilla and Barbuda. The storm is expected to hit Florida over the weekend, possibly as a weaker Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. The Weather Service warned that water levels on Florida’s Atlantic Coast could be five to 10 feet above ground if the storm surge happens during high tide. — Wire service reports.

The Washington Redskins’ season begins against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday afternoon at FedEx Field. Redskins fans are hoping the team can take a step forward and make the National Football League (NFL) playoffs. Sorry, I don’t see that happening. Let’s take a look at the team’s chances. Offense: Quarterback Kirk Cousins has been terrific the past two seasons. Last year, he passed for 4,917 yards — a team record — and 25 touchdowns. But Cousins needs help, and I’m not sure his supporting cast will be as good this season. The Redskins have two new wide receivers: Terrelle Pryor and Josh Doctson, but Pryor has had only one good season as a wideout (he used to be a quarterback) and Doctson has trouble staying healthy. Speaking of health, everyone should hope tight end Jordan Reed doesn’t get injured. Reed is a super-talented pass catcher, but he can’t help the team when he’s hurt. (Reed missed several games in 2016.). A good running game would take pressure off Cousins’s passing. The offensive line, led by all-pro tackle Trent Williams, should be solid. But the Redskins don’t have a first-rate running back. Starter Rob Kelley had a few good games last season but tailed off with just 280 rushing yards in the final six games. Defense: The Redskins defense was terrible in 2016, ranking 28th out of 32 NFL teams for total yards given up. Maybe that's why Washington went out and got some new players on the defensive side of the ball. Rookie defensive tackle Jonathan Allen from the University of Alabama should help shore up the middle of the line. But most of the new faces on the Redskins defense are just castoffs from other teams, not real game-changers. Maybe the new defensive coordinator, Greg Manusky, can mold the group into a crack unit, but I have my doubts — especially after second-year safety Su’a Cravens’s sudden departure to consider retirement. Schedule: This may be the Redskins' biggest problem. They have a super-tough schedule. Seven of their 16 games are against teams that made the playoffs last season. And four of those seven games will be played at the other team’s stadium. Chances are, Washington will lose those games. The key to the season may be games against middle-of-the-pack teams such as the Eagles, Arizona Cardinals, New Orleans Saints, Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Chargers. The Redskins will have to win most of those matchups to have a shot at the playoffs. Prediction: Sorry, but I think the Redskins will take a step backward from last year, when they won eight games, lost seven and tied one (8-7-1). In 2017, I predict they'll finish 7-9. Bowen writes the sports opinion column for KidsPost. He is the author of 22 sports books for kids, including three football books: "Touchdown Trouble," "Quarterback Season" and "Double Reverse.

When she was a little girl, Margarita Engle spent her summers in Cuba, where she says she fell in love with nature. Her mother’s home town of Trinidad in central Cuba is near a large nature reserve where people visit waterfalls, go hiking and ride horses. “Riding horses was my city kid’s dream come true,” Engle said. Engle, 66, was born to a Cuban mother and an American father. Her annual visits to the Caribbean island from her home in California shaped her life and inspired her to become a plant scientist and a poet. The Poetry Foundation recently named her its Young People’s Poet Laureate, a role Engle plans to use to encourage children and teenagers to write down their feelings. Magic happens when you put your emotions in writing, she said. Engle says she has always liked poetry. At age 6, she wrote her first poems about nature. After looking around while taking a walk one day in California, she wrote a rhymed verse about the shapes of hills. In the summer of 1960, when she was 9, the U.S. relationship with Cuba grew increasingly unfriendly, and Engle was unable to return to the island for three decades. “I fell in love with Cuba, and I never imagined that we wouldn’t be able to go back,” Engle said. “I wanted to feel free to love two countries even though history said, ‘No, you have to choose.’ ”. Even though Cuba is only 90 miles from the Florida Keys, most Americans have not been free to visit the country for more than 50 years. The United States blocked most trade with the island after it became a communist nation in 1959, and the restrictions made travel between the two countries almost impossible. A few changes in recent years have made it easier to visit, but many Cuban Americans have not gone back. An estimated 2 million Hispanics of Cuban origin live in the United States, according to a Pew Research Center study. Engle missed visiting her abuelita , tíos and cousins, and missed the country’s hills and villages. So as a teen, she wrote sonnets (14-line rhyming poems) about nature and stories about people in Cuba. Some of her books explore the island, its people, markets and landmarks. Her new picture book, “All the Way to Havana,” features American cars from the 1940s and 1950s that are still on Cuban roads. “Forest World,” a new middle-grade novel, introduces readers to Edver, an 11-year-old who lives in Miami, Florida, with his mother and is shipped off to Cuba to see his birthplace and meet his Cuban family. When he arrives in Havana, the capital, he learns he has an older sister, Luza, who stayed behind on the island with her father and grandfather. The two go on an ad­ven­ture into a Cuban forest. The emotions of the characters are similar to what many children feel when separated from loved ones. Writing them down helped Engle heal the pain of not being to able to visit when she was a girl, she said. Engle said she hopes that people facing similar challenges can find refuge in poetry. “When you sit down to write, it is just you and the words,” she said. Story / Cuento. Emotions / Emociones. Want to learn more about poetry and Cuba? Margarita Engle and illustrator Mike Curato will be in Washington to talk about their picture book, “All the Way to Havana,” which explores Cuba, its people, markets, landmarks and interesting cars. Where and when: September 12 at 10:30 a.m. at Politics and Prose Bookstore, 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW; 7 p.m. at Takoma Park Library, 101 Philadelphia Avenue, Takoma Park, Maryland. How much: Free. For more information: A parent can call 202-364-1919 or visit politics-prose.com.

When she was a little girl, Margarita Engle spent her summers in Cuba, where she says she fell in love with nature. Her mother’s home town of Trinidad in central Cuba is near a large nature reserve where people visit waterfalls, go hiking and ride horses. “Riding horses was my city kid’s dream come true,” Engle said. Engle, 66, was born to a Cuban mother and an American father. Her annual visits to the Caribbean island. from her home in California shaped her life and inspired her to become a plant scientist and a poet. The Poetry Foundation recently named her its Young People’s Poet Laureate, a role Engle plans to use to encourage children and teenagers to write down their feelings. Magic happens when you put your emotions in writing, she said. Engle says she has always liked poetry. At age 6, she wrote her first poems about nature. After looking around while taking a walk one day in California, she wrote a rhymed verse about the shapes of hills. In the summer of 1960, when she was 9, the U.S. relationship with Cuba grew increasingly unfriendly, and Engle was unable to return to the island for three decades. “I fell in love with Cuba, and I never imagined that we wouldn’t be able to go back,” Engle said. “I wanted to feel free to love two countries even though history said, ‘No, you have to choose.’ ”. Even though Cuba is only 90 miles from the Florida Keys, most Americans have not been free to visit the country for more than 50 years. The United States blocked most trade with the island after it became a communist nation in 1959, and the restrictions made travel between the two countries almost impossible. A few changes in recent years have made it easier to visit, but many Cuban Americans have not gone back. An estimated 2 million Hispanics of Cuban origin live in the United States, according to a Pew Research Center study. Engle missed visiting her abuelita , tíos and cousins, and missed the country’s hills and villages. So as a teen, she wrote sonnets (14-line rhyming poems) about nature and stories about people in Cuba. Some of her books explore the island, its people, markets and landmarks. Her new picture book, “All the Way to Havana,” features American cars from the 1940s and 1950s that are still on Cuban roads. “Forest World,” a new middle-grade novel, introduces readers to Edver, an 11-year-old who lives in Miami, Florida, with his mother and is shipped off to Cuba to see his birthplace and meet his Cuban family. When he arrives in Havana, the capital, he learns he has an older sister, Luza, who stayed behind on the island with her father and grandfather. The two go on an ad­ven­ture into a Cuban forest. The emotions of the characters are similar to what many children feel when separated from loved ones. Writing them down helped Engle heal the pain of not being to able to visit when she was a girl, she said. Engle said she hopes that people facing similar challenges can find refuge in poetry. “When you sit down to write, it is just you and the words,” she said.

The Summer of KidsPost has taken us to balmy beaches and scenic summertime locations, but some kids took the opportunity this summer to escape the heat for a winter preview. Emma and Daniel Paul of Arlington, Virginia, packed their coats for a European vacation that took them to Gullfoss waterfall in Iceland. The name Gullfoss translates from Icelandic to "golden waterfall," and it is a popular attraction for visitors. Sisters Daphne and Amelia Wegner of Kensington, Maryland, went to the Nordic lands and arrived in Svalbard. The Arctic archipelago — a group of islands — sits about halfway between Norway and the North Pole. The islands are so far north that for four months in the summer, they experience the midnight sun, when the sun doesn't set. Amelia and Lee Beltran of North Springfield, Virginia, didn't have to go overseas to get a taste of winter when they took a cruise to Skagway, Alaska. The twins and sister Katie are experienced travelers: The kids have only 17 more states to go to have seen all of the United States. Thank you to all those who sent in photos this summer. Out of 109 submissions, we chose three at random to win Summer of KidsPost prize packs. Congratulations to Matt and Marin Brow of McLean, Virginia; Jacob and Matiwos Curran of Washington, D.C.; and Jarrett Burak of Colesville, Maryland. We would also like to give a shout-out to the 676 kids from across the country who joined our “Challenge Yourself” 2017 Summer Book Club. We are thrilled you kept up with the reading all summer.

Fall is on the way. At KidsPost, that means we need artwork to reflect the change of season. So we're hoping you will help us out. Whatever you think fall looks like, put that image down on paper. If your art fits with the daily weather forecast, we’ll consider publishing it in KidsPost. Remember, we need art for days that are sunny, cloudy, rainy and windy. And we know you love Halloween scenes, but it’s not quite time to put out the jack-o’-lanterns. Bright colors work best. You can use paints, markers or whatever art supplies you have, but try to avoid leaving a lot of white space on the page. Be sure to include your full name, age (5 to 13) and home town on the back of your artwork. We also need a note from a parent, guardian or teacher giving permission for your drawing to be used. Pictures should be sent to Kids­Post, The Washington Post, 1301 K Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. Or have an adult fill out the form below.

The Pledge of Allegiance is just 31 words long. Its history, on the other hand, is quite lengthy. Francis Bellamy, a Christian minister, penned the patriotic sentence in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. He wrote at the time for a general-interest magazine called the Youth’s Companion, which published the pledge to encourage schoolchildren to recite it each morning. Schools would need to purchase flags for students to do so, according to pledge expert Shelley Lapkoff, and the magazine just happened to sell them. “It was both to get people to have flags, in keeping with their belief of patriotism, and then also to help their business,” Lapkoff said. “I believe the reason that flags are so predominant in our culture is because of the Pledge of Allegiance and this mass-marketing campaign that went on.”. It’s still a public-school tradition to say the pledge each morning, though the accompanying gesture has switched from an outstretched hand to a hand-over-heart salute, according to Elizabeth Brown, a reference librarian at the Library of Congress. “It’s just so much a part of the fabric of American society,” Brown said. “We all grew up with it in our schools and our scout meetings and at so many events.”. The pledge itself is more of a patchwork quilt. The words “my flag” initially appeared instead of “flag of the United States,” Lapkoff said. Bellamy wanted any country to be able to say the same pledge. But several political organizations at the 1923 National Flag Conference agreed to change the wording in an effort to boost American patriotism, Lapkoff said, and it has been that way since. “Under God,” the pledge’s most controversial phrase, was added 31 years later. Tensions at the time were high between the United States and the Soviet Union, a group of nations that embraced communism. Belief in God was something communists did not support. In 1952, a Catholic group called the Knights of Columbus urged Congress to add “under God” to the pledge. The effort stalled. But the Reverend George Docherty, a Presbyterian minister, revived the idea when he preached about it at his D.C. church on February 7, 1954. The special guest that day was President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Support grew quickly, and Congress passed a resolution that spring to add the words. Eisenhower signed it into a law on June 14, Flag Day. Brown, the librarian, said it’s surprising that the original pledge didn’t include the words. “Bellamy was a minister, which makes you wonder why ‘under God’ didn’t get in there sooner,” she said. That part of the pledge has upset some people. The Constitution’s First Amendment says Congress can’t establish an official religion or favor one religion over another. A few people have argued in court that reciting a pledge that mentions one God goes against the First Amendment. But the courts have mostly rejected that idea, because saying the pledge and saluting the flag is voluntary. (The Supreme Court ruled on that issue in 1943.). Lapkoff said she’s grateful that the pledge has helped people keep thinking about what it means to be American. “I think people have different ideas about patriotism now,” she said. “The Pledge of Allegiance has been instrumental to defining freedom of speech.”.

The world’s biggest T. rex is getting ready for a cutting-edge makeover. The Field Museum in Chicago said Wednesday that it will take down and remount the 401⁄2 -foot-long Tyrannosaurus nicknamed Sue, perhaps the world’s most famous dinosaur fossil, in a way that embodies the latest understanding of this ferocious Cretaceous Period predator. The big T. rex will move to a new exhibition space in the museum, while a cast of the skeleton of the largest-known dinosaur, , will take the spot Sue now occupies in the museum’s Stanley Field Hall. Patagotitan, a long-necked, four-legged plant-eater that was 122 feet long and weighed 70 tons, lived in Argentina 100 million years ago, more than 30 million years before T. rex stalked western North America. The biggest land animal on record, it was a member of a dinosaur group called titanosaurs. The museum next spring will unveil the fiberglass Patagotitan skeleton, which is being cast from fossils of seven Patagotitan individuals, and for two years will display some of the genuine fossils, including an eight-foot thighbone. Named for the woman who discovered the fossils in South Dakota in 1990, Sue is the largest, most complete and best-preserved ever unearthed. The museum bought the fossils at auction for $8.4 million. Sue will be taken down in February and put up again with noteworthy changes in anatomy and stance in its new exhibition hall in spring 2019, museum scientists said. “We are making several adjustments to the skeleton to reflect new and improved knowledge,” said paleontologist Pete Makovicky, the museum’s associate curator of dinosaurs. The most striking change, Makovicky said, will be the addition of gastralia, bones resembling an additional set of ribs spanning the belly that may have provided structural support to help the dinosaur breathe. Adding these bones will illustrate just how massive Sue was and that it boasted a bulging belly, he added. The scientists concluded that the bone mounted as Sue’s wishbone was misidentified in 2000, and they will replace it with the dinosaur’s actual wishbone, or furcula, the fused collar bones typical of meat-eating dinosaurs. They also will adjust the ribs to produce a slimmer, less barrel-shaped chest, and arrange the right leg so Sue is not crouching as much. “Often when you do something as expensive as mounting a vertebrate fossil skeleton for display you only get one shot at it. I’m happy we’re going to fix and update this incredible fossil,” said paleontologist Bill Simpson, who heads the museum’s geological collections.

It’s almost September, and kids are going back to school and starting their fall sports seasons. I have a suggestion that might make your sports more fun. Keep a sports journal. Write about your soccer, baseball or lacrosse team. I know it sounds a bit like a homework assignment, but you don’t have to write every day. If you get stuck on what to write about, just pretend you’re writing a letter to a friend telling her about your team. Have fun with it. Don’t worry, no one is going to give you a grade for your journal. There are plenty of popular diaries and journals. Lots of kids love to read “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and the “Dork Diaries.”. There are famous sports diaries, too. Jerry Kramer, an all-pro guard for the Green Bay Packers, kept a journal of his football team’s 1967 season. Kramer’s book — “Instant Replay” — was on the New York Times bestseller list for 37 weeks. Or open up a file on your computer. It doesn’t have to be anything special. You may also want to check out Jack Gantos’s funny new book “Writing Radar.” It’s all about journal writing. Then start to write down your thoughts or collect stuff about your team. What kind of stuff? You can start by putting the team roster in your journal. Or the team schedule along with the scores of the games. Draw pictures of your team uniforms or certain plays and players. Don’t worry if you’re not a great artist. Jeff Kinney, the author and artist of the “Wimpy Kid” series, isn’t Picasso. If your team keeps statistics, you can include them. Or keep track of your own stats. Of course, the journal shouldn’t be just scores and statistics. Write about the fun things that happen. One fun thing I remember is a day that it started raining during practice of a soccer team I coached. The boys didn’t stop playing. They had a blast slipping and sliding all over the pitch. The kids talked about that practice for years. It was a favorite team memory. Write about your favorite parts of being on your team. Write about how your team is coming together — or not coming together — during the season. Every team, whether in the pros or in your neighborhood, is a story. A sports journal is just a way to write down the team stories so you won’t forget them. Keeping a journal may also help you become a better player because you will notice things about your sport. Tennis legend Serena Williams and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps both keep sports journals to help them with their performance. So this season don’t just play sports, write about them. Bowen writes the sports opinion column for KidsPost. He is the author of 22 kids sports books.

Opening a new era in cancer care, the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the first treatment that genetically engineers patients’ own blood cells into an army of assassins to seek and destroy childhood leukemia (loo-KEE-me-uh). The CAR-T cell treatment developed by Novartis and the University of Pennsylvania is the first type of gene therapy to hit the U.S. market — part of a wave of custom-made “living drugs” being tested against blood cancers and some other tumors, too. “We’re entering a new frontier in medical innovation with the ability to reprogram a patient’s own cells to attack a deadly cancer,” said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. CAR-T treatment uses gene therapy techniques to turbocharge T cells, immune system soldiers that cancer can often evade. Researchers filter those cells from a patient’s blood, reprogram them to target cancer and grow hundreds of millions of copies. Returned to the patient, the revved-up cells can continue multiplying to fight disease for months or years. — Associated Press.

Houston, Texas, got a bit of a break from the relentless rain brought by Hurricane Harvey, with only two to three additional inches expected in the Houston area on Tuesday. But two dams protecting the city and a levee in a suburb began overflowing Tuesday, adding to the rising floodwaters from Harvey that have crippled the city after five days of rain. Harvey is the fiercest hurricane to hit the United States since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans 12 years ago this week. On Tuesday, it was drifting over the Gulf of Mexico but was expected to turn back onto land Wednesday morning, probably in southwestern Louisiana. The storm could creep eastward as far as Mississippi by Thursday, which means that New Orleans is in Harvey’s path. Harvey has dumped at least 30 inches of rain on Houston and the surrounding area, with about 20 inches expected in the next few days. More than 17,000 people have fled their homes and have gathered in several dozen shelters, the American Red Cross said. That number is expected to grow as police continue rescues. — Associated Press.

Who fights crime and chews chairs? Dog Man, the heroic hound in Dav (pronounced “Dave”) Pilkey’s new graphic novel, “Dog Man: A Tale of Two Kitties.”. Dog Man is half pup and half police officer, said Pilkey, who came up with the brave-but-wacky character when he was in second grade. Back then, Pilkey got into so much trouble, his teacher moved his desk to the hall. That’s when Pilkey began making up stories about and drawing two funny characters, Dog Man and Captain Underpants. When he became an adult, Pilkey still liked these goofy characters so much that he wanted to create more tales about them. This is the third book in the Dog Man series. But the character first appeared in Pilkey’s popular books about Captain Underpants, Pilkey said by phone as he traveled by ferry to his home on Bainbridge Island in Washington state. Readers liked Dog Man so much that Pilkey decided to give him his own series. In the new book, the blue-uniformed pooch must battle destructive buildings that have come to life and an evil bionic fish. Dog Man’s biggest problem, though, is Petey, a villainous cat. Petey tries to clone himself; but instead of a grown cat, he creates a sweet kitten named Li’L Petey. When the cranky feline dumps the kitten, Dog Man befriends him. You can hear Pilkey talk about his book and how he draws his characters Thursday in Mount Airy, Maryland, and Saturday at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. Pilkey credits his childhood pet, Halle, for Dog Man’s loyal, joyful personality. Halle was a good friend to Pilkey during a tough time — when he was the only child in his class who couldn’t read. “I struggled with dyslexia and ADHD, which made it hard to read and focus,” Pilkey said. “I was frustrated and got into trouble.”. They hoped he might learn to read if he found books he liked. Pilkey’s mother took him to the library in their home town of Elyria, Ohio, and let him check out whatever he wanted. “Her only rule was that if I checked it out, I had to read it,” Pilkey said with a laugh. He brought home stacks of books that included “Where the Wild Things Are” and the “Frog and Toad” series. He and Halle would curl up in his beanbag chair, where he liked to read and create his own comic books. Sometimes he showed his work to his dog. “Halle was always patient and enthusiastic,” Pilkey said. At the end of his new book are photos of real kids reading with their dogs. Not only do kids and four-legged pals enjoy these experiences, but the dogs also can actually help young people become better readers, according to researchers at the University of California at Davis. Pilkey admits to a soft spot for cats, even that scoundrel Petey. In the book, Petey changes and becomes a more complex character. The “Tale of Two Kitties” in the title reflects a famous novel for grown-ups, “A Tale of Two Cities,” by Charles Dickens. Like a character in Dickens’s story, Petey makes many bad choices, but sometimes he surprises the reader and makes a kinder choice. This year, Pilkey celebrates the 20th anniversary of the first Captain Underpants book, “The Adventures of Captain Underpants.” Does he have any big plans? He’s also planning for his next book, “Dog Man and Cat Kid,” which will be published in December. Where: Mount Airy Middle School, 102 West Watersville Road, Mount Airy, Maryland. When: Thursday at 6 p.m. How much: Free, but a parent must request tickets from A Likely Story Bookstore at 410-795-1718. Where: National Book Festival, Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington. When: Saturday at 11:15 a.m. at the Children’s Purple Stage. How much: Free. For more information: Go to loc.gov/bookfest for the complete schedule of featured authors. Visit The Washington Post area of the Expo floor, where local authors will read from their books for children throughout the day.

In a comfy corner of the Swine Pavilion at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds, 14-year-old Mackenzie “Cookie” McGaha (sounds like ma-GAK-ee) feeds her Yorkshire pig a marshmallow. Named for his favorite sweet treat, the 6-month-old pink pig waits in a tidy pen. It almost looks as though he’s smiling. Soon it will be time for the pair to compete in a nearby arena. Cookie and her two older brothers take care of their animals at the show grounds when they compete and also on their family’s farm in Beallsville, Maryland. Care involves a lot of early mornings feeding slop, bathing animals and mucking manure. It’s messy, and it’s hard work. “But I really enjoy being with the animals,” says Cookie, whose parents grew up raising farm animals. “It’s a big responsibility caring for these pigs every day,” says the girl, who stays in a camper at the fairgrounds with her family during the fair. In another barn nearby, 11-year-old Jackson Rippeon demonstrates how to blow-dry a steer (young male cattle that can no longer reproduce) after a bath, to get ready for a show. Old Yeller — a buff-colored bovine who weighs 1,310 pounds — stands quietly for his beauty treatment. Jackson pays extra attention to his steers’ hair before a show. “It’s a lot of work to keep them washed, dried and clipped and getting them fit,” he says. In steer competitions, the word “fit” refers to keeping a steer’s hair fluffed. Like his dad, Jackson has raised and shown steers since he was a young boy. They live on a farm in Mount Airy. The fact that his steers will soon be sold for meat doesn’t stop Jackson from doting on his animals. His bond with the steers started when he got them as calves, or babies. “I would sit in their stall with them and rub them,” he says. “I see them every day. They understand that I’m going to take care of them and give them lots of good food and care. They have a good life.”. Back in the Swine Pavilion, Cookie’s pig snacks on a few more marshmallows before the pair head into the arena with other competitors. The judge compares how the pigs walk, the perkiness of their ears, and the width of their shoulders and hindquarters. Then he awards Cookie and Marshmallow a blue ribbon and $25 for first place. Two days later, Marshmallow is named the day’s champion Yorkshire. Cookie will compete at the Maryland State Fair this week. Jackson and his family will be there, too. This year, he has competed in six or seven shows, including two in Indiana. But he’s especially looking forward to the state fair. “I love their show ring,” he says, “with all the flags and the banners.”. Jackson also likes how they use deep, super-soft shavings in the steers’ stalls to make the animals comfortable. Two things he doesn’t care for? Junk food and carnival rides. “No,” he says, “I don’t go for that stuff. I’m usually at the barn.”. What: Maryland State Fair (lots of fun agriculture-related events — such as cow-milking lessons, competitions and exhibits, plus carnival rides). Where: Maryland State Fairgrounds, 2200 York Road, Timonium. (Cookie and Jackson will be exhibiting in a building called the Cow Palace.). For more information: Visit marylandstatefair.com. What: State Fair of Virginia. When: September 29 to October 8. Where: Meadow Event Park, 13191 Dawn Boulevard, Doswell. For more information: Visit statefairva.org.

Floodwaters reached the roof lines of single-story homes Monday, and people could be heard pleading for help from inside as Hurricane Harvey kept pouring rain on the Houston area after a chaotic weekend of rising water and rescues. The nation’s fourth-largest city was still largely paralyzed, and there was no relief in sight from the storm that spun into Texas as a Category 4 hurricane, then parked itself over the Gulf Coast. With nearly two more feet of rain expected, authorities worried whether the worst was yet to come. Harvey has been blamed for at least three confirmed deaths, including a woman killed Monday in the town of Porter, northeast of Houston, when a large oak tree toppled onto her trailer home. The disaster unfolded on an epic scale in one of America’s most sprawling metropolitan centers. The Houston metro area covers about 10,000 square miles, an area slightly bigger than New Jersey. It’s crisscrossed by about 1,700 miles of channels, creeks and bayous that drain into the Gulf of Mexico, about 50 miles to the southeast from downtown. On Monday, the city’s normally bustling business district was virtually deserted, with emergency vehicles making up most of the traffic. Most traffic signals were out, and most businesses closed. Elsewhere, water gushed from two reservoirs overwhelmed by Harvey as officials sought to release pressure on a pair of dams where floodwaters were at risk of spilling from around the sides of the barriers. The move aimed at protecting the downtown business district risked flooding thousands more homes. Meanwhile, rescuers continued plucking people from the floodwaters — at least 2,000 so far, according to Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo. With rain falling nonstop, he said there was nowhere left for the water to drain. “I’m not sure where the water is going because it’s just so much that we can’t really absorb more in the ground at this point,” Acevedo told MSNBC. The rising water forced a mass evacuation of parts of the city Sunday, and rescuers could not keep up with constant calls for help. The Red Cross quickly set up Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center and other buildings as shelters. The convention center, which was also used as a shelter for Hurricane Katrina refugees in 2005, can hold roughly 5,000 people. By Monday morning, it had reached half its capacity, the Red Cross said. Residents living near the Addicks and Barker reservoirs — which were created to prevent flooding in downtown Houston — were warned Sunday that a controlled release would cause additional street flooding that could spill into homes. The rising water and ongoing rain put pressure on the dams, which could allow water to spill outside them if the pressure is not relieved. The Army Corps of Engineers started the reservoir releases before 2 a.m. Monday — ahead of schedule — because water levels were increasing at a rate of more than 6 inches per hour, Corps spokesman Jay Townsend said. In the Cypress Forest Estates neighborhood in northern Harris County, people called for help from inside their homes as water from a nearby creek climbed to the lower part of their roofs. A steady procession of rescue boats floated into the area. One man, Joe Garcia, carried his German shepherd in the chest-deep water before being picked up by a boat. Garcia said he floated out a tub of his belongings, then went back in for the dog. The Weather Service warned that the flooding will get worse in the days ahead and that the floodwaters will be slow to recede once Harvey moves on. Up to 20 inches of rain could fall in the coming days, on top of the more than 30 inches some places have seen, Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini said Monday. Some people used inflatable beach toys, rubber rafts and even air mattresses to get through the water to safety. Others waded while carrying trash bags stuffed with their belongings and small animals in picnic coolers. Residents had been given conflicting about whether to evacuate. Governor Greg Abbott urged people to flee from Harvey’s path, but the Houston mayor told everyone to stay home. The governor refused to point fingers Sunday. “Now is not the time to second-guess the decisions that were made,” Abbott said at a news conference. “What’s important is that everybody work together to ensure that we are going to, first, save lives and, second, help people across the state rebuild.”. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner defended his decision, citing the risk of sending the city’s 2.3 million inhabitants onto the highways at the same time. “If you think the situation right now is bad, and you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare,” Turner said.

Greenland’s ice cap holds beneath it 10 percent of the Earth’s freshwater, enough to raise global sea levels by 20 feet. While there’s no doubt it is melting, scientists have little certainty about exactly what’s happening inside this 10,000-year-old ice roughly three times size of Texas. Last winter was the warmest on record in the Arctic, and as Greenland heats up, understanding this effect has become essential to navigating our future. That’s why scientists need narwhals. The whales with nine-foot-long unicorn-like tusks are some of the only mammals benefiting from all that melting ice. “The narwhals like it,” said Josh Willis, the project lead for NASA’s Oceans Melting Greenland. When melting ice falls into the sea, it churns up the water, bringing such food as plankton and krill to the surface. The whales tend to feed at the bottom of melting glaciers and can dive to depths of 1,800 meters (about 5,900 feet), precisely the areas that OMG needs to survey. It’s a perfect match. “Narwhals are oceanographers,” said Kristin Laidre, a University of Washington marine biologist. The five-year, $10 million OMG study is designed to measure the seasonal ebb and flow of the glaciers using a combination of the whales, satellites, temperature and salinity probes (salinity is the measure of salt content), as well as airborne and ship-based observations of the seafloor. Ultimately, the study aims to determine how quickly Greenland’s ice will disappear. “Will it take 1,000 years, a few hundred, or will we lose most of it in 50 years?” asked Willis. “That’s the part we don’t understand.”. Laidre’s work with narwhals isn’t as novel as it sounds. Seals have been used to map the ocean floor of Antarctica. Sharks have done the same thing in the Pacific. Germany’s Max Planck Institute has developed Icarus, a tiny sensor that can turn anything — a bird, a bee — into a beacon to predict weather and natural disasters. The depth of glaciers has historically been difficult and costly to study accurately. “Arctic work is logistically complicated and expensive,” Laidre said. A single project requires hundreds of thousands of dollars for chartered planes, ships, equipment, power and people. So far, OMG has measured Greenland’s seafloor and mapped the continental shelf, a crucial piece in the melt puzzle. “Ancient glaciers carved these troughs through the continental shelf,” Willis said. The channels allow warm water to flow between the glaciers, eating away at the ice. Unfortunately, “a lot more of these glaciers sit in deeper water than we expected,” he said. Willis fears that future, more accurate projections of Greenland mass loss “are probably going to have to be revised upward.” If they are, we’ll have narwhals to thank for the data.

The Summer of KidsPost has taken us all over the world, but a hot spot for our readers this summer was Japan. The Land of the Rising Sun is known for its stunning visual arts, architecture and food. Brothers William and Steven Richards of Burke, Virginia, took a trip to Kinkaku-ji (pronounced kin-KAH-koo-GEE) in Kyoto. The name translates to Temple of the Golden Pavillion. The temple is such a popular destination that another of our Kids­Post readers, Sam Brock of Arlington, Virginia, saw it on his vacation. Sam also visited the famous temple Todai-ji (TOE-die-GEE) in Nara. Known as the Great Eastern Temple, Todai-ji is one of the largest wooden structures in the world. Henry and Miles Heyman and Harry Fishman, who go to school together in Washington, loved visiting Himeji (HIM-eh-GEE) Castle in Himeji. The castle was built in 1333 and is known as the White Heron Castle because some say it looks like a bird taking flight. Would you like to see pictures of your summer adventures featured in KidsPost? Here’s what you’ll need to do: ●Go on a trip (anywhere!) and take along a recent copy of KidsPost. ●Have someone take a photo or two of you — and siblings, cousins, etc. Make sure at least one person in the photo is between the ages of 5 and 13. ●Then fill out the submission form at and attach your photo or photos. Or mail it to Kids­Post, The Washington Post, 1301 K St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. Include the full name, age and home town of everyone in the photo. We also need your parent’s phone number and email address. We would love to hear from you about what made the trip memorable. Families can submit only once, and the photos must have been taken after May 22, 2017. Entries are due by August 30. At the end of the summer, three randomly selected families who have sent in photos will receive books and KidsPost goodies.

The U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C., is expecting a stinky first in the coming days as a trio of corpse flowers is due to open and release an odor that would make your brother’s dirty-clothes hamper smell sweet by comparison. The event would mark the first time that three of the giant plants, also known as titan arum (pronounced TIE-tan AIR-um), have bloomed close to the same time at a North American institution, U.S. Botanic Garden spokesman Ray Mims said Wednesday. The biggest plant has grown to about seven feet tall and is scheduled to open between Thursday and Tuesday. The Botanic Garden will be open until 10 p.m. once the flower blooms to handle crowds. “When you’re above it, you need a gas mask. This is really one of the rock stars of the plant kingdom,” said Todd Brethauer, a volunteer who carries a jar with a sample of the odor to give garden visitors a whiff. The stench from the opened corpse flower, or , (uh-MORE-fo-fal-us ti-TAY-num) has been called a combination of rotting flesh, smelly socks, garlic and dirty diapers. It is a great draw for pollinating carrion beetles and flies. Corpse flower blooms, once rare, have become more frequent, with seven occurring this summer in the United States. The increase resulted from the greater number of flowers in U.S. institutions, including 15 or 16 plants at Washington’s Botanic Garden, Mims said. The reek’s main ingredient, dimethyl trisulfide, is known for the strength of its smell and is added to normally odorless natural gas to give it a distinctive smell. “People think flowers are pretty, they smell good. A lot don’t,” said Jim Adams, the Garden’s horticultural manager. The interior temperature on a fully blooming flower reaches 115 degrees, heat that helps spread the smell, Adams said. Simultaneous blooms are very rare since blooms occur only when individual plants have stored enough energy in their underground storage organs. The plant is native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and the three that are set to bloom at the Botanic Garden were raised at one of its facilities. The enormous spadix, or central spike, on the biggest of the three plants attracted visitors Wednesday with its ashy maroon color and the glossy green leaf covering the base. “It looks prehistoric ... like something out of a movie,” said Julie Spack, 30, of Peterborough, New Hampshire, before she snapped a selfie with it. — From news services and staff reports. Where: 100 Maryland Avenue Southwest, Washington. When: Daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The National Garden is open until 7 p.m. until Labor Day but plans to stay open until 10 p.m. when the corpse flowers are in bloom. How much: Free. For more information: Call 202-225-8333 or visit usbg.gov/three-corpse-flower-blooms-usbg.

. . Jayson Werth . . . and now Bryce Harper. The Washington Nationals have had a lot of injuries this season. And I haven’t mentioned the other half-dozen players who are on the disabled list. The Nats have even had scares with pitchers Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg. Still, Washington is way ahead in the National League East Division. Because a bunch of guys have come off the bench and helped the team. Let’s take a look at some of these valuable players. Wilmer Difo is not big (he’s listed at 5-foot-11), but he sure plays big. The Nats can put Difo at almost any position, and he will play well. Adam Lind is a terrific hitter who would start for most major league teams. Michael A. Taylor, who just came off the disabled list, and Brian Goodwin, who got hurt recently, have shown throughout the season that they are quality outfielders. Even Andrew Stevenson, who started the year deep in the Nats minor league system, recently saved a game with a diving catch in left field. The outstanding play of the Nats bench this season is a good reminder to kids, and really to everyone. Lots of kids would love to be stars such as Scherzer or Harper. They are super talents who make a hard game look easy. But most kids never get to be that kind of player. Teams also need bench players who stay ready and help out when they can. It’s the same outside of sports. Too many people make too big a deal out of so-called stars and celebrities such as Beyoncé, Justin Bieber and the Kardashians. But what makes a country or a society work is not the superstars and celebrities. It’s the teachers, nurses, scientists, first responders and countless other people who use their talents to help others and make things better for everyone. These people don’t have 90 million followers on Instagram, but they are valuable players. Bowen writes the sports opinion column for KidsPost. He is the author of 22 sports books for kids ages 7 to 12.

A woman killed when a suspected white nationalist crashed his car into anti-racist demonstrators in Charlottesville was remembered Wednesday at a memorial service in the Virginia college city. Heather Heyer, 32, was killed after hours of clashes Saturday between white nationalists attending a “Unite the Right” gathering and people who were protesting that rally. Mark Heyer, her father, told the audience of about 1,000 people at the memorial service that no father should have to bury his child. He said his daughter wanted to put down hatred. The service for Heyer was held at the site of the deadly rally. Many of those attending wore purple, Heyer’s favorite color, in her memory. Mark Heyer said, “Heather’s passion extended to her ideas and her thoughts. She could tell if someone wasn’t being straight with her, and she’d call them on it.”. Heyer, who lived in Charlottesville, was among the hundreds of protesters who had gathered there Saturday to decry what was believed to be the largest gathering of white supremacists in a decade — including those who support Adolf Hitler’s hatred of Jews and members of the Ku Klux Klan, an organization with a long history of violence against black people and other minorities. They descended on Charlottesville for a rally prompted by the city’s decision to remove a monument to Robert E. Lee, a Confederate Army general during the Civil War. Chaos and violence erupted before the event began, with counterdemonstrators and rallygoers clashing in the streets. Authorities broke up the gathering, and groups began roaming through town. Counterprotesters had converged for a march along a downtown street when suddenly a car barreled into them, hurling people into the air. Video shows the car reversing and hitting more people. The Ohio man who police say was driving, 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr., was described by a former high school teacher as an admirer of Hitler and his Nazi Party, which controlled Germany during World War II and carried out the murder of about 6 million Jews. Fields was quickly taken into custody and has been charged with second-degree murder and other counts. President Trump was criticized by people from both major political parties over his initial response, in which he blamed “many sides” for the unrest. On Monday, the Republican president bowed to political pressure and denounced neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan by name, but Tuesday he raised tensions again by insisting that counterprotesters were also to blame. Residents of the usually quiet, liberal-leaning Virginia city were horrified by the weekend violence they said was brought by outsiders. “The way [Heyer] lost her life, doing what she did, really stood for Charlottesville. It makes me wish that I knew her,” said Sam Welty, 42. “It’s a shame that people who don’t live here had to come and unleash hate and violence and put Charlottesville on the world map for something that it does not deserve.”.

Bei Bei, the Smithsonian National Zoo’s giant panda cub, is about to turn 2. For his birthday, he will get a special ice cake, but he might also get a surprise — a new sibling. The zoo’s giant panda experts say they think Bei Bei’s mom, Mei Xiang (pronounced may SHONG), may be pregnant. But panda reproduction is complicated, to say the least. To start off with, female pandas have only a very short time when their bodies are ready to become pregnant — about two or three days a year. So at the end of May, panda experts performed a medical procedure to help Mei Xiang have a cub. “Right now, we’re sort of in the wait-and-see mode,” said Michael Brown-Palsgrove, the giant panda curator. Panda experts look for hints of pregnancy. One sign is rising hormone levels, which research veterinarian Pierre Comizzoli said he expects to see in Mei Xiang for the second time soon. Once that happens, it takes about 45 to 55 days for a cub to be born. Nothing is black and white with pandas, though — except for the panda itself. Hormones also rise during what’s called a “pseudopregnancy” (soo-doh-preg-nan-cee), when the panda acts pregnant but actually isn’t. In past pregnancies, panda experts have sometimes seen the fetus by taking an ultrasound scan of Mei Xiang’s belly, but that’s easier said than done. “She’s a pretty large animal, and the fetal development is pretty tiny,” Comizzoli said. (At birth, pandas typically weigh about four to six ounces and are about the size of a stick of butter.). The experts won’t be sure Mei Xiang is pregnant until the end of the 45-to-55-day period, at which point, Comizzoli said, “there’s either a cub on the ground or there’s not.”. Giant pandas, found in the wild only in China, are relatively new to U.S. zoos. The first pair arrived at the National Zoo in 1972. Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing (sing sing) were a gift from the Chinese government to the United States. The pair produced five cubs between 1983 and 1989, but none survived more than a few days. Those early losses were learning experiences for the zoo’s panda team. “We’ve made a lot of progress in terms of monitoring everything we can and this period of time where we don’t really know what’s going on,” Comizzoli said. The zoo’s second pair, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian (t-YEN t-YEN), who arrived in 2000, are three-time parents. Tai Shan (tie SHON), who is 12, and Bao Bao (rhymes with now-now), who’s almost 4, live in China. Only a few zoos in the world — including four in the United States — have pandas, and they rely on one another for information and training. “We all know each other and help each other as much as we can,” Comizzoli said. Every year, the National Zoo panda team meets with other panda keepers. “It’s really just an informal way to talk about our experiences and what we’re doing,” Brown-Palsgrove said. National Zoo staff members also write research papers and sometimes have their colleagues come to Washington for hands-on training. A few years ago, panda keepers from Toronto, Canada, visited the National Zoo to learn about panda breeding. The training paid off: Er Shun gave birth to twins in Toronto in 2015. Recently, a French zoo had giant panda twins, but only one survived. Although the National Zoo panda keepers communicated with the French zoo, they were not directly involved in the birth, Comizzoli said. “They had the Chinese experts assisting them in France,” he said. “They’re the real experts.”.

Sue McGrew creates amazing pieces of art that often last just a few weeks. Sometimes they disappear in a day. A soaking rain, for example, can wash away several hours of work in minutes. That’s the life of a professional sand sculptor. McGrew has practiced this art form — using sand, water and a few hand tools — since high school. Now she travels the world for competitions and other events. What began as a hobby has become “my passion,” says the 31-year-old from Seattle, Washington. Although she also carves ice and snow, “I love to express myself in sand.”. The magic is in the medium. “It’s something every kid, every adult, has played in at the beach,” she says. “People don’t relate in the same way. . . it really captures their attention.”. And what those people really want to know is, “Aren’t you sad when it all goes away?”. “It’s part of the job,” knowing her sculptures won’t last long. The joy is that “people experience it with you,” in the moment. Fortunately, there are photos. Ima­ges of giant castles, fetching mermaids, storybook characters and mythological creatures abound on her website (suemcgrew.com). Some took shape in a day; others took a few weeks. Does she have a favorite? That’s like asking your mom to pick her favorite child. (Don’t worry. It’s you.) McGrew pauses, then mentions the giant head of the French adventure writer Jules Verne that she sculpted in Taiwan. “There’s a level of difficulty to do a portrait, at that scale, with beach sand, which is not that strong,” she says. “And when it’s that large, you’re so close that it doesn’t look like anything until you climb down and see it from below.”. Collapses are part of the job. “You want to awe people, so you push the limits of gravity and sand sculpting,” McGrew says. The quality of the sand is vital to how strong a sculpture will be, she says. “You want tiny but sharp particles with enough silt and clay so the sculpture actually gets harder” with time. Beach sand is tricky. A bucketful of coarse sand has lots of air, like a bag of marbles. Look for fine sand that packs well. If you think sand sculptors always work on sun-drenched tropical beaches with palm trees swaying overhead, think again. At a 2013 springtime event in Binz, Germany, a resort on the Baltic Sea, “it was so cold the sand froze,” McGrew says. “We had to use blowtorches to thaw it.”. What you’ll need: Sand, of course, and lots of water. Also, a few buckets, including one with the bottom cut out (get an adult’s help with that! ); a shovel; a trowel; a palette knife, a spatula and other scraping tools; a spoon; a straw (to blow off grains of sand that aren’t where you want them to be); and brushes. Hint: Keep your tools in a bucket, or wrap colored tape on their ends, so they don’t get buried and lost. And if you’re going to spend the day on a hot beach, bring sunscreen and drinking water. What to do: The secret, McGrew says, is to flood the sand with water and then pack it down tightly with your hands or feet. You can make a sand mound and use a bottomless bucket as a sand mold. Master sculptor Bert Adams, McGrew’s first sculpting tutor, shows how to make a starter sand castle at youtu.be/vJ8iViPVjXw. (Always get an adult’s permission before going online.). Final words of advice: Sand sculpting is hard work, McGrew says. Cracks and cave-ins happen. And “you never know when your baby brother will go Godzilla on your castle” and reduce it to smithereens. And, most of all, have fun. ●This SaturdayAug. 19, Coney Island, New York, holds its 27th annual sculpting contest. It’s free and open to individuals, groups and families. The action begins at noon. For more information, have an adult check out facebook.com/ConeyIslandSandSculpting.This Saturday, August 19, Coney Island, New York, holds its 27th annual sculpting contest. It’s free and open to individuals, groups and families. The action begins at noon. For more information, have an adult check out facebook.com/ConeyIslandSandSculpting. ●Everyone is invited to dig in at the 39th annual sand castle contest in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on September 9. This free event has contests for age 6 and younger, ages 7 to 14, and adults. There is also a craft activity for age 7 and younger. More information is at beach-fun.com/sandcastle-contest.html. ●Come meet McGrew when Virginia Beach hosts the 44th annual International Sandsculpting Championship from September 29 to October 8. In addition to world-class pros, amateurs are invited to try their hand (entry fee: $15). This year’s theme is Adventures Through Books. To learn more, call 757-498-0215 or visit. neptunefestival.com/events/international-sand-sculpting-championship.

A SpaceX capsule rocketed to the International Space Station on Monday, carrying tons of science research, plus ice cream. As has become customary on these cargo flights, SpaceX landed its leftover booster back at Cape Canaveral shortly after liftoff, a key to its long-term effort to recycle rockets and reduce costs. It was the 14th successful booster landing for SpaceX and the sixth on the giant X at the company’s touchdown spot at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, just a few miles from its NASA-leased pad at Kennedy Space Center. “X marks the spot for yet another picture-perfect landing,” announced SpaceX Mission Control at company headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Experiments make up most of the 6,400 pounds of cargo, which should reach the orbiting lab Wednesday. That includes 20 mice that will return alive inside the SpaceX Dragon capsule in about a month. The Dragon is also doubling as an ice cream truck this time. There was extra freezer space, so NASA packed little cups of vanilla, chocolate and birthday cake ice cream, as well as ice cream candy bars. Those treats should be especially welcomed by U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson, in orbit since November. She’s due back at the beginning of September. The space station was zooming 250 miles above the Atlantic, just off Nova Scotia, when the Falcon took flight. The mice are part of a study of vision problems suffered in space by some male astronauts. Scientists will study the pressure in the animals’ eyes, as well as the movement of fluid in their brains. Thirty days for mice in space is comparable to three years for humans, according to Florida State University Michael Delp, who’s in charge of the experiment. The study may help explain why female astronauts don’t have this vision problem, which can linger long after spaceflight, he added. The Army has an imaging microsatellite on board for release this fall from the station. The military wants to see how small satellites like this, with low-cost, off-the-shelf cameras and telescopes, might support critical ground operations. Also going up are protein crystals that, in space, might shed light on Parkinson’s disease, a condition in which the brain slowly loses the ability to control body movements. Three Americans, one more than usual, and an Italian will tackle the scientific work in orbit. The station also is home to two Russians; that number will go back up to three in a year or so. This is the 13th delivery by SpaceX, one of two private shippers hired by NASA. The other is Orbital ATK; its next supply run is in November from Wallops Island, Virginia. SpaceX is also developing a crew Dragon for NASA astronauts, set to debut next year. Boeing is working on its own capsule to ferry space station astronauts.

Summer is winding down, and KidsPost readers are soaking up sun on the beach while they can. Matthew, Olivia and Phoebe Smallman of Alexandria, Virginia, took a trip to Florida’s Gulf Coast, where their mother was raised. The siblings loved playing mini golf, bodysurfing and building sand castles. It wasn’t always playtime at the beach for Julianna and Sonny Lawrence of Rockville, Maryland. They went to Tamarindo, Costa Rica, known for its beautiful beaches and surfing, to practice their Spanish. They shared KidsPost with new Costa Rican friends. The Beddis and Allen families took a trip to Virginia Beach. Abby, Matthew and Millie Beddis and Claire and William Allen of Alexandria, Virginia, were featured in Summer of KidsPost 2012 and took time from digging in the sand to re-create their old picture. Would you like to see pictures of your summer adventures featured in KidsPost? Here’s what you’ll need to do: ●Go on a trip (anywhere!) and take along a recent copy of KidsPost. ●Have someone take a photo or two of you — and siblings, cousins, etc. Make sure at least one person in the photo is between the ages of 5 and 13. ●Then fill out the submission form at and attach your photo or photos. Or mail it to Kids­Post, The Washington Post, 1301 K St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. Include the full name, age and home town of everyone in the photo. We also need your parent’s phone number and email address. We would love to hear from you about what made the trip memorable. Families can submit only once, and the photos must have been taken after May 22, 2017. Entries are due by August 30. At the end of the summer, three randomly selected families who have sent in photos will receive books and KidsPost goodies.

Anyone who has been using online maps to decide where they intend to view the historic August 21 total eclipse of the sun may want to take another look. Those maps, provided by NASA and others, show a crisply defined, 70-mile-wide path of totality where the moon will block 100 percent of the sun. But they are not as precise as they appear, at least on their edges. The southern edge of the path as shown on the maps could be off by as little as the length of a football field or as much as a half-mile, eclipse mapping experts say. Likewise for the northern edge, meaning the path of totality might be just 69 miles wide. “This is an issue. This is really an issue, but it’s not advertised ... Yeah, all the maps are wrong,” Mike Kentrianakis, who is the solar eclipse project manager for the American Astronomical Society and who routinely consults with NASA, told the Kansas City Star. It effectively means that people who assumed, based on the Google maps, that their location was just within the path of totality — thus expecting to witness a few seconds of total eclipse — will instead see a partial eclipse. That could turn out to be a total disappointment, according to eclipse experts, who say that observing even a 99.9 percent partial eclipse is not at all the same as viewing a total eclipse. Current maps show the eclipse’s southern edge cutting through downtown Kansas City, Missouri, slicing across buildings. And they do it with great precision, noting the time of total eclipse down to the tenth of a second. But Kentrianakis, who discusses the issue as part of a new documentary, “Totality: The American Eclipse,” said a more accurate line runs about a half-mile north. Current maps also show the path cutting a sharp line through parts of St. Louis, Missouri. Louis also is wrong,” Kentrianakis said. Indeed, the map’s edges are off along the entire path from Oregon through South Carolina. Xavier Jubier, a French engineer whose calculations have been used to create the interactive Google maps of the eclipse, confirmed by email that the actual path of the totality is slightly narrower than the 70 miles shown on current maps. Ernest Wright, who created maps and other multimedia presentations on the eclipse for NASA, said he thought the map might be narrower by about 110 yards, slightly longer than a football field. He also said it’s possible that Kentrianakis is correct in his estimation that the path is narrower by a half-mile or more. “He could be,” Wright said. The reason the maps are slightly off has nothing to do with mistakes, all agree. Wright explained that eclipse maps are made based on what is known about the relative sizes and positions of the moon and the sun. “We have really good information about the orbit of the moon, the positions of the sun, the positions of the Earth. All of that is really well nailed down,” Wright said. “In order to get more accuracy, we need to take into account the mountains and valleys on the moon, and the elevations on the Earth. The size of the moon, in fact, has been measured to within a meter, and its position in the heavens has been measured to within a centimeter. “But the last sort of uncertainty might surprise you,” Wright said. “It’s the size of the sun.”. It’s a roiling ball of gas. “It doesn’t have a solid surface,” he said, making its size hard to pin down. Scientists have calculated the sun’s radius at roughly 696,000 kilometers (about 432,500 miles) from edge to center, but they do not know its size with precision. A bigger sun would make the moon’s shadow, and thus the path of totality, narrower. “You would think you could send a satellite up there, take a picture of the sun and put a ruler on the picture and decide how big the sun is,” Wright said. But it doesn’t work that way. Scientists have space-based and Earth-based telescopes constantly trained on the sun. Earth-based telescopes must contend with atmospheric interference. Space-based telescopes also have limitations. Jubier does not think the small difference will change much for the average eclipse viewer, “as usually people don’t go near the edges of the eclipse path.”. But for thousands of people who live near the edge, Wright with NASA and Kentrianakis with the American Astronomical Society offer this advice: Do your best to move closer toward the middle of the path of totality. The closer one gets to the middle of the path, the longer the totality will last, up to a maximum of about 2 minutes and 40 seconds. At the edge, totality lasts less than 10 seconds. “There are cool things to see at the edge, too,” Wright said. Some astronomers argue that viewing a solar eclipse from the edge of the path of totality offers wonderful views, including a protracted view of the sun’s rosy-red chromosphere, a layer of atmosphere just above its surface. “But the big show,” Wright said, “is going to be the closer you are to the center. You can go 10 miles and get up to a minute of totality. If you stay at the edge, you’re only going to get a couple of seconds.”. Read more: Ever wondered why you shouldn’t look at an eclipse? See what is being called the astronomical event of the decade. Kids allover the country took the opportunity to view the solar eclipse.