Critics & Fanatics
Contents

-Neglect and Abuse
-How do you make an Advertisement Effective?
-Susan B. Anthony
-Which Books Best Describe What It Was Like For African American Baseball Players Before 1960?
-Rachel Carson's Life
-Cheetahs
-Freedom: Children's Participation in the Civil Rights Movement
-Dalai Lama
-From Book to Movie
-What is your Favorite Newberry Award Winning Book?
-Shakespeare: Life and Plays

Introduction

Hello, my name is Shawasha Adams. My Great Blue Project is about neglect and abuse of children. My question is, "How do children feel in the process of being neglected or abused?" I became interested in this topic because last year a friend came to me and told me she was being abused at home. She wanted help and I gave her advice. I decided that if I had more information about neglect and abuse, I could give her better advice and understand more about what she was feeling.

Procedure

I interviewed the School Psychologist about abuse and neglect. I went to the library and asked the librarian, "How many books do you have on neglect and abuse?" She gave me three good books. These books are: Know About Abuse, No More Secrets For Me, and Cracker Jackson.

Interview with Mya Collins, School Psychologist

I interviewed our School Psychologist. I asked her, "What do children who are being abused feel?" She told me they could feel fearful that if they tell they might be taken away from their homes. They may fear that the person who is abusing them will hurt them if they tell someone. Children may fear that other kids will make fun of them if they tell friends they are being abused. They may feel angry towards the abuser. They may feel angry at other people for not protecting them. They may feel guilty for not telling about the abuse. They might feel very sad for being treated that way. They may feel confused because they might love the person who is doing the bad things to them.

I asked Ms. Collins, "What kind of problems might kids who are being abused have?" She told me their grades at school may go down. They may have problems getting along with friends. They might start to use drugs and alcohol. They may want to kill themselves. They might be sad or depressed or feel unsafe by themselves. They might not be able to trust others anymore.

I also asked Ms. Collins "What should someone do to get help if this happened to them?" She told me they should tell someone you trust. Make sure you know what is the difference between good and bad feelings and touching. If your friend is being hurt you should listen to and try to help them.

Know About Abuse

The book Know About Abuse, by Margaret O. Hyde, was down right scary! It gives factual stories about kids who have been neglected and abused and how they feel. It talks about verbal, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. This book would probably scare some younger children. I think it would be a good book for some kids in 3rd grade on up. Sometimes kids do not trust adults to talk to, but they will talk with friends. This book gives good information for children who are abused, or have friends who are being abused.

No More Secrets

The book No More Secrets, by Oralee Wachter, gives four different stories about how friends or people children trust very much can touch them in ways they don't like. It tells kids how to get help when someone is doing something you don't like. This book would be good for children of all ages you have in your life.

New Directions

If I were to do this project again, I would get more books and I would give the strengths and weaknesses of these books.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Ms. Chacon for helping write and edit my work. I would like to thank Mr. Wagler for giving me the chance to do this project and all his encouragement. I would like to thank our librarian, April Hoffman, for helping me find all the books and some of the information I needed. I would like to thank Mya Collins for taking time out of her busy schedule to give me an interview for my project.

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How Do You Make an Advertisement Effective?
by Logan
Randall School

Introduction

I have always wondered, when I hear of people paying $2,000,000 just to get a 30-second ad to be played during the Super Bowl, "What were those people thinking?" So, this year when the time came around to choose a Great Blue project, I knew that it would be the perfect question. I thought that there had to be a reason why people paid so much for a small little message. The ads mostly just say "Buy this product. It's worth it." I didn't think these ads could change anybody's mind about what and what not to buy, but boy, was I wrong. So, here is what I found out about what advertisers will do to get as much money out of people as possible.

Procedure

The first thing that I did was go to the library and ask our librarian, April, if she had anything about ads. She showed me a video which I checked out called "Buy Me That 3!" That sure was a great find! It gave me more than four pages of key words and got me off to a great start. I then went to the library again where she showed me a great magazine called Zillions that is all about ads. I read them and got many key words but it took a lot longer than I had hoped because I can only check out two books at a time in my school's library. So, I had to go back and return and check out things often.

After I did that I decided to get more of an ad agency's point of view. I started calling places and interviewing people. The people I called where normally open and willing to be interviewed. I was surprised that four out of the eight places were busy. At one of the agencies (Battista & Co.) the staff was nice enough to have the company president skip part of a meeting to be interviewed by me. Some of the companies that I called were local. The agencies that I did contact and got information from were Stephen & Brady, Inc., Creative Marketing Concepts, Alpha Advertising, Inc, Battisa & Co., and Forte Communications Corp.

Once I had all of my information, I looked through it and made it into this article which you are reading right now. So, here we go with what I found out about "What makes an ad effective?" I am going to do this in seven simple sections and compare what I think is a good ad with what an advertising agency thinks.

What Advertising Agencies Want

Advertising agencies are out to sell the product. They will do almost anything to get the product sold. They will try to get attention in any shape, way, or form and they are always trying to get more sales than competing companies that could take away some of their sales.

What I Want

I want a clean sale. No flashy stuff to get our attention. Just show the product and its use. That way, people know what they're getting and don't have to pay for whatever trick was used to sell the product to them.

Tell Me the Truth.

More honesty is needed from many TV ads. I think that this is a very important rule. I think that for all ads people should first tell where something is made. This information can definitely change your decision if you think that it comes from a place that has child labor or something like that that could hurt people, things or the environment.

This also includes showing all parts and things that you have to do to get something to work. Like in ads for super-soakers, they never show you pumping which you have to do twelve to seventeen times on average, according to Zillions. Many ads neglect to show that parent help is needed or "some assembly is required."

Last, but not least, is showing the real product. Companies will try to spiff something up to look a lot better than the real thing by using excuses like "the shakes will melt under the heat of the photography lights." Instead of a real milkshake, they may use powdered sugar and shortening. The rule is that you can use fake stuff to sell a project as long as it isn't the thing that you are trying to sell. So, that's how you can use glue instead of milk with cereal or a fake shake with a burger.

Have Ads in the Right Places.

Companies try to get advertising everywhere that they can, from ticket stubs to schools. I think that this is inappropriate. They belong in media or on billboards.

Those ideas have brought up many arguments. At Greenbrier High School, Coke was having a "Coke in Education Day" contest. The reward was $10,000. The point was to find out who could do the most things with Coke. They had things with coke in every single subject. The problem was that one student wore a Pepsi shirt (all students were supposed to wear red and white) and got suspended for a day. His mom was outraged and it brought up a question, "Should ads be allowed in school?" The school's principal told the kid that he "might have cost the school ten grand" which made people wonder even more if advertising was going too far. The principal decided that she was wrong and erased the suspension from the kid's record. That shows how far advertising agencies will go to sell something. But I wonder, "Why isn't the media good enough?".

Use the Product to Sell the Product, Not Extra Stuff.

Companies will do almost anything to get attention. They try to instill a feeling that their product will give you something more than other products. They use fashion models to make you think you'll turn into one of those people if you buy their product. They use lots of fantasy to make you think that you'll go into a fantasy world. They also use flashy packages to make you think that the product will give you lots of excitement. Buying the product rarely results in these things, so it's like lying or playing with someone's mind.

They do the same thing with kids and animals. They use a kid's love for animals to sell a product that may not have anything to do with animals. It may even be a product that is animal-tested or bad for animals. They usually use computers to make an animal seem to be begging for what may be the opposite of what the animal wants.

Don't Have "Bad" Ads.

Companies usually try to sell a product to a certain group of people. They make their ad according to who they have chosen. They then show that ad in places where these people will see it and use the customers' emotions to sell the product. These ads can get pretty bad.

In an ad for "battle tanx," a "snuggle bear" gets shot, torched, killed and run over because advertisers think kids will like that. They can also get pretty phony with ads for things like "Amazing Ally" where Ally, a doll, immediately says, "Do you want to be my friend? Let's play!" which is obviously an ad for young girls. They also use the fact that kids want to be accepted by older kids. The kids in the ad are about "a year older than the kids who they're trying to sell their product to," said Zillions. This makes the product seem cool.

The same products are marketed differently to boys and girls. For example, the same shoes can have one for boys in black that comes with a koosh flingshot while the girls' comes in pastel green with a cute kooshling character. The problem is that some girls might like a koosh flingshot but it only comes with the boy's shoes, or a boy may want a kooshling character but they only come with the girl's shoes. And besides, it's still a "girl's" or "boy's" color.

Companies will also use gross or cruel things to get attention. People sure will be attentive to it, but it isn't great to show someone slopping food all over their face or having a raccoon getting squashed by a snowboard. Some people don't care to see an animal get hurt to sell Twinkies, and most people think that it's gross to have food all over your faceit's not "pleasant."

Don't Use Sugar, Fat, or Salt to Sell Something.

America already has many unhealthy people, so when companies use stuff like nice bubbling fat to sell something it makes me mad. Companies, especially fast food ones, use fat, salt and sugar to make their products taste good but sometimes either make the fat, salt or sugar look good or don't mention it. Instead they use pictures of fruits to make something look healthy, even if it isn't. I think that this is wrong. If a product has lots of fat, sugar, or salt they should say that, so that people don't get tricked by the pictures that are used to make the ad work.

Extra

An advertising agency's main purpose is to find what its competitors are doing, and then do something different and better. Some companies go to other companies to try and find out what the next fad is so that they can prepare for it. Advertising agencies often include lots of things in their ads that you don't get so make sure to listen for some items not included. They also use close-ups to make the thing bigger than what you get. That way, people think they are getting a really big thing. People use lots of color in their ads to make lots of excitement. That includes having lots of background color and having the toy colorful. People use fancy displays to get people over by the product, and then they'll buy the product. Since the checkout counter is the last place to buy things, they are very expensive. But people still buy no matter what the price is.

New Directions

If I were to do this project again I would want to have a lot more time to write a longer article and put in all the information that I get. I would also watch more than one video and get more books and magazines than just Zillions. I should also interview more companies than I did.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank April, the librarian, for helping me find out about the video and Zillions. I would like to thank my teacher, Mr. Wagler, for helping me choose my sections and much, much more. I would also like to thank the companies that I interviewed for using some of their time. And last, but not least, I'd love to thank my parents for being the biggest help of all.

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Susan B. Anthony
by Erin
Randall School

Introduction

What books best describe how Susan B. Anthony lived? I took this question because last year in third grade I played Susan B. Anthony in our classroom play. This question is important to me because Susan B. Anthony was one of the women to lead the Suffrage Movement. I expected to find out more about some of the marches she did. I will be comparing the books I read.

Procedure

First I went down to the library and checked out a book called The Story of Susan B. Anthony. I started to read it and found out how hard it really was for women. I finished that book so I went back to the library to find some more books. There was one book that I wanted to check out, but it seemed like it was always out. I talked to April, our librarian. She gave me three books. Two of the titles I couldn't read. The other title was A Pictorial History of American Women. It had a lot of stuff about Susan B. Anthony, like what job she did before doing the marches. The other two books had a lot of the same information. The last book I read was Susan B. Anthony: Daring to Vote. This book had a lot of good facts that I will talk about later.

Findings

The first book I read was The Story of Susan B. Anthony. That book has a lot of information about her trial and women voting. It was written by Susan Clinton. I wish Clinton had written about Susan B. Anthony's life as a child. Clinton says things like, "In 1920 women got the right to vote," and "Susan B. Anthony died in 1906." She makes Susan B. Anthony seem like a criminal.

The second book I read was Hidden Heroines. This book has only a short chapter on her. It talks about the marches that Susan did. Elaine Landau, the author of the book, likes to use big words and describes things in detail: "She was forbidden to speak during her trial. Her lawyer Henry R. Selden, formerly a judge, did all the talking for her." This book has a lot of good information if you are looking for something to read.

The third book I read was An Album of American Women. This book has an even shorter chapter on Susan than the last book. Some things I learned are that Susan B. Anthony was raised as a Quaker. She also was a schoolteacher. She dropped teaching to protest against alcohol and slavery. The authors of the book, Gloria D. and Leonard W. Ingram, say that Susan B. Anthony "made the woman's rights movement into an organization."

The fourth book I read was A Pictorial History of Women in America. This book has a lot of information about her. It told me many things that I didn't know. For example, the year before Susan B. Anthony died, she spoke when they presented a bronze statue of Sacajewea to Portland, Oregon. Susan B. Anthony started teaching when she was only nineteen years old. The author of the book, Ruth Warren, uses a quote that was part of a newspaper article: "Perhaps we owe an apology for having given publicity to the mass of corruption, heresies, ridiculous nonsense, and reeking vulgarities which these bad women have vomited forth these past three days." Warren wrote that Susan B. Anthony was known as the "mother of women's suffrage." This book has different information than the other books.

The last book I read was Susan B. Anthony: Daring to Vote by Barbara Parker. This book is told like a story or picture book, but it has a lot of good information. For example, Susan was born on February 15, 1820. She was the second daughter of four. Her parents, Lucy and Daniel Anthony, had eight children, but only six lived.

Sometimes the authors of the books say different things. Parker says that sixteen women voted, for example, while Landau says that fifteen women voted. If I had to rate the books on a scale from 1-10, I would give all the books a 9. My favorite book is Susan B. Anthony: Daring to Vote.

New Directions

If I were to do this project over again I would change the question a little. My new question would be, what books best describe how Susan B. Anthony lived as a child? If anyone asks for my advice about doing this project next year, I will say check out a lot of books and have fun.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my teacher, Mr. Wagler, and April Hoffman, our librarian.

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Which Books Best Describe What It Was Like For African American Baseball Players Before 1960?
by Jacob
Randall School

Introduction

My question came to me last year, but I didn't have enough time in the school year to finish the project. I thought of this question because I was interested in Jackie Robinson.

Procedure

First the project had to be approved by Mr. Wagler. After that I needed some books, so I went to the school's library, and they only had a few books. So I went to the public library and got more books. Then I read seven books about African American baseball players before 1960, and looked over my notes, and wrote this article.

Black Diamond & Invisible Men

If you want to learn what it was like for African American baseball players you should read Black Diamond by Patricia C. McKissak and Fredrick Missack, Jr. It is very powerful, especially around the time of when the color line was drawn.

Another book that is very powerful is Invisible Men. This book pretty much covers the whole time of the Negro Leagues. If you are wondering what the Negro Leagues were, they were what most African American baseball players played in during the time when they couldn't play in the Major Leagues. Many people think that there was only one Negro League. But there were many Negro Leagues but most of them only lasted one or two years. The most successful Negro League was the NNL (Negro National League). The person credited with helping the NNL get started was Rube Foster.

Out of the two, Black Diamond was the easiest to understand. Invisible Men is about twice as long as Black Diamond.

Books On Jackie Robinson

I read two books on Jackie Robinson, Jackie Robinson Of The Brooklyn Dodgers and Jackie Robinson. Both were filled with information about Jackie Robinson but not very much about other African Americans. Both have great parts about Branch Rickey talking to Robinson about the problems he would encounter. These books are great if you want to learn about Jackie Robinson, but if you want to learn about everything you should probably read some different books.

Colored Baseball, Beating the Bushes, and Baseball At War

Beating the Bushes and Baseball At War each only had one chapter in them about African Americans. All three had information about what it was like for African Americans. Colored Baseball had the least about what it felt like for African Americans mainly because Sol White (the author) is talking about his experiences. You can get some information but you have to pay excellent attention to it. Beating the Bushes and Baseball At War will not be interesting for you if you only want to read about African Americans. Baseball At War has the least amount of pages in it.

The Best Books

After looking over my notes I think that the best book was Black Diamond, then Invisible Men, Jackie Robinson of The Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson, Baseball At War, Beating the Bushes, and Colored Baseball.

New Directions

If I were to do this project again, I would definitely start earlier so I could read more books. I would also organize my notes better.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my mom for taking me to the library, and Mr. Wagler for helping me find the right books. I would also like to thank the authors that wrote the books.

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Rachel Carson's Life
By Helen
Randall Elementary

Introduction

What books best describe Rachel Carson's life? I got my question by looking in a book called My First Biography Book. I wondered what her life was like and which books best describe her life.

Procedure

I collected my data by reading two books and skimming through three others. The first book I read was Rachel Carson: Friend of Nature, by Carol Greene. The second one was Rachel Carson: Pioneer of Ecology, by Kathleen V. Kudlinski. In these books I looked for detailed descriptions and pictures. I really loved reading about Rachel Carson and how she grew up.

Friend of Nature (Book One)

This book talks about Rachel going to a doctor and finding out she has cancer, and then wanting to warn people of the dangers of pesticides through her writing. That's when Silent Spring was born. Although Friend of Nature is a great deal smaller than I expected it to be, it still gave me a fair amount of information on Rachel Carson. The book concentrates on her writing and how important it was to her. It also tells which years her writing was published. Book One talks a lot about Rachel wanting to visit the sea because she was always curious about it and she lived far away from it when she was growing up.

Pioneer of Ecology (Book Two)

Pioneer of Ecology talks about Rachel being the first woman to explore the North Atlantic on a Fish and Wildlife Service research boat. It also talks about how Mrs. Hukins' yard got sprayed with pesticides that killed fourteen birds. Mrs. Hukins called Rachel to see if she could do anything about it. This book also concentrates on how important writing was to Rachel Carson and how much she enjoyed doing it. The book also mentions that she really enjoyed doing her ecology studies.

Comparing the Books

Book One has forty-seven pages while Book Two has fifty-one pages containing more details and description. For example, Book Two talks about DDT and how it was used, while Friend of Nature (Book One) only has a chapter on this subject. Book One has many more pictures of Rachel and her family than the second book, which has chapters and is more organized than Book One. Since Book One has fewer pages, I would recommend this book to a kindergardener who is up to a challenge, or to a first or second grader.

There are lots of famous pictures in these two books. I looked at pictures in other books, and the pictures looked exactly the same, such as the one of Rachel in her new summer dress going to Sunday school. The end of Book One has a timeline that might have some wrong dates because another book also shows a timeline but with different dates. I think that Pioneer of Ecology is more challenging than Friend of Nature because it has more pages and smaller print than Friend of Nature.

About Pesticides

Silent Spring, written by Rachel Carson, talks about the dangers of pesticides. According to my teacher, Mr. Wagler, Silent Spring describes the eagle population going down very quickly. The explanation is that the pesticide DDT makes eagle egg shells thinner than normal, and when the mother eagle sits on such eggs they might easily crack and result in a dead chick. Rachel Carson thought this was terrible, so she decided to write about it in her book. She hoped that people would listen to her and stop using pesticides so much. Most people agreed with Rachel, but some did not. DDT at one time was used for spraying insects so that plants would look greener. It was also used for killing lice on people. Maybe my grandmother got cancer and died because of the DDT that was sprayed on her at one point in her life.

Next, I'd like to share some of my own ideas inspired by Rachel Carson. The seasons for spraying pesticides on your lawn are late winter and early spring, because that is when grass grows greener and gets its color back. But pesticides on grass not only kill the bugs that eat grass and take the green color away, but also bugs that don't hurt the grass and might even help the lawn. Pesticides can also harm animals such as dogs, cats, birds, insects, frogs, toads, salamanders, worms and many other things.

Some foods also have pesticides, and some people don't even know about it. That's why my mom buys organic foods. "Organic" means that the foods are not sprayed with pesticides. Organic foods are good for your body, giving you extra energy and keeping you healthy.

Birds can get sick from pesticides. Worms might be sprayed with pesticides while looking for something to eat, and if a bird would eat the worm it too might get sick. Dogs could get sick by walking on lawns sprayed with pesticides and then licking their paws. Or, some food might have dropped on the grass, and if a dog eats or licks the dropped food it might get very sick. Cats might get sick in the same ways. So, be kind to nature and keep nature and pets safe by not using pesticides on your lawn. Please encourage neighbors to do the same.

New Directions

If I could do my Great Blue project again, I would change my question just a little bit to allow me to learn more about how Rachel Carson lived as a child.

Acknowledgements

I want to thank Mr. Wagler for helping me think of a topic for Great Blue and for being a really great teacher and pushing me to do more. I also want to thank Rachel Carson for giving me something to write about.

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Cheetahs
by Yeshi
Van Hise Elementary

Cheetahs are in the cat family. They have sharp claws. They're the fastest land animals in the world and they can run up to 65 to 70 miles per hour. They eat zebra, deer, and rabbit. They have black spotted marks on their body. They sleep on the branch of trees and in caves too.

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Freedom: Children's ParticipatioN in the Civil Rights Movement
by Sophia
Randall School

Introduction

"What does the civil rights movement look like from the perspective of young children?" I have always been interested in the civil rights movement. It is also very important to realize that many, many black children were part of the movement. When I began this project, I expected to find some material based on the experiences of white children, but none of it was.

It all was based on the experiences of black children who have lived in segregated communities, drunk from segregated water fountains, been treated roughly in the South, have had homes and churches bombed, had crosses burned by the Ku Klux Klan, from Earnest Green to Sheynann Webb and Roy Deberry, to Princella Howard. They all experienced such fear and strengthof which only a little bit is presented in this essay.

Procedure

I decided that my project would be a "Critics & Fanatics" project. That means that my data would be based on my reading. Mr. Wagler said I could go down to the Randall Library to look for books. I checked out Selma, Lord, Selma, a book of interviews of Sheyann Webb and Rachel West Nelson by Frank Sikora, Days of Courage: The Little Rock Story, the story of the Little Rock 9 (nine children who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas) by Richard Kelso, and Freedom Children, a collection of interviews by Ellen Levine. I read all three books, took notes, and put my notes together to write this essay. When I use quotation marks in a section on one of the books, that will simply mean that I am quoting from that book.

Book 1: Selma, Lordy, Selma

This book is about how two young black school girls became a great part of the civil rights movement in Selma, Alabama. In the first chapter of this book, Sheyann Webb, or Shey (pronounced Shy), explains that she was 8 years old in 1965 when she passed by the Brown Chapel AME Church on her way to school and saw men gathering there. She was curious. What were they doing there? She went inside to look. Hosea Williams was talking about voting rights and getting registered. She sat in the back row, and stayed for a long time. "Without really thinking about it in so many terms, I just became, that day, a part of the movement to gain our freedom. Before there could be thousands, there had to be one of us at a time," Shey said in a later interview.

She stayed at the church for 5 hoursuntil lunch breakand only after she realized how late it was did she make a dash for the school building. "The door creaked loudly when I turned the knob; all eyes were on me as I came in. There was a pause: then: 'Sheyann Webb! Where have you been, young lady?' Mrs. Bright is looking at me. She glances at her watch. 'You know what time it is?'" That night she talked to her Mom. "'If you want to grow up and be somebody, you gotta stay in school. Look at me. I'm 34 years old and the only job I can get is sewing shirts. You want something better for yourself.'"

Shey was the first child to attend the church meetings. Soon, she was leading the songs in the church. One day, her best friend Rachel West came to hear Shey sing. "I sang and the people all joined in. After a few stanzas of 'Ain't Nobody Gonna Turn me 'round' I noticed that Rachel was up there with me, beaming and singing her heart out. We would do a lot of singing together in the coming weeks," Shey said.

Soon after, Dr. Martin Luther King's first arrival took place. People cheered, ready for a big march downtown the next day. Rachel, however, was not allowed to go. She was afraid of the "horse men" or "posse men" of Sheriff Clark. "In our house," Rachel said, "wanting to march and marching were two different things. When I asked next morning if I could miss school, my mother was very short. 'Miss school? And have the sisters come here looking for you? No Ma'am!'"

Shey's first march was toward the courthouse. A black woman named Mrs. Boynton had asked the sheriff if she could go in to register to vote? He had said yes, but that she had better stay in once there. Sheyann saw her come out. The sheriff saw her too, and after running her down the street with his hand behind her neck, he had her arrested. Dozens of others were jailed after that. "I looked up at Mrs. Moore [another black school teacher]: 'Me too? Are they arrestin' me too?' Her face was blank. 'Don't be scared,' she said: 'don't be. Just stay close. Don't let go of my hand.'" And so, 8-year old Shey was arrested, but they let her go home after asking her a few questions.

Rachel describes the first time she talked to Dr. King with Shey. It went like this: "I remember he said something about our singing, shook hands with us and then asked our names. Then he leaned down closer and said to us, 'What do you want?' And we said 'freedom.' 'What's that?' he says. 'I couldn't hear you!' So we say, louder this time, 'Freedom!' And he shakes his head and kind of smiles a little. 'I still don't believe I heard what you said.' So we laugh, and then real loud we yelled, 'We want freedom!' 'I heard you that time,' he says. 'You want freedom? Well so do I.' We got to be friends from then on. Every time he'd see us he'd play that little game with us, asking what we wanted, pretending he couldn't hear what we'd say until we were shouting at the top of our lungs, 'Freedom!'"

Meanwhile, Rachel had become part of the demonstrations. Right after school, she would run over to the church and march with the people to the courthouse and sing there, waiting. Everyone was scared. So were Shey and Rachel. One night, before a big demonstration, Shey actually wrote down her funeral arrangements.

A white Presbyterian priest came to stay to participate in the demonstrations and enrolled his 7-year old son at the St. Elizabeth Catholic school Rachel went to. When Rachel, her sister and the white boy walked together to school, white high school kids threw rocks at them, and called the boy names like "white nigger." The three children tried to ignore them.

Then, on February 3, Shey was marching again to the city hall. Both she and Rachel were very scared. They talked about the fact that they could die, and concluded together that, when you die, your ancestors come down to carry you to heaven.

The demonstrations continued. Shey was asking her parents to join the marching as a Christmas present, and Rachel heard the news that some marchers who had been praying on the sidewalk had been beaten. When they found out that Jimmie Lee Jackson had been killed at church, people gasped. "I knowed him!" and "Oh, I knowed him too."

Then came Bloody Sunday. Shey was part of it. Troopers and horsemen were waiting for the marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The marchers paused. What was going to happen? The troopers advanced toward them and the marchers broke apart, screaming and running. Tear gas sprayed. Hosea Williams hastily grabbed Shey and ran. But Shey screamed, "Put me down! You can't run fast enough with me!" Hysterically, she ran home. "I remember just lying there on the couch, crying and feeling so disgusted. They had beaten us like we were slaves!"

That night at the church meeting few people got up and spoke. Weeping filled the room. Then someone began to hum a freedom song. Slowly, people joined in. Sheyann says, "Just all of a sudden something happened that night and we knew in that church thatLord Almightywe had really won after all. We had won!"

When people saw the night on TV, they came from all over the state to help, and almost all the kids that day stayed out of school to help the people with their baggage, inviting them to stay with their families. Many more people were killed: James Reeb, Mrs. Liuzzoa freedom rider, and John Daniels. But then, finally, on August 6, 1965, a law was passed so that black citizens had the right to vote!

I enjoyed reading this book, maybe the most of the three I read. The next book, Days of Cour made especially for that day. She and eight other black studentsCarlotta Walls and Gloria Ray (who were 14), Melba Patillo, Jefferson Thomas, Terrance Robers (15), and Minnijean Brown, Thelma Mothershed and Earnest Green (all 16)had all been enrolled in Central High and planned to enter that day.

On the TV news, a man said that people doubted whether any of the 9 students would actually show up at the High School. Governor Faubus had ordered the National Guard to "protect" the students. But privately, he thought he would lose votes if he let them in, so he ordered the National Guard not to. Would they be turned away? The TV newsman asked. Not if Elizabeth could help it. After a short prayer, she "got up slowly, picked up her green notebook, and went out to catch the bus to Central High."

What Elizabeth did not know was that she was supposed to meet with the other 8 students at Mrs. Daisy Bates' house. Mrs. Bates had been their teacher of non-violence that summer and also had been participating in other ways for some time. She and her husband owned a newspaper, The Arkansas State Press, in which they wrote about the daily struggle blacks had with civil rights. The police had called Mrs. Bates the night before, warning her of the danger that a mob might form and hurt the individual kids. They advised her to take them to school as a group. Elizabeth had not gotten the message about this because she belonged to the only family that had no phone. So she was off on her own.

Meanwhile, on Park Street, a mob of people waited to see if the kids would come. Segregationists were among them. When Elizabeth arrived alone, the mob fell silent and simply stared. She walked towards one of the guardsmen. He directed her towards the mob, away from the school. "They started hooting, sneering, and yelling names at her," Richard Kelso writes. She tried to go towards the school but the troopers did not let her through. She looked back at the crowd. Then she spotted a bench at a bus stop. Hurriedly, she walked over and sat down. The mob followed, still calling, "lynch her" and other names. A reporter put his arm around her. "Don't let them see you cry," he said. Finally, a black teacher took her home.

"On Friday, September 20, [U.S.] Judge Davis ruled that Governor Faubus had disobeyed the Supreme Court's order that the schools be integrated. The Judge ordered the Governor to stop using the National Guard to keep the students out of Central!" Still, the Governor did not obey.

Reporters also wanted to interview Elizabeth. So Elizabeth went to Mrs. Bates' house. She was still angry at Mrs. Bates for not letting her know about the plan to go to the school together. But after a talk with Mrs. Bates, she calmed down and impressed the reporters with a cool attitude during the interview.

For three days, the Little Rock 9 studied together at Mrs. Bates' house. Then, on September 23, they snuck in the side doors of the High School while 3 black reporters were beaten by the mob. They spent half the day in school until they were called to the office because the mob was trying to break in. They were sent home.

Segregationists were beating up blacks all over the city, so "police were ordered to guard the homes of the 9 students, and a squad car was parked across the street from Mrs. Bates house, too." Then President Eisenhower sent over U.S. soldiers to protect the kids. On the 25th, all the students were at Mrs. Bates' house and were put in a federal government car with one jeep in front and one in back. Helicopters buzzed above and the kids were driven to school. Each escorted by a personal guard (who also waited outside the classrooms so that the nine students were never alone), they walked up the central front steps and into the school. They felt some victory, but all the same, felt sad it ever had to be that way.

A week later, the paratroopers the President had sent were replaced by some of the Arkansas National Guardsmen. The segregationists were on again and throwing ink, food, kicking, stealing books or ripping them to pieces, tripping, and taunting the black students. "In gym class Melba [Patillo] was pushed down on to a broken bottle on the pavement. Acid was thrown at her, slightly damaging her left eye." Each day she went to school she wondered, "Who's going to hit me today? Will someone throw hot soup on me today? Will it be greasy and ruin the dress my grandmother made me? How's this day going to go?" One Tuesday lunch, two boys shoved their chairs in Minnijean Brown's way. She for one had had enough and dumped her food on their heads. She was suspended and eventually expelled!

When graduation came, the crowd held their breaths as Earnest Green walked down the steps to receive his diploma. "Was he upset that no one cheered for him? 'I didn't care,' Earnest had said later. 'I accomplished what I'd come there for.' He shook [the principal's] hand, took his diploma, and walked proudly back to his seat."

Book 3: Freedom's Children

This third book was very long. It was a series of short interviews with "young civil rights activists" that seemed to repeat themselves over and over. After the first dozen interviews, it just got boring, and I did not enjoy it like the other two books. I have put together my data on Freedom Children so that each chapter gets its own summary telling you about those people that were interviewed and what they talked about.

Chapter 1: "The Color Bar: Experiences of Segregation." In this chapter, the individuals interviewed talk about the name-calling of "nigras," the rude disrespect that whites had for a black's church (even if the same religion), the offerings of stale food towards blacks who came to buy food in segregated stores and restaurants, and just the plain unfairness of the system!

Chapter 2: "The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Beginning of the Movement." This chapter starts with teenaged Claudette Colvins' "Rosa Parks act" (refusing to move from her seat on the bus, which took place even before the same act by Rosa Parks, who changed history), and the fear, togetherness, honor and success of the boycott.

Chapter 3: "Different Classrooms: Segregation and Integration in the Schools." This chapter is about black history and how the Dodgers let Jackie Robinson play baseball on their team, the poverty of black schools (and hand-me-down equipment and books from richer white schools), the Shuttlesworth family being beaten for trying to integrate a school and the community's reactions, and Earnest Green's story of Little Rock 9 integration described already.

Chapter 4: "Sit-ins, Freedom Rides and Other Protests." In this chapter, people describe demonstrations, "sit-ins" (sitting in at segregated restaurants and ordering food), going to jail, both black and white freedom riders being beaten, black families' hosting white freedom riders, more experiences in jail, and more demonstrating.

Chapter 5: "The Children's Crusade." This chapter describes the Children's Crusade that started with the bombing of a church that killed four girls, and more

Chapter 6: "The Closed Society: Mississippi and Freedom Summer." This chapter describes more marching and reactions to the death of Freedom Rider Viola Liuzzo.

Chapter 7: "Bloody Sunday and the Selma Movement." In this last chapter, I read about Sheyann Webb again, about Bloody Sunday, about relationships with "Uncle Martin" (Dr. King), the threats to kill him and, when he died, the devastation, shock, and mixture of emotions of the thousands of blacks who were led by him.

New Directions

If I do this project again it will not be a reading project. I will do some interviews instead. I could interview may dad (who participated in the movement when he was a teenager) and maybe some other parents in my classroom.

Acknowledgements

Thank you Mom, for typing this essay, Grandpa for scanning my figure, the rest of my family for helping me write it, and Mr. Wagler for your encouragement.

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Dalai Lama
by Kaonu
Randall School

Introduction

"What books best tell the life of the Dalai Lama?" One day my class did these sheets of homework to write the things we wanted to do for Great Blue. Then I decided that I wanted to know about the Dalai Lama. The reason I want to learn about him was because I was curious and I didn't know much about him.

Procedure

Mr. Wagler said that if I could find books about the Dalai Lama, then I could do my project. So I found books about him. I checked out two books from the library. Then April, our librarian, found a book for me to read. The books I read were difficult. But the hardest I think was The 14th Dalai Lama. I couldn't find that many books about the Dalai Lama. The two books I checked out didn't really tell about the Dalai Lama. Then, I started recording and taking notes.

The Little Lama of Tibet

This book didn't tell about the Dalai Lama. But it tells about this six-year-old boy named Ling Rinpoche. He is very different from other kids because he is a Lama and he is special in Tibetan culture. They called him Rinpoche because in his heart and mind, he holds the wisdom of many great Buddhist teachers. His name means "precious." Rinpoche was born in India. His mother died when he was still a baby, and his dad couldn't afford to take care of him. So he took him to the Tibetan Children's Village.

In Tibetans' religion, all living things are sacred. That means everything belongs to the Buddha. Rinpoche said that he likes to play with toys but studying is much more important. Rinpoche learns other languages like English and Hindi. When he writes, he uses a shaved wooden stick and a small bottle of black ink. Every morning he reads Buddhist stories out loud with one of his teachers. Once a year he would meet his friend and play with him. He has only one week of vacation.

Our Journey from Tibet

This book tells a little about the Dalai Lama. There is this girl named Payang. She's the one who told the story. Long ago, more than forty years ago, the Chinese took over their country. More than six thousand monasteries were destroyed. Payang lived in a village where she didn't see that many Chinese. The law was that the Chinese were only to have one child per family. And Tibetans usually have large families. Payang has four brothers and two sisters. Her parents couldn't afford to pay the school, so her brothers and sisters and she couldn't go to school. For about one month, her parents could afford it.

Payang said she remembered that there were these pictures of Communist leaders hanging on the wall in her classroom. Then she went to ask her parents if they were her leaders. They told her that those people weren't her leaders. Her leader is the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama wanted the Tibetans to be free. He didn't want Tibet to fight because he likes kindness, compassion, and "sem zongpa." That means having a good heart. He escaped from Tibet because he was in danger; he went to India. When their land is free and when his people are happy, then he'll return.

There wasn't any freedom of speech. Some monks and nuns got sent to prison for speaking the truth. The Chinese control their prisons and education. One of Payang's brothers escaped from Tibet. A year later, he came back. His name is Ngawang. He had good news to tell his family. The news changed Payang's life. He said that there were these very good schools and they were free. He also told them that the Dalai Lama lived in India. They decided that Dakyi and Payang were to escape from Tibet. And her parents stayed and took care of her grandmother. She knew that she might not see her parents ever. Well, she was sitting at the oceanside, and she prayed that she would see the Dalai Lama.

The 14th Dalai Lama

This book I didn't finish reading. It tells about the Dalai Lama. Dalai Lama means "Ocean of Wisdom." The fifth Dalai Lama was called "Great Fifth." He died in 1682. "Great Fifth" was the strongest ruler. He divided power between the religious and the secular. The people who took care of "Great Fifth" didn't want to tell the public that "Great Fifth" died until they were done building Potala Palace. The next 15 years the people that took care of "Great Fifth" said that he was in a long retreat. The people found out that he died in 1697.

The sixth Dalai Lama was born in 1683. He liked to write poetry. Some people thought that he wasn't the Dalai Lama. So they sent him to China.

"The 13th Dalai Lama changed the course of his country." He died December 17, 1933. After the 13th Dalai Lama died, monks were searching for the 14th Dalai Lama. When the 13th Dalai Lama died, his face looked towards the south, then later the Dalai Lama faced east. They believed that it had to do with the eastern region of Tibet. After the Dalai Lama died, there were also all sizes of elephants in the clouds in the northeast. So everyone was sure the 14th Dalai Lama had to be in the east of Tibet. Reting Rinpoche was praying for many days at the edge of a lake. Then he saw three Tibetan letters. It said, Ah, Ka, Ma. He thinks that it is a monastery with a turquoise and golden roof.

When a Dalai Lama dies, their consciousness doesn't die with them. The body dies, but the consciousness goes to a different body. Consciousness means the mind. The Tibetans believe that the Dalai Lama gets reborn. On July 6, 1939, a baby boy was born in a cow shed. His name was Lhamo Thondup. It means "Wish-Fulfilling Goddess." When he was born, there was this rainbow over his house. Some people said that the rainbow had been a sign of his future. There were also some crows on top of the roof. They believe that the crows came to protect Lhamo. When he grew up, he was sent to Kumbum Monastery to be a monk.

The 14th Dalai Lama is called "the Roof of the World" or "the Land of the Snow." On March 17, 1959, at night when it was almost 10:00, he threw this rifle over his right shoulder so no one knew it was he. The Dalai Lama said that leaving was the only thing he could do to make the crowd disappear. He was 23 years old. He tried to restore peace between the Tibetans and the Chinese. But it didn't work. Some of the Tibetans believed that the Chinese were going to capture the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama was very afraid but not as much for himself as for the millions of people who put their faith in him.

The best book, the one that told the most, was The 14th Dalai Lama.

New Direction

If I were to do this project again, I would finish reading the book I haven't finished. Also checking more about the Dalai Lama.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Helen's grandpa for helping me understand the words in the books. I would also like to thank April Hoffman for finding a great book on the Dalai Lama for me to read.

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From Book to Movie
by Nathan
Randall School

Introduction

I wanted to find out what changes were needed to make books into movies. I was going to do a science project but it looked like it wouldn't get done in time. I got this question because I like books and movies. I expected to find that all movies have morals and that books don't have as many.

Procedure

The first book I read was Chocolate Fever. It was very humorous and had a moral. The moral was that too much of something good can be bad, kind of like King Midas. The movie, however, didn't show this moral so clearly. The second book was short and interesting, very creative, but had an unsatisfying conclusion. It was called Arnold of the Ducks. The movie seemed to drag out the time and make it seem uninteresting or boring. The longest book I read was Shiloh. It is a very powerful story, with a very powerful moralyou have to fight for what you believe in. The book trusted you to get the moral from the story. The movie, however, needed to put in an extra scene that tells the moral. There were many scenes in the movie that weren't in the book.

Comparing Books with Movies

The movie version of Chocolate Fever cut some time out from the book. What I mean is that it was a little bit shorter. The movie of Arnold of the Ducks added a scene where the mother duck was sitting on her eggs while bulldozers were knocking down trees nearby. Arnold turned the bulldozers away by flying at them. In Shiloh, they added a new character in the movie, a girl named Sam. They took out a character named David Howard.

Most of the changes in Chocolate Fever are that it's a lot shorter than the book. They cut out several scenes but they didn't take out too much. In Arnold of the Ducks there was another ending which was better than in the book, but that (as I said in "Procedure") makes the movie sort of boring. The movie of Shiloh was very good but had lots of changes. Usually, it seemed, the main difference between book and movie was the length of the book or the movie. Shiloh was written with a southern accent.

New Directions

If I could do this project again I would read more books and they would be about as long as Shiloh was. I think I will do this project again next year.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my dad and my mom for pointing out things in the movie Shiloh. I also want to thank Mr. Wagler for helping me get the question.

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What is Your Favorite Newberry Award Winning Book?
By Taylor and Anna
John Muir School

Introduction

Our question is what is your favorite Newberry Award winning book? We wondered about this because we are always interested in reading new books and we wanted to try some of the books people recommended. We thought they would be good books if they were award winners.

Procedure

We talked to our librarian, Mrs. Beck, to get suggestions about which books to put on our survey. She helped us gather Newberry books and put them on a cart. Then she helped us decide which books to put on our list according to which books kids had particularly liked. We went to third, third/fourth and fourth grade classrooms to set up times to interview some kids from each class. Then we did the interviews. We talked to 40 kids from those classrooms and asked the kids to tell us their favorite book from our list. The books we chose were: The Hero and the Crown, Dear Mr. Henshaw, Jacob I Have Loved, Holes, Bud Not Buddy, William Blake's Inn, The Midwife's Apprentice, Shiloh, Maniac Magee, and Walk Two Moons.

Results

The Hero and the Crown got two votes, Dear Mr. Henshaw got 3, Jacob I Have Loved got 1, Holes got 18, Bud Not Buddy got 0, William Blake's Inn got 0, The Midwife's Apprentice got 0, Shiloh got 9, Maniac Magee got 6 and Walk Two Moons got 1 vote. We decided to read parts of the books we hadn't read to see if we agreed. It turned out that we agreed with six. The rest we thought deserved better or worse rankings.

Interpreting Results

Here is what we think about the results.

The Hero and the Crown

We don't think this book deserved 5th place. We thought it was hard to understand and boring to read. It kept jumping from place to place.

Dear Mr. Henshaw

We think this book deserved it's 4th place ranking. It was fairly interesting to read and anyone should be able to understand it. The idea for the story was different, it was written as a diary, and the characters were someone you could care about.

Jacob I Have Loved

We think this book fits its 7th place ranking. It was so boring that our minds kept wandering and we could barely understand it. The story just wasn't very interesting.

Holes

We really think this book deserved the number 1 ranking. It was easy to understand, interesting to read and kept us wanting to find out what happened next. We really cared about the characters. Our teacher read this book to our class for a readaloud this year and our class loved it!

Bud Not Buddy

We think this book deserves better than 10th place. It was easy to understand and interesting. The characters in this book were very good. It is by the same author who wrote The Watson's Go to Birmingham-1963 and we love that book. We like the way this author writes.

William Blake's Inn

This book deserves better than 8th place. Its poems are supposed to be nonsense but they were interesting and fun to read. We thought it would be boring but when we read it we liked it.

The Midwife's Apprentice

We think this book deserves better than 9th place. It was a very good book. You can never guess what will happen next!

Shiloh

This book deserves its second place ranking. It is fairly easy to read and it is interesting. It is a sad book to read because the owner abuses Shiloh but he gets a good home in the end.

Maniac Magee

We think it deserves 3rd place. It was very easy to understand and the story was good. Although the main character had problems and kept running away, it had many humorous moments and we were always interested in what would happen next. Our teacher read it last year for readaloud.

Walk Two Moons

We think this book deserves 6th place. The story was interesting and easy to understand. It interested us even though it didn't appeal to us after we read the back cover. We thought it might be boring but it wasn't at all.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our librarian, Mrs. Beck, and our teacher, Mrs. Bostrom for the help they gave us. We would also like to thank all the kids we interviewed.

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Shakespeare: Life and Plays
by Marie
Randall School

Introduction

What do Shakespeare's plays tell us about the time that he lived? Shakespeare has been my favorite author for a long time. So, when this project came up, I took the opportunity to find out more about his life and surroundings, and what he used in his plays from them.

In this article, I will write the title of the play, and the part of his life that Shakespeare used in that play. When I started this project, I thought he would use less information from his inner life, and more from political things. But hey! I wasn't totally right. Nobody is.

Procedure

First, I got books. I had to get most of them from the Madison library. I got books on what things were happening in Shakespeare's time,
and on his life. Then, from the school's library, I found a complete book of Shakespeare's plays and poems. Next, I read A Midsummer Night's
Dream, and some books about Elizabethan times. I compared them and saw some things that Shakespeare wrote of. Another way I found results was looking through Shakespeare and His World, Shakespeare's England, The Life of William Shakespeare, The Importance of William Shakespeare, and Shakespeare: Life and Works. They give passages from Shakespeare's writing. Then I found the thing he was referring to from his life or history.
I looked for things from his childhood especially, because I wanted to see what hapened when he was young that made him become such a good writer and poet.

Material Interests

In a few plays, Shakespeare tells us about the Elizabethan leftovers called "orts." The icky way he describes the smelly morsels shows his distaste for doing the dishes (Shakespeare and His World).

Work and Fun

Shakespeare's play, The Tempest, refers to the working sicklemen at harvest. "Ye sunburned sicklemen of August weary" is the passage giving the long-ago image (Shakespeare and His World).

Another type of work I'm sure you are all familiar with is school!!! Shakespeare didn't really like school. He showed that in a play using foul words about the schoolmaster. "The whining school boy with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like snail, unwillingly to school" (From As You Like It, as quoted in Shakespeare and His World).

Twelfth Night tells how Maria, a servant, could write well. In Shakespeare's time, letters were written that prove education was given to more people than one might expect (Shakespeare and His World).

In those times, people went bird hunting a lot. Shakespeare wrote about the birds "rising and calling at the gun's report" (Shakespeare and His World).

In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare remembered singing in "rounds or catches." "Three Blind Mice" was a popular one (Shakespeare and His World).

Shakespeare played with his writing, too. He played with Anne Hathaway's name and told something about her in the Sonnets. "'I hate from hate away she threw, and sav'd my life, saying 'not you.' In this case, Hathaway is hate away" (Shakespeare and His World).

Stages of Life

In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet was 14 when she was courting. This shows that people died a lot sooner back then, so they would start courting, or whatever, earlier than we (Shakespeare and His World).

Shakespeare's son was one who died real early. His father wrote about "the quick passing of golden boys and girls," influenced by a sad death (Shakespeare and His Death).

Shakespeare Himself

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, and in the play scene, all the nobles were laughing and enjoying the play. When Shakespeare saw one of his first plays, he was doing the same thing. This makes me believe that he used this experience to make the play as real as possible (Shakespeare, Life and Works).

Shakespeare got the idea for As You Like It from another book popular in that time called Rosalynde. And Shakespeare got the idea for The Tempest from Sir George Somers when he was shipwrecked in 1610.

Interpreting Results

I found that Shakespeare used more things from his England, rather than personal things. This made me realize that Shakespeare's time and place were so different, and his plays and poems show that. I learned to understand that.

New Directions

If I were to do this project again, I would have gotten more complicated books, and go on the Internet. I would also start earlier so I wouldn't be rushed.

Acknowledgements

I thank April, the librarian, my teacher, for telling me how to read the books and find results, my classmate Sophia for getting me interested in Young Shakespeare Players, and my friend, William Shakespeare!

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Australian Animals-The Echidna
by Carleigh
Van Hise Elementary

This animal is called an echidna. It is covered with spines like a porcupine. It shoots out its long sticky tongue to catch ants. An echidna is also called a spiny anteater. An echidna has another way of protecting its soft body. It curls into a ball. Its sharp spines stick out so that it will look like a big pincushion. Echidnas measure over 12 inches. It weighs 2-7 kg. It is warm-blooded. This animal is not well-known. It is a mammal. It lives all over Australia. It has 1 baby a year. Its babies can not see when they are born. It looks like a spiny anteater. It is brown, white, gray and black.

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Australian Animals
-The Frilled Lizard
by David & Josh
Van Hise Elementary School

The frilled lizard opens his or her mouth and hisses at its enemies. The frilled lizard has an expandable frill along its neck. The frilled lizard has sharp teeth and claws. The frilled lizard is sometimes called the frilled dragon. The frilled lizard is a fast runner. The length of the frilled lizard is about 70 cm. The male is more colorful than the female. The frill folds around the neck of the frilled lizard. The frilled lizard lives in Australia. This animal is cold blooded. The frilled lizard can run on top of water. The frilled lizard lives in wet or dry forests. Some of the frilled lizards are being captive. The frilled lizards looks cool with its neck flaps.

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Australian Animals-Emu
by Jacey and Kejing
Van Hise Elementary School

Emu, the flightless bird, is the second largest bird. Only its relative the Ostrich is larger. Along with Rheas, Cassowary, and the Kiwi make up a group of flightless birds called "Ratites." It is 6 feet in height and can weigh up to 140 pounds. Their tiny wings are hidden beneath almost hair like dull brown feathers that are darker on their heads. The naked parts of the head and neck are a gray-blue color. The Emu's eggs are dark green and about 4 inches in length and weigh about 1.5 pounds. The 8 to 10 eggs are placed in an underground cubby and incubated by the male for almost 2 months. Amazingly emus can run up to 30 miles per hour and are good swimmers. When threatened by their enemies they defend themselves by kicking. Although emus eat insects, many farmers consider them as pests because they feed on crops.

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Australian Animals-Tasmanian Devil
by Kyle
Van Hise Elementary School

The Tasmanian devil lives in the extensive eucalyptus forests of Tasmania Australia. It is a marsupial and it is a slow moving and clumsy animal. They take cover anywhere they can during the day and hunt for food at night. They are generally poor hunters and mostly eat animals that are already dead, like vultures do. The Tasmanian devil will prey on sheep and other animals. They eat as much as they want. They also eat turkey eggs, insects, fruits, seeds and garbage. The Tasmanian devil is about 2 feet 1 inch long, with a 10 inch tail and stands about 1 foot tall. Their front feet have 5 toes and their back feet have 4 toes. All toes have very nasty claws on them. They can weigh up to or around 20 pounds as an adult. They are warm blooded and can live up to 6 years in captivity. It is not known how long they live in the wild. The Tasmanian devil can have 2 to 4 babies during the year. The babies are born in 6 weeks and spend 6 months in their mother's pouch. Tasmanian devils are good swimmers, and they seem to be a common animal, although there are only about 2000 of them in the wild. Their biggest predator is the dingo. Dingos hunted and eliminated all of the Tasmanian devils on mainland Australia. The other predator they have is humans. Tasmanian devils are mainly black in color. I think Tasmanian devils are cool!

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The Animal is Bandicoot
by Margaret and Trevor
Van Hise Elementary School

We have been working on an Australian animal called a "bandicoot'.

A bandicoot looks like a rat, but it is much bigger.

This report that we did about the bandicoot was very interesting because it was a new animal to us when we first heard about it.

Where we got the information was in the library at Van Hise Elementary School, which is our school.

It lays eggs to have babies.

If you cut off a bandicoot's tail it will grow back .

We think a bandicoot is a very interesting animal to learn about. Even our parents do not know much about it, and they know everything.

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