THE CIRCLE GAZETTE Volume 1, Issue 11 AUGUST 2010

A Newspaper by Children for Children

In July of this year, I attended a sleep-away camp in Antalya, Turkey. The Republic of Turkey is located where the continents of Asia, Europe, and Africa come very close to each other. The big-gest city in Turkey is Istanbul, and it is half in Europe and half in Asia.

Turkey is a country that acts like a bridge and connects the great civiliza-tions and religions of the East and the West together. Many successive civili-zations and faiths have flourished and thrived on this land since 9,000 B.C. Not only is Turkey rich in culture and history, but also it is an ideal place that offers the vacationer a complete change from the stress of everyday life. From

April to October, most parts of Turkey provide the perfect conditions for visi-tors to relax on spectacular beaches or enjoy the peace of the countryside, mountains, and lakes.

My sleep-away camp was in Anta-lya, a beautiful city situated on coastal cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean Sea in Southwestern Turkey. Antalya is approximately 300 miles south from Is-tanbul, and is approximately 240 miles south from the capital, Ankara.

Antalya is first believed to be estab-lished during the second century B.C., when the Pergamum King Attalus II or-dered his men to find the most beautiful piece of land on earth. After searching

the world, Attalus’ men found the land and the Pergamum king named it “Atta-

leia”, after him. Over the next thousand or so years the Romans, Byzantines, and the Seljuk Turks ruled over the magnifi-cent city of Attaleia. When the Republic of Turkey was founded, it was finally re-named to Antalya and was established as an important Turkish port.

The camp that I attended is specifi-cally for American kids with Turkish parents. The goal of the camp is for the children to learn more about their par-ent’s culture, and of course learn their language.

This was my first time sleeping away from my parents for over a week, and the camp lasted ten days, so I was pret-ty nervous. As I arrived, I kissed my parents goodbye, and ran inside a tall, 3-story pink building, my home for the next ten days. I was greeted by the camp instructor, Ms. Gürbuz. She had come with her daughter and a couple others

from Texas.“Welcome, Ismail,” she said, “It’s

great that you’re here! Hurry up and drop your stuff in your room, breakfast starts in 15 minutes.” I quickly scurried up to my room and dropped my stuff off. There I met my roommate, Furkan, a 14-year-old boy from New Jersey. We became great friends throughout the whole camp.

“Hey,” he said, “What’s your name?” “Ismail,” I responded, “and yours?” “Furkan, but kids call me Ferby.”“Nice to meet you,” I said. “Are you

going down to breakfast now?”“Yeah,” he answered. “Oh, and by the

way, out of the fourteen campers here…we’re the only boys.”

“Really!” I exclaimed. “This should be interesting.”

“More like torture, right?” he laughed.

“Yep”. I chuckled.As we came down the stairs, I felt all

the eyes in the dining room on me. I was the last camper to arrive that day, although we were expecting another 3 to come later that week. I gave a shy wave and walked with Furkan to get some food. When I got back to the table, I could only look at Furkan with despair

My Journey to Turkey

Police Service Academy

I love watching a police car soar down a street with sirens roaring and lights going. That’s why this summer I joined the Police Services Academy. This is a program designed to introduce kids and young adults to all the aspects of the law enforcement field. In this program some of the activities and classes are defen-sive tactics, crime scene investigation, and internet safety. They also take you on field trips to restricted police areas like the jail, police academy, and my fa-vorite, the Broward Sheriff Office (BSO) Swat. All of these tours are amazing and memorable. You see so much every time you go on a tour and learn so much in ev-

ery class. This program is worth taking.One of my favorite classes was the de-

fensive tactics class. In this class we got to learn how to defend ourselves against attackers as well as how to perform take downs and handcuffing off criminals. The tour of the BSO SWAT, Aviation, and Marine Units was very interesting. We got to see the police helicopters, the speed boats, and the armored vehicles the SWAT has for heavy operations.

In this program I got to meet so many kids and police officers. I had a stupendous time as a student in the Police Services Academy and I will never forget it.

KIDS’ WORLD

COVERAGECreative Journalism

SUMMER STORIES

What have you done this summer? Find out what others have been up to.

A fascinating international camp. P1.

Law enforcement for young people. P1.

Watching ducklings grow. P4.

Productive library visits. P6.

MORE FROM

THE KID’S WORLDThe Wonderful World of Reptile Pets. P4.

Terror in Orlando. P7.

What is it like to be a swimmer? P7.

LITERARY WORLD

FICTIOn

A New Column.An original world of fairies and magic. Meet a new character every month and get to know their daily adventures. This month: “JAY, the Blue Fairy” P9 .

Conquer your fears. Skydiving: fun or not? P6.

There are Super Heroes of all kinds! Super Pup IV. P9.

Tech Problems for Kangaroos. P5.

Shanghai Acrobatics. P11.

POETRY CORnER P8.

The Wolf and Raven Cute Little Kittens Bernie Mark Antony

OPInIOnP3.

Where do you stand on fast food? P3.

AMERICAN IDOLIs the popularity of the show in jeopardy? P3.

What to do in summertime?Stay at home…P3.

ART BOX P12.

TrainsFairy TalesComicsCeramics

REGULARCOLUMnS

Green Tip of the Month. P5.

Theatre World: Mulan & Jungle Book P7.

Did you know? Sports, History, Geography and Science Trivia.

Keep an Eye on… P2.

A Word from the Editor P2.

Front page of a newspaper in Turkey. Students attending international summer camp. I. Ercan, first from left to right.

“King Attalus II ordered his men to find the most beautiful piece of land on earth.”

by Ismail Ercan, Age 13

Coral Springs, FL

by Brian Jaffe, Age 15

Weston, FL

continued on page 10

PAGE 2 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE AUGUST 2010

Auditions for A Midsummer Night’s Dream

at The Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theatre

Tuesday and Wednesday, August 24 and 25, 2010 from 5:30-7:30pm. Be prepared to stay for the entire two-hour block. Visit www.flct.org for

more information or call 954-763-6882.

AUDITION WORKSHOP

Saturday, August 21 and Sunday, August 22 from

2-5pm each day.

Register by calling 954-7636882. The workshops will be held at the FLCT

Studio, Galleria Mall, Third Floor.

THE CORAL SPRING CENTER FOR THE ARTS

School Days Series Calendar is out and

available at www.csmart.org.

Great shows coming up this year.

The SMART STAGE SERIES Calendar at the Broward Center for the Arts is now available at www.browardcenter.org.

CSMART Art Classes

Fall Calendar for children, teens and adults available now at www.csmart.org.

The Circle Gazette 1 year Anniversary of The Circle Gazette celebration announcement will be on August 20! Stay tuned at

www.enrichmentcircle.com & www.circlegazette.org.

FREE CREATIVE WRITING APPROACH

TO BECOMING A PUBLISHED WRITER

For Young Authors. Ages 7-11 and 12 and up. At the

Northwest Regional Li-brary- Coral Springs, FL.

3151 University Drive Reg-ister at The Coral Springs

Library Youth Services Desk Call 954-341-3965

Apply for your Press Pass!

Identify yourself as a reporter and go on a fall

interview spree!

Every Child Outside

Nature classes for children. Visit

www.thenatureteacher.com.

Engineering is Elementary

Fall Schedule coming up soon at

www.enrichmentcircle.com.

Cooking Classes for Children

at the Coral Springs Gym-nasium. Pre-registration re-quired. Call 954-345-2107

Keep An eye On.....

A word from the editor: Working as a Team

The Circle Gazette team is growing! From the beginning, we have been excited to receive your wonderful submissions to the paper: articles, poems, interviews, stories, art, and so on. The pro-

cess only starts there. After we receive your work, there is an enormous amount of effort made before it lands back in your hands as part of The Circle Gazette. We have to review and edit all of the submissions, organize them into sections, select front page articles, assemble all into the paper, fill in editorial details, print proof it, send the finished paper to print, promote the paper, and distribute it. We also publish an online version of the paper on The Enrichment Circle web site (enrichmentcircle.com).

A lot of work for, what was initially, a very, very, very small team. If you’ve seen the 1964 movie of Mary Poppins, our initial team was a lot like Bert in that first scene of the movie, where he played

the drums, the harmonica, cymbals, and a bicycle horn; all while dancing and singing. Fortunately, our team of newspaper “builders” has been growing with every issue. Our editorial/production team is now complemented by people doing marketing and graphic design. This not only eases up the construction of the paper, it also makes it more enjoyable. Working as a team is always better. Every issue we learn more about editing, design and marketing. If you are interested in knowing first hand how all of this is done, and perhaps volunteering to build the paper, let us know at info@enrichmentcirlce.com.

The Enrichment CircleA Non-Profit Organization for the Advancement of Education

Pedro Gómez, Assistant to the Editor

AUGUST 2010 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE PAGE 3

Many people today, from all across the world, enjoy fast food. Juicy Burgers from Burger King, salty fries from McDonald’s, a chicken sandwich from Chick-a-Fil-A, a creamy frosty from Wendy’s...The list could go on forever.

Well, some experts claim fast food to be the cause of obesity. That is not all the way true.

The fast food is, yes, fatten-ing, but it is not the only thing that adds the extra pounds. Lack of exercise is also a major cause. You can eat the food, but you can

also work it off. If you eat and eat the food, but don’t do a thing to work it off, yes, you are going to gain a lot of weight.

Also, experts say that the food is so unhealthy, you should not eat it. Well not everything you eat has healthy benefits. Do not get me wrong, eating fast food all the time is surely not good for you. But an indulgence once in a while is okay. What’s the hurt? Live a little!

Well, that’s my opinion on fast food and on what “experts” have to say.

The much talked about popular hit T.V reality show, American Idol, a show that takes singers from age 15-28 and helps them become stars, is falling apart or so it seems. Sure enough you prob-ably have heard of Kelly Clark-son, Jennifer Hudson, Carrie Underwood, Jordan Sparks and David Archuleta, all of whom, and a lot others, became famous thanks to this program. This pro-gram has been number one for six consecutive seasons and has been a big hit.

Being a fan of this show from the tender age of seven, I have al-ways been curious about its rise and popularity. Hearing the big announcement last night on T.V. about the decision of one of its judges, set me to ponder about the future of this show. Days before the auditions for its tenth season, drastic changes are being made that could result in the elimina-tion of Idol itself.

When I started watching the show, I loved the judges the most. Firm but fair Randy Jackson, kind, sweet and encouraging Pau-la Abdul, and cruel, heartless and hard to please, Simon Cowell. The difference between the three have always made me excited to hear what they had to say about individual performances and my childish mind thought it would always be like this. But from its eighth season, Idol began to un-dergo some changes that made the show less appealing to me. The first change was adding a fourth judge to the panel of three judges. To me, that made no sense sim-ply because in the auditions, the majority vote of the judges may pass or fail contestants from audi-tions to the next round. With four judges, what happens if two agree and two don’t. And the fourth

judge just didn’t seem right and I was hoping that Kara Dioguardi (the fourth judge) would leave the

show after that season. Unfortu-nately, that didn’t happen and in fact something else happened…. Paula Abdul left the show after her contract expired following some controversy. Even though the nice judge left the show, I was hoping it would return to three judges instead of four. Instead, they replaced Paula with some-one I thought was not a prefer-able candidate, talk show host Ellen Degeneres. After seeing her show I didn’t think she was even right to judge the show, let alone replace Paula. I barely was inter-ested in season nine particularly when I heard the shocking news that the mean judge, Simon Cow-ell, was quitting the show at the end of season nine. Even though my prediction was right about the winner this year, I was still upset about the big change. I kept won-dering since then, “Who could replace Simon,” and while I was

still awaiting that answer, more changes have come. Former Idol producer Nigel Lythegoe was re-

turning to the show as a producer and talked about getting rid of the judges. I couldn’t help hoping Kara would be the one who got fired, but I am still waiting to find out about that. Recently I learned that Ellen quit the show after one season saying that the series, “didn’t feel like the right fit for me.” So, with a plan to terminate the remaining judges and create a new panel with 2-4 replacements all with season 10 auditions around the corner, American Idol is in trouble. In my opinion, it was a beautiful show while it lasted.

From what I think, this show may not be able to maintain its popularity much longer. My sug-gestion is that if you actually don’t want to waste your time seeing this show become a total train wreck, stop watching Idol and read a pleasant novel instead. Will American Idol ever be the same?

FAST FOOD Is American Idol’s Journey coming to an end?

by Wren Downs, Age 12

Coral Springs, FL

Every summer, kids usually go to summer camp. My opin-ion on whether my mom should take me to summer camp or leave me at home and let me roam free, is definitely to leave me at home. I feel this way be-cause roaming free at home is like being stuck in the middle of nowhere and doing whatever you want to do. If you stay at home you could watch TV, play video games, or even read a book.

My Opinion about Summer Campby Giancarlo Payamps, Age 12

Coral Springs, FL

by Bilal Amodu, Age 13

Deerfield Beach, FL

Did You Know...…that a Roman coin bearing the face of Mark Antony, also known as Marcus Antonius, was struck in 41 B.C.? It was made to celebrate the Second Triumvirate which was established in 43 B.C. There is an inscription on both sides reading, “III VIR R P C,” which means “One of Three Men for the Regulation of the Republic.”

l Start a recycling program at your schooll Car pooll Use public transportationl Use e-mail instead of paper correspondence

l Change incandescent bulbs to fluorescent bulbsl Use both sides of the paperl Plant a treel Buy rechargeable batteries for devices used frequently

Here is what you can do:

ThinkGreen [[

If every person takes one small step toward being more conscientious of the environment, the collective effort will change the planet.

PAGE 4 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE AUGUST 2010

Uromastyx (pronounced as Uromastic plural) are actu-ally a group of lizards found all over Africa. Uromastyx’s make great pets as long as you can afford their require-ments. I am saving up for one right now and I am about $100 short. I already have $350 worth of stuff from past lizards.

Uro’s fit into no other cat-egory. They are herbivores that live in the hottest tem-peratures on earth. They need at least 120°F to survive. They are always friendly to humans. Uromastyx lizards need at least a 40 gallon ter-rarium, a UVB fluorescent fixture, the hottest heat lamp and bulb, screen lid, at least 3 inches of reptile sand, basking rock, and a hide or foam burrow. That’s a big expensive list! Don’t under-take the responsibility of this pet without everything on the list!

You will find that the cheaper the Uromastyx the uglier they are. Uro’s come in every color from black to neon green. The brighter the color the more expensive they are. Uro’s seem like a good pet to me and maybe you too!

We have ducks that live near our house and one of the mommy ducks had babies. There were 15 tiny ducklings in the beginning, but some died or got eaten by egrets and iguanas. Now there are only 6 left. They can’t go in the canal because it’s too big and has lots of predators in it. We thought the ducklings were hot and thirsty so we put water in a little pool for them on our porch. Now they come every day and drink water and like to jump and play in the pool.

I gave each duckling a name because they don’t look the same. Spot has two yellow spots on both sides of his hip. Brighty has the brightest yellow down of all his brothers and sisters. Swimmy pushes the other ducklings out of the water and thinks it is his own pool. Snoozy always falls asleep after he eats and drinks. Wing Tip has bright yellow down on the tip of his wing. My favorite is Black Foot. He’s all brown with just a small spot of yellow on his chest and he’s the only one with black feet, the rest have orange feet with some black stripes.

We feed the ducklings oats be-cause it’s good for them and easy and small for them to eat. After they eat sometimes the ducklings fall asleep on the porch. They snuggle in a pile and close their eyes. Their eyelids are yellow, except Black Foot who has brown eyelids, and they come up from the bottom to close, not from the top like ours.

I hope the ducklings keep com-ing to our back door every day. I like to feed them because they’re so cute and it’s fun to watch them get bigger.

My Ducklingsby Sofia Serrano, Age 4

North Lauderdale, FL

Uromastyxby Colin Packard, Age 13

Coconut Creek, FL

“Now they come every day and drink water and like to jump and play in the pool.” Illustrated by Sofia Serrano. Tempera on paper.

“Uromastyx are herbivores that live in the hottest temperatures on earth.”

The Wonderful World of Reptile Pets

AUGUST 2010 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE PAGE 5

Once upon a time, there were three kangaroos. The first was the mother named Pam. The second Kangaroo was the child named Ulisa. The third Kangaroo was the father named Leslie. The Kangaroos lived in a giant cave together.

The mother was cooking some chicken in the cave while the child was playing on their computer.

Ulisa was playing on the com-puter and jammed it. So she screamed:

“Daddy come and ‘unjam’ the computer”.

Leslie came to Ulisa with a mad face on.

“What did you do to the com-puter? This is the fifth time you jammed it!”

“Sorry Daddy. I was playing Roller Rush”

Leslie tried to figure out what was wrong with it. But he could not. He had to call the computer fix-it guys and they were not friendly.

When it was time, the comput-

er fix-it guys came to their cave. They went to the computer and while they tried to fix it, Pam, Leslie and Ulisa ate their sup-per at the table. An hour later the computer guys didn’t have it fixed but they figured out what was wrong with it. Ulisa had bro-

ken the keyboard. It would take a day to replace it.

The computer fix-it guy told Pam and Leslie what was wrong with the computer. The next day he fixed the keyboard.

Pam and Leslie never let Ulisa play on the computer again.

The sun keeps on shining, the fun keeps on having, and the green keeps on growing. Most people have a different routine for this time of year; have fun, have fun, and have fun! You have so much fun that you may forget about the environment. Here are a few tips to help guide you through the long summer days…

1. Instead of buying sum-mery beverages and light foods, make them your-self! All kids who work in the kitchen (and even some who don’t) can learn to make light, simple foods and drinks. You can make an easy lemonade recipe by combining 1 tbls of honey and 1 tbls of lemon juice concentrate for every one cup of water. Store-bought refreshments come in indi-vidual bottles. Those may be recyclable, but it still takes fuel and other resources to make the original bottle and to melt it down and remold it. It uses less fuel recycling, but it still uses some! When plastics are melted down the first time, the chemicals in them release toxic fumes into the atmosphere. Here is a list of some of the fumes:

PET (Pete), polyeth-• ylene terephthalate, is commonly found in 2-liter soft drink bottles, water bottles, cooking oil bottles, peanut butter jars. HDPE, high-density • polyethylene, is com-monly found in deter-gent bottles and milk jugs. PVC, • polyvinyl chlo-ride, is commonly found in plastic pipes, outdoor furniture, sid-

ing, floor tiles, shower curtains, clamshell packaging. LDPE, low-density • polyethylene, is com-monly found in dry-cleaning bags, produce bags, trash can liners, and food storage con-tainers. PP, polypropylene, is • commonly found in bottle caps, drinking straws, yogurt contain-ers. PS, polystyrene, is • commonly found in “packing peanuts”, cups, plastic tableware, meat trays, take-away food clamshell contain-ers.

Recycling does not let out as much of these chemicals as standard manufacturing. Also, if you throw these plastics into the garbage or toss them into the grass as litter, they will leach these harmful chemicals into the environment. It is clearly best to avoid buying plastics in the first place.

2. Go to the park, beach, or even a fair and pick up lit-ter. Bring two big bags. One for trash, and the other for recycle. If there are avail-able trash bins and recycle containers you can put the objects directly into the ap-propriate receptacle Other-wise, recycle at home. Ac-cording to www.kab.org, 51 billion litter pieces are found on America’s road-ways each year! That is 6,729 pieces per mile! This does not include all the stuff in the parks, beaches, fairs, construction sites, etc. Also, once litter is on the ground, it is easier for people to drop ‘just one more.’ Rain washes litter into waterways and will eventually end up in the ocean. Cleaning up litter will, obviously, make the world a cleaner place to be, and will prevent animals from choking on or getting tangled in the garbage. In the sun, rain, and other ex-treme weather, the garbage releases toxins into the en-vironment. See above tip for the chemicals plastic alone can release. Make it a gen-eral habit to pick up litter whenever you see it.

Do green things with your friends this summer and show them how!

Green Tip of the Month

Ulisa in Troubleby A.J. Cross, Age 13

Boca Raton, FL

by Lydia Szakacs, Age 8

Coral Springs, FL

“Daddy come and ‘unjam’ the computer”. Illustration by Brian Jaffe, Age 15. Pencil on paper.

“Ulisa was playing on the computer and jammed it.” Illustration by Sara Jaffe, Age 11. Markers on paper.

Did You Know...

…that Muscovy ducks are only native to Mexico and Central and South America? That means that the wild black and white ducks we see every day in parking lots, canals, and backyard lakes are an invasive species and have adapted to living in many parts of North America.

PAGE 6 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE AUGUST 2010

Dear Reader of The Circle Gazette,

Thanks for holding this paper. Yes, we know you had lots of “interesting and exciting” stuff to browse through, but you shoved it all aside because next to The Circle Gazette everything seemed B-O-R-I-N-G! That’s how it’s supposed to be. Why? Because this is our paper! Written, illustrated and read by us. You can forget the ‘read’ part, because a lot of grown-ups read it too. Wow! This paper reminds us of “KIDS RULE!”

Our own little adventure starts with Avril Haughton, one of our favorite librarians in North Regional Library also known as BCC. (We have a lot of friends in that library-a very friendly place to be!). Did we just hear you say ‘what makes Avril so special?’ Well, perhaps this will help. Avril is always recommending us great books to read. But what’s so special about her is that she does not make it a rule of ‘must read.’ She says that if we don’t want to we can always skip it, while mom makes it a rule. Every book checked out is labeled ‘must read’ by our mom.

It was one of those hot summer afternoons, during our regular visit to the library. We had nothing to read and were looking for something to munch on. The book we wanted was

Necromancer, which had not yet been enlisted in the library system because it’s a new book, just published in May 2010 and The Lightning Thief which was checked out and Avril helped us to put it on hold. So as we were saying, Avril recommended us some great books: Among the Hidden, Found and Out of the Wild. Now watch out, what we found among the hidden that made us go wild.

Shadya: “I got started with Out of the Wild because that’s what Avril recommended for me, knowing that I like fairy tales. I am falling into an addiction of rewriting all fairy tales by reversing the time and painting it with the hue of modern age. So Avril knew exactly what to get me.”

Bilal: “Mom got me started with Among the Hidden. Remember mom’s law. (Every book checked out – ‘must read’) I didn’t like it at first, but then mom read it to me, just a few pages to get me started. This is one of her tricks to make us READ!”

Mom: “Both of them finished reading the book. Wow, I was impressed. Bilal finished the whole book in just one day. (No big deal, the book had only 153 pages). Shadya who was at first reluctant, (she’s persnickety) was picking up interest and seemed to be in a rush to finish the book. It

took her just a couple of days.” You’d say that’s just plain

boring. What’s the adventure? Here it is:

Mom tried to fire up Shadya’s appetite to read Inkheart as her next book, and said that since she likes fairy tale characters, she will love it. But Shadya said that since mom liked Inkheart so much, she will sure love Out of the Wild, which is also about fairy tales. So, Mom had to get ready to read Out of the Wild, though she did not like the idea of Shadya laying down the law for her, ‘must read.’

After Bilal was done with Among the Hidden, he was all keen to read Out of the Wild. Probably he noticed that Shadya was so lost in the wildness of the

book. He wanted to have a taste too. But mom made him read Found, because that book couldn’t be renewed and you know mom’s rule –‘must read.’ Besides, she felt that Out of the Wild was not of Bilal’s level. Having no say, Bilal gave it a try and it was not until he reached the second chapter of Found, did he happen to realize that Found was one of the books in his list for Summer Reading for Eighth Grade (IB). (Yes, you know, Bilal is absent-minded).

Now what, Mom was reading Out of the Wild, Bilal was reading Found and guess what Shadya was doing? Mom made a deal with her. If Mom reads Out of the Wild, Shadya has to read Among the Hidden. Mom also challenged her if she can finish it in one day

just like Bilal. Shadya knew she couldn’t do it but she didn’t want to look like a loser. So she pretended that she didn’t want Bilal to look bad. Therefore, she will finish it in two days.

Bet you didn’t get the adventure part. How about this? Bilal was now digging deeper and deeper into Found which he didn’t even want to read at first. Shadya did finish the book in just one day, even though she couldn’t/ didn’t want to, because it was so interesting and she just couldn’t put it down. Mom was wild with laughter clutching the book, Out of the Wild. So much so, now she begged Bilal to read that book. Wait a minute! Wasn’t she the one who didn’t want Bilal to read the book, because she thought it was so ‘once upon a time’ and not for ‘grown-ups like Bilal.’

In the end, we all compromised happily ever-after. When you have nothing to read, ask for help from a librarian like Avril and submit your review to The Circle Gazette. For where else would you get such an opportunity? Let us just tell you this: At The Circle Gazette there are plenty of opportunities for all of us kids!

Readers, in case you may want to check out these books too, here’s the list:

Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Out of the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst

Shadya and Bilal at the library.

Our Summer Book Adventure- A Must Read!by Bilal Amodu, Age 13 & Shadya Amodu, Age 10

Deerfield Beach, FL

EEEEER! The car screeched to a halt and out came a lone para-noid teen. Roger walked to Bird’s Skydiving Institute and shakily opened the door. He walked over to the secretary and timidly said “Roger B. Tombert.” She got up, talked into her intercom and directed him towards Instruc-tor Larry’s hangar. “Welcome!” Larry boomed, and went over to shake Roger’s hand. “Meet Greg Coner. He will be jumping with us today.” Roger, unsure of him-self, asked why his parents made him come. “Your parents want to boost your self confidence”, an-swered Larry. “So, lets go.” The three went to get their parachutes and Larry yelled, “HEY, SARGE, WARM UP THE PLANE!”

A few minutes later, they were in the air. “When do we jump?” Roger asked, more scared than ever. “When we get to about thir-teen thousand feet” said Larry. “TH-TH-TH-IRTEEN THOU-SAND FEET!!” Roger exclaimed. “Yeah, but come on” said Larry “you will be fine. You’re my one hundred and twenty-seventh stu-dent and all the others are fine. Plus, I have a cleanup crew down there, just in case. Greg will tell you.”

“Okay, time to go. You go first” Larry said to Roger and opened the hatch. “B-b-but, I don’t want to” said Roger, terrified now. “Oh come on, I have a one hundred percent success rate and I am not going to mess it up now!” said Larry while dragging a struggling Roger to the open hatch, with Greg following behind. Bmmm!

Wooo! Roger fainted and fell out of the hatch. “Ahhhhhhhhhh!” yelled Larry and Greg as they jumped out after him, diving to catch up.

“WAKE UP YOU BONE HEAD!” Greg shouted and shook Roger awake. “Pull your rip cord,

pull your rip cord”, he yelled. “Where, where!” screamed Rog-er, confused and shaken as he regained consciousness. “Right here”, yelled Greg pulling his and Roger’s rip cords.

After they landed, packed up their parachutes and went back to

the institute, Greg drove home.Roger’s mom came to pick

him up a little while later. “Mom, Mom, I did it. I went skydiving!” Roger exclaimed and excitedly jumped in to the car. “I was ex-tremely brave. I was all ready to jump but the other guy was too

scared. Larry almost threw him out of the plane, but he fainted and fell out. Larry and I had to save him”, said Roger panting.

“So, coming for another jump, Roger?” asked Larry. [Roger fainted.] “ROGER, ROGER WAKE UP YOU BONEHEAD!”

The Scared Parachutistby Ari Swift, Age 12

Boca Raton, FL

“Roger fainted and fell out of the hatch.” Illustration by Matias Sosa Wheelock, Age 12. Pencil on paper.

AUGUST 2010 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE PAGE 7

Did You Know...

On Friday July 9, I went to The Parker Playhouse with my two sisters and my mom, to see the Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theatre (FLCT) Summer Stage Camp performances of Mulan & Jungle Book. One of my friends played a matchmaker in Mulan and another friend played an elephant in Jungle Book. This was their first FLCT perfor-mance.

Mulan went first and it was a great success. It began with Mulan’s ancestors singing; the rest of Mulan’s family (The Fa family) came on to sing as well. After that song (the opening number) Mulan went to see the matchmaker but she wasn’t yet dressed and her whole family had to help her get ready so she would look like a woman who could be a responsible mother, and then she was gone. Mulan tripped and fell most of the way, she wasn’t sure she could do this. Could she bring honor to her family? The matchmak-ers (there were 2, and one –as I said- was my friend) said that she was no good to raise chil-dren; Mulan had failed!

The story was amazing with powerful singing and great act-ing, I loved it! Mulan was played by Laura Galindo. I have been with her in a few shows and I realized she was a great actress, but I hadn’t noticed how good

her voice was. Awesome!Now, you’ll want to know

about Jungle Book which was also very, very succesful. There was an intermission between the shows. When the lights went down for the second time, I found my seat again, only knowing to expect something amazing. It began with 2 narra-tors (2 kids I knew) setting the scene with their voices and ex-plaining how the story began, with Bagheera, the panther, taking Mowgli to the “Man Vil-lage.” My friend, who played an elephant, was just awesome. I loved the acting and dancing. The songs were really good too. I liked “Bare Necessities” a lot. There was the song with the snake. They had different peo-ple holding up different parts of its body. Each kid held his or her own part of the long body; and that was unique. The head of this reptile (played by Aley-na Morales, an actress I know) was “in charge.” She was the one who sang the “solo” part of the song and the rest acted like a chorus. I loved that scene.

Both performances were very creative and original. At the end of the play, the young-est kids, including my friend who played the matchmaker, sang and danced to “When I’m 64” by The Beatles. They were dressed up in wigs and cos-

tumes that made them look old. It was super funny. Then the older kids, including my other friend, did “Beat It” by Michael Jackson; and that was hilarious too. We laughed so much. I did not expect that.

I was very happy to see the play, as I am every time I see an FLCT performance, it is always original. I recommend FLCT SUMMER STAGE CAMP.

I have participated before in this summer camp (Session 1, in years 2008 and 2009), and I loved it. Each time it was a different experience. The first time, I played a Mermaid in The Seven Voyages of Simbad the Sailor. The second year I was cast in The Aritocats as “Amelia The Goose.”

Camp at FLCT is so much fun. It is full of creative ac-tivities; with great counselors, directors, choreographers, cos-tumes and set pieces. Kids get to do arts and crafts, Fun Fri-days and put a whole show to-gether in a month.

Mulan & Jungle Book are over now but you can see them through my words. Next sum-mer, I recommend you to join The FLCT Summer Camp. They have a program for every age group from 4 to 18.

I invite you to read my col-umn every month and come with me as the lights go out.

What is like to be a swimmer? Well let me tell you.

You need to show up at our swim practices so you can get nice and fast at the swim meets. The swim practice starts with exercises, to

help stretch your muscles, to get you stronger. The coach tells you which lane to swim in and some-times he lets you pick your own lane.

Working as hard as you can is the key to getting stronger and faster. You need to listen to the coach to make sure you do the right drills and exercises. Your coach will let you know when it’s time to swim at a meet.

At the start of the meet you may feel a little nervous. After a couple of times setting up your chairs, finding your name on the heat sheets and warming up with your coach, you get the feeling of the meet and don’t feel scared anymore. While I am waiting to stand up on the blocks, I check my goggles and cap, I think about my stroke count and my swim.

It takes a lot of courage to be a swimmer because you have to go and stand on those starting blocks! If the swim doesn’t go perfect you could get disqualified. You have to have courage because if you get disqualified you can’t cry. All real swimmers get disqualified. It is part of the sport.

I hope you can do all of these things because I can.

What is it like to be a swimmer ?

The cool night breeze of Or-lando blew in my face as I en-tered the eerie Tower of Terror. As soon as I entered, I wished I had never stepped inside. I heard screams. Horrible screams. Cry-ing. And there it was. The doom bringing elevator door. The door silently opened and I entered with a crazy bunch of people who did not know what they were in for. I don´t know why, they seemed keen to go in. A TV flickered on. It explained and told us the story of the first unfortunate people who entered. They had died and their ghosts were still in the building. My face went pale. Another door slithered opened, showing the elevator. My pulse

was racing.We entered the terrifying el-

evator. There were four rows of seats on each side, plus one at the back. I sat down. We moved up. The elevator stopped and there were the four ghosts. They gave us a sinister wave. I was totally terrified. We moved up to the 13th floor. The elevator moved forward into pitch blackness. My heart skipped a beat.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh” I screamed as the elevator plunged down, then up, then down, up, down, up, down. The elevator came to a sudden stop. Finally the terror stopped. But I will never forget that moment of my life.

Theater Worldby Daniela Gómez, Age 10

Margate, FL

Holidays in Orlando: Emotion in Recountsby Danny Hernández, 10 years old

Caracas, Venezuela

by Lydia Szakacs, Age 8

Coral Springs, FL

Lydia Szakacs at a regional swim meet representing the Coral Springs Swim Club.

“While I am waiting to stand up on the blocks, I check my goggles and cap”“At the start of the meet

you may feel a little nervous”

Mulan &Jungle Book

…that swimming races in the first three Olympic competitions (from 1896 to 1904) were held in open water rather than a pool? The very first Olympics in 1896 held their races in the Mediterranean Sea.

A 100 meter pool was built for the 1908 Olympics and located in the center of the track and field oval.

PAGE 8 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE AUGUST 2010

BernieBy Neo-Xel Padron, Age 8

Hollywood, FL

Sweet black dogChase bikesRun to sunny spotLie downHis head on my knee

MARK ANTONYby Daniela Gómez, Age 10

Margate, FL

When his trusted friend diedAnd his people were in tearsMark Antony was left to hideThe Republic’s greatest fears!

But still he wanted not thatBut courage, strength and more powerTo be above aristocratDuring Rome’s darkest hour

He then met CleopatraAnd his war plans were delayed,But like for Caesar in the pastLove with her would be frayed

Defeated by OctavianPoor Antony had heardThat Cleopatra wasAnother victim of death

Antony decidedThat his life was ‘bout to endHe lifted up his swordAnd he fell up its pointy end

He didn’t die so suddenAnd the truth had been revealedThe Egyptians now admittedCleopatra’s life was still!

Together they had triumphedTogether they had failed.Their lives had been togetherAnd together fell the ships they sailed.

The Wolf and Raven Partnershipby Matias Sosa Wheelock, Age 12, Weston, FL

One day a raven was about to fly over a mountain top

But he came to a sudden stop!

‘Cause a wolf came out like a cop!

He lunged at the raven and opened his mouth for a chop!

But the raven simply backed up and the wolf fell-- with a PLOP!

The wolf admitted the raven was as smart as a scanner at a shop

So the raven suggested they become hunting partners- like a beep and a bop!

The wolf agreed and they celebrated with some hip hop.

“they bound through the night”

“Cute little kittens curled up and asleep”

“you fall in love at your very first meet”

POETRYCORNER

Cute little kittens by Sara I. Cross, Age 9

Boca Raton, FL

Cute little kittens all fluffy and white, love how as eyes glow they bound through the night.

Cute little kittenshave eyes green and blue,as they shine in lightthey look right at you.

Cute little kittensall soft and furry, they like to play so much they get dirty.

Cute little kittensreally like to play,they’d rather play thaneat and sleep all day.

Cute little kittens curled up and asleep,all safe and sound in their den oh so deep.

Cute little kittenshave sharp claws I see,They can be usefulwhen climbing a tree.

Cute little kittensall curled in a ball,they get up on fourfeet, and stand up tall.

Cute little kittens they love to meow,they purr so much Idon’t understand how.

Cute little kittens oh how can they be,adorably cute for eyes that can see.

Cute little kittens they are so very sweet,you fall in love atyour very first meet.

Cute little kittensall fluffy and white,love how as eyes glowthey bound through the night.

(Illustrations by Sara Cross. Pencil on paper.)

Illustration by Matias Sosa W. Pencil on paper.

Illustration by Emma Gómez, Age 6. Soft pastels on paper.

AUGUST 2010 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE PAGE 9

“….well I went to explore,” Le-roy couldn’t think of anything ex-cept the truth. ‘If I don’t tell Tom about the biscuit and Tolerance, then I might get away with it.’ Leroy thought, “…space. It was really cool, plus I learned how to fly.” Then he noticed Tom was snoring. “Was the story that bor-ing? Flying dogs aren’t common, are they?” he wondered aloud.

Just at that moment a rock flew at him. “Psst!” Tolerance whis-pered. Super Pup glanced out the window.

“I fly to space everyday, plus millions of animals can fly. Now, let us get to the second part of training. You will learn how to generate force fields,” Tolerance muttered.

Super Pup eyes widened,” Uh… hu… hu …how will you d-do … that?” he asked with fright. Tol-erance cackled, “I will be tossing fish at you. And, you will have no space to dodge because you will be in that corner.” She said point-ing to a corner in Tom’s room.

Super Pup sighed in relief, then answered, “Can we do it some-where else ‘cause we might wake Tom up, then he would find out about the training.”

Tolerance nodded then flew in to the hall. “Are you coming?” she asked Super Pup.

Super nodded and followed. ~*~

Ella stared at her mom as if there was a snake on her head. “Mommy, you told me I am al-lowed to write a letter to Toler-

ance.” She replied. “Can I see a copy of that letter?” Ella took a piece of paper out of her pocket. Here is what she understood:

Hi Tolerence, Last week was my birthday and

we went to Disneyland. Next year mommy says we are going on to war.

After Olivia read it she was steamed. Ella spelled “tour” in such a way it looked like war. Then she remembered Ella was small, but Tolly was still going to pay. And Olivia was getting her powers back, now she was more than desperate.

“Go and play Ella, I have to prepare for the ‘War’. Frank, Ryan, Mike go and summon the most powerful witches, fairies, godmothers, and sorceresses. I declare war! Ha ha ha!”

“Can I warn Tolly?” Ella ques-tioned.

Suddenly Dakota sprouted from the floor “No fair! She gets to do everything!”

“She’s right,’’ said the voice of Amanda who just surfaced from nowhere.

“Who else is in this room?!” Olivia demanded. Then everyone got quiet.

Olivia then nodded and handed Amanda a dozen cherry bombs and two brooms, to Dakota ten spray cans and to Ella, a lollipop. “It’s time girls. Time for revenge! Ha ha ha!” And within that min-ute the three young witches soared off. “I will be tossing fish at you. And, you will have no space to dodge because you will be in

that corner.” Illustration by Matias Sosa Wheelock, Age 12. Pencil on paper.

by Shadya Amodu, Age 10

Deerfield Beach, FL

Super Pup Part IV

Name: JayAge: 102 (fairies are immortal)Color: BlueSize: Three inches (the tallest a fairy can get!)Hobbies: Cooking, going to the park Least Favorite Thing to do: Being meanFavorite Bird: Blue JayFavorite Insect: DragonflyAnimal Friend: Dragonwings Home: Orange Tree in DandelionFluff FieldFavorite Flower: Rare Blue Rose found only in FairyLand.Favorite Accessory: Her lily pad hat

Jay is the sweetest, greatest role model fairy in Fairy Land. She is kind and not even the bul-ly that lived in the nearby town, Wasp: the Black Fairy, could get out the fight in her. And that was saying something, because Wasp, being very cunning, could get any fairy to defend herself or himself when she teased them! Not being able to get to the blue fairy infuriated Wasp and every time she saw Jay, she became more determined to hurt the fairy’s feelings! All the fairies said: “Wasp’s favorite thing to do is to make us all sad!”

Jay saw a different side to Wasp, instead of the super mean, selfish and unkind fairy,

that most others saw, she saw a lonely, lost fairy staring at her; always left out of activities. Jay pitied the fairy and hoped that one day others would notice that Wasp suffered too. She had seen Wasp’s arrival to this part of Fairy Land and it wasn’t at all nice. Most of the fairies that came to greet Wasp acted ei-ther mean, or like “Oh! uh... Hi, I have to go” and Wasp hadn’t been mean, she had been, in fact, quite timid. At the end of Wasp’s first day, Jay came to comfort her, but for the first time, one of her great talents failed. Wasp was snappy and told Jay to leave her alone. It seemed to Jay that Wasp’s first moments in a new place had ruined her. If she couldn’t express how the others had just misunderstood Wasp, who could?

This morning, Jay started her day in Dandelion Fluff Field just like any other. She lived in an orange tree in the middle of an old abandoned farming field, now full of Dandelions (as you could guess by the name). This was all her property and no other fairy lived there except herself. Jay yawned and pulled aside her sweetgrass canopy that was neatly draped around her coral shell bed. It looked like a coral-

shaped four-poster without the posters!

Jay reached out to the top of her bed where her hat and Pixie Dust Pouch were hung. Her hat was made out of a lily pad and it had a pretty blue and pink lily on the top, to the side. Grab-bing her Pixie Dust Pouch, Jay smiled and rubbed her eyes.

She was tired from all the party preparation meetings last night. She didn’t believe in rushing herself, however, this morning, she was eager to get up and out because of how much fun she had had yesterday! Yawning one last time, Jay reached into her Pouch and grinned slightly as she felt the familiar feeling

of Pixie Dust, it felt like dip-ping sweaty hands into a bucket of ice-cold water on a hot sum-mer day. Letting the cool sensa-tion run over her like water, she pulled her hand out of the bag, filled it with Dust and sprinkled it in the direction of her window, as soon as the magic flew into the air, light flooded the room as her palm leaf curtains split open to reveal a beautiful sky with animals fluttering and walking around.

Jay sighed happily, “What a beautiful day” she said, and got up and went to her mirror. She had made it out of glass and had bordered it with some Blue Jay feathers she had found and a blue piece of wing that had fallen off her pet dragonfly ‘Dragonwings’ in an accident. Jay looked at herself all over and then, with a small gasp, she ran a finger through her pale blue hair. In the mirror she didn’t see the fairy with the neat long braids that she usually saw in the morning, instead she saw a young look-ing, gaping fairy with drooping transparent wings.

When fairy wings didn’t have Pixie Dust on them they drooped, added weight to a fairy’s back so she couldn’t even move! But when they had Pixie Dust, they turned the color of the fairy and were able to flut-ter. Her reflection showed her in a navy blue nightgown that said JAY with a gigantic puff of pale blue hair that was sticking out in all directions and at the topmost tip a small hair band had man-aged to stay on and to make her

by Daniela Gómez, Age 10

Margate, FL

“Jay”, the Blue Fairy!

“Jay sighed happily, ‘What a beautiful day.’” Illustration by D. Gómez. Watercolor pencils on paper.

continued on page 11

PAGE 10 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE AUGUST 2010

as I was hammered with ques-tions from all the girls at the table. It was a long breakfast.

The next few days flew by very quickly. Mostly, we went to the beach and also had fun at a couple of different water parks. At night, we watched the World Cup, checked our Facebooks and e-mails, for those who had one, and finally played some card games together before we called it a day at twelve.

One of my favorite things that we did in the first few days was going to the Olympos Coastal National Park. Olympos, which is 40 miles away from Antalya, was known for having minted silver coins for the League of Lycia in between 168-78 B.C. The city itself, which some of it is still standing today in ruins, is surrounded by bay forests and has a beach nearby. After visiting the ruins, we got to spend some time at the beach. What a day!

The next day we visited As-pendos, 30 miles away from Antalya. The ancient city of Aspendos was one of the most important cities in the Pam-phylia region in the past. It was (and still is) a center for processing gold and cutting

jewels. We visited the Aspen-dos Theater which is the most important architectural work in the city. It was carved out of stone and was constructed in the 2nd century A.D. by lo-cal architect, Zenon. It has the capacity of 15,000 people and because of its great acoustics, it is still used today for musical and theater performances in the summer. As we walked up the stairs I was impressed with how intact and preserved the theater still is after about 2,000 years. All of the campers had a great time at Aspendos and wished that we could come back an-other time.

Wow! There were only 4 days left until camp finished! We were visiting the Museum of Antalya. It contains works from the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and the Turkish pe-riods. We all gaped with awe as we passed the Roman sculp-tures. It is still a mystery on how the Roman sculptors man-aged to make such a work of art that still people today cannot achieve. Every small detail is engraved in those sculptures, from the head to the toes. My favorite part of the museum was the sarcophaguses. Most of them looked like mini repli-cas of the Parthenon in Greece.

Can you imagine being buried in that?

During the whole ten days of camp we visited three waterfall sites in Antalya. However, dur-ing the last few days, we vis-ited my favorite: The Düden Waterfall. The Düden Waterfall is approximately 9 miles north of Antalya. The water that cas-cades 100 feet into the Mediter-ranean Sea is part of the Düden River, one of the major rivers in Southern Anatolia. All of the campers took tons of photos. I wish we could of stayed a little bit longer.

The next two days were the most important. Our group was going to go visit both the mayor and governor of Antalya. They were the people who not only organized, but also funded the camp, so we were to put on our best manners and faces.

The governor was first. We all dressed up in nice, “casual” clothes and headed out to his office. As we entered, I felt as if I were going to see President Obama. We were scanned like at the airport and had to remove our belts, shoes, etc. We en-tered a large, business-like room with a wooden table in the middle and chairs surround-ing it. We all shook hands with the governor and sat down. He asked us in Turkish to introduce ourselves. After that we grate-fully thanked him for organiz-ing the event and he asked us if we had any questions for him to answer. Unfortunately, he only answered a few questions be-fore he had to go. We posed for a quick photo and he gave us all an Antalya book and a DVD about the city. We thanked him again and went to the bowling alley to end the day.

The next day, we woke up early, ate breakfast, and went to the mayor’s office. We had pre-viously met his wife, so she told him all about us. As we intro-duced ourselves, I immediately thanked him in Turkish; I didn’t want to miss my chance of talk-ing to the mayor like I had the day before with the governor.

“Kamp çok iyi, çünkü kül-türümüzu tanıyoruz ve deǧişik şeyler oǧreniyoruz,” I said. (Translation: The camp is very

good because we learned a lot about Turkish culture.)

“Teşekkürler,” he said. (Translation: Thank you.) We quickly departed because he had

a quick schedule to follow but he also gave us another DVD of Antalya and we all got to take pictures with him and his wife. One of these pictures would be published in the SABAH, a Turkish national newspaper.

The final day of camp had finally arrived. It was mostly just packing and buying more newspapers to bring home to show to our families. However, we did visit the mayor’s wife one last time, and some of our campers (including myself) got to display our musical talents in front of her and some other children. I, myself, have been playing both the violin and the piano since age four, so I’m pretty good. I played a violin concerto for her and a Canon in D duet with a camper who played the piano.

Our final night was a sad one. We all said goodbye to each other, just in case we didn’t see each other the next morn-ing. Some campers were going by plane to other Turkish cities to meet up with their families. Me? I was just getting picked up by my parents, brother, and uncle who were at their house which was coincidentally 30 minutes away from camp. I thanked Ms. Gürbuz one final time and went with my family to their home.

As I sat in the car, I was trying to remember all the things that I

learned in camp. For one thing, my Turkish really improved. I also made a lot of new friends and I got to visit and learn about many historical places in Anta-

lya. This is one camp that I will never forget.

Two weeks after camp ended, my family and I left Antalya and went to go visit some of my dad’s relatives in a small town called Selçuk. (Selçuk is 430 miles away from Istanbul.) Approximately one mile from Selçuk, is the remains of the commercial center of the an-cient world: Ephesus. Ephesus is a whole city in ruins. It has a theatre, gymnasium, agora, a library, and a place for bath-ing! Ephesus was most famous for its Temple of Artemis, one of the ancient 7 wonders of the world. I had visited Ephesus a few years ago. I had a great time, and I didn’t even realize I was learning at all! For all tour-ists, Ephesus is the highlight of any visit to Turkey and I highly recommend it.

Not only is Ephesus a few miles from Selçuk, but also you’ll find the Virgin Mary’s house. After Jesus’s ascension, it is said that Saint John, one of his friends, brought Mary to Ephesus to stay. It is believed that she died there too. Each year many Christian tourists come to visit her grave and be-come pilgrims.

Turkey is a country that is rich in culture, religion, and history. I am happy to have vis-ited it many times and hope that I still can in the future.

Aspendos Theater. “I was impressed with how intact and preserved the theater still is after about 2,000 years.”

Düden Waterfall. “The water that cascades 100 feet into the Mediterranean Sea is part of the Düden River, one of the major rivers in Southern Anatolia.”

continued from page 1

My Journey to Turkeyby Ismail Ercan

House of Mary in Ephesus

Did You Know...

…that the Anatolian peninsula, which makes up most of the country of Turkey, has been continuously inhabited for over 11,000 years? Early civilizations appeared sometime around 9000 B.C. and are some of the earliest human settlements in the history of the world.

AUGUST 2010 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE PAGE 11

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle are words that we hear often and most people know what the whole thing is about: using our natural resources wisely. Not buying more than we can consume. Not consuming more than we need. Disposing of used and exhausted things appropriately. We know a lot about sorting and recycling. There are specially colored buckets for plastics, cans and other metals, glass, cardboard, foam, newspaper, regular pa-per, etc.; and hopefully we are all doing our part in sorting our garbage. You know you are in good shape when your recycle bin’s contents are at least twice as much as your regular gar-bage. Also, many families to-day have compost bins or piles in their yards and all vegetable

peels and leftovers go there to be transformed into healthy fer-tilizers.

Now when it comes to reus-ing, things get a little tricky. We tend to accumulate lots of things in our homes that we don’t use anymore: toys, clothes, children’s gear and appliances, gadgets, furniture, books, and craft supplies. We always think we’ll use it later and that’s good, but do we re-ally use it later? When some-thing has been sitting in your garage or spare room unused and unseen for so long it might mean it’s time to pass it along. However, more often than not, it becomes easier to put things out for bulk pick-up day.

There are many things you can do with your unused things: pass them down to siblings,

relatives or friends, sell them at a Garage Sale, give them away or trade them at freecycle.com (a grassroots and entirely non-profit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns) or take them to a consignment store.

This last option is a great way to reduce the amount of things you have and have others re-use them, while making some money and with very little in-convenience to you! All you have to do is bring your things to the store.

Here in South Florida, right in the heart of Davie, you can go to A BABY CONSIGN-MENT (ABC), conveniently located in the plaza that sits on the intersection of Hiatus Road and State Road 84. They offer gently used, name brand, chil-dren and infant clothing and all kinds of baby items, such as cribs, strollers, high chairs, and bedding. This store also includes brand name maternity wear and pregnancy essentials.

ABC provides a friendly en-vironment and excellent cus-tomer service. If you become a consignor (somebody who brings items to be sold there) the staff would take care of tag-ging, pricing, and selling and they will let you know how your items are doing and what has been sold. You might have a gold mine in your closet or in your overflowing toy box! Also you can become a customer and whenever you and your family are in need of new items you can stop by the consignment store and you’ll be sure to find items at a much better price than in retail stores. We have to be wise using our money.

On Saturday July 24, this store organized a fun filled marketing event in which they

gave away prices and special discounts to customers. They also invited other vendors of child products and services to participate. The Circle Ga-zette was there and that’s how we got to meet the kind staff and friendly people behind the counter at ABC. Lots of people went to the store that day and despite the heat everybody waited around and came out of the store with great deals and big smiles.

Consignment is a very or-ganized way to reuse and re-

duce. Don’t let your things go to waste! Help yourself, help others, and help Earth while you’re at it.

A Baby Consignment is located at 11528 West State Rd 84 in Davie, FL 33325. If you need to know what kind of items they are taking in at a particular time, call them at 954-916-2229 or visit them online at www.ababyconsign-ment.com.

Don’t forget: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Hi! My name is Wong Wu and I am from the country side of China. I want to be a part of the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe. Many people in China want to be a part of the Amazingly Talented Troupe.

Did you know that Shanghai Acrobatics originated in the Chi-nese country side? During the har-vest, farmers from ancient China would celebrate a good crop. A good crop is a crop that has grown successfully throughout the har-vest. The farmers would celebrate by juggling farm tools and soon the emperors heard about the cele-brating and asked them to perform for them. Since then, Shanghai Acrobats have been admired for years.

Children who want to be a part of this outstanding troupe must be strong, slim, healthy, and between the ages eight and twelve. I am nine years old. I am very nervous because I will go there to try out. They pick a new group of thirty children every seven years. All the kids at school are excited to see if I’ll get chosen.

There are so many exciting per-formances that Shanghai Acrobat-ics do. They can, balance a tower of crystal wine glasses and oil lan-terns on their noses, and climb a ladder while playing a musical in-strument all at the same time!

Finally, it’s the day of the choos-ing. If I get picked I would have to go to the school there. I would have to train five hours a day. The school is like any other school besides the training. Three hours are spent on normal school subjects like his-tory and math. Kids must spend six days a week at the school. I hear that this is very demanding so kids would drop out and go back to regular school which makes me even more nervous.

I got in! I got in! I am so happy! They told me that in sixteen years I’ll graduate and start performing. I’ll get little pay but i don’t mind. Shanghai Acrobatics have been around since 200 B.C. and I can’t wait to go learn the amazing tricks that Shanghai Acrobatics do!

Shanghai Acrobaticsby Ashley Paige Ingram, Age 11

Boca Raton, FL

look even worse. “My hair!” she cried. “How could I have forgot-ten to braid it last night!” Then she remembered. She hadn’t even taken a bath she had been so tired. “Well” she thought “I better get my hair out of this di-saster now instead of worrying about last night” and she walked over to her birch bark counter, picked up her pine ‘n thistle hairbrush and walked over to the mirror. She reached into her Dust Pouch and poured some of the magical powder onto her brush and raked it through her hair twice (which was hard). In-stantly the twigs and flowers and leaves in her room twitched and moved toward her and into her hair; then she threw Dust on her nightgown and that second, it disappeared.

On her hair the plants were making progress. When a leaf came to a knot, there would be a snapping sound, and all the others would crowd around and untangle the problem. In the meantime, as soon as the night-gown disappeared, the rest of the plants in the room, threw open her acorn dresser, grabbed a navy blue business-like dress and brought it to her. Jay shook her head, that dress was never

cheerful enough for a fairy like her. She only wore it when she had to. The dress disappeared in a puff of light. Next came a white with sky-blue puffed skirt dress that went with a flower petal hat that looked OK for a birthday party, no good for going to run errands at Maple Roots Mall, or to Oak Meadow Fairy Park, which were Jay’s places to visit on her to-do list today. And, of course, there were the ongoing meetings every night. All the fancy dresses passed by and she finally picked one for her meet-ing: a dark blue, not quite navy, that was made of the petals from a rare blue rose with a soft Blue Jay downy feather clutch and a matching pale blue hat and ac-cessories, which she made out of the molted downy of Blue Jay chicks. Then she picked an ordinary blue-green shirt and a matching skirt for the rest of the day. She waited.

Her lily pad hat was supposed to fly over to her and it was tak-ing forever. Jay was about to sort things out with her wand to pre-vent this from happening again, when she spotted her hat float-ing in midair, right in front of her. She grabbed it, pulled it on and threw Pixie Dust into the air.

With the snap of a twig, every-thing flew back to its place and Jay went over to her counter, put down her hairbrush, picked up her bright Blue Jay blue wand and tapped both wings three times. Pixie Dust sprinkled over them, they poked up and a sky-blue color came racing into ev-ery little part and corner.

After that, Jay fluttered her wings excitedly and flew into her kitchen to cook herself an acorn pancake, a “hibiscuit” and some pollen juice. “That seems like a good breakfast” Jay said to herself, then she began wav-ing her wand and sprinkling Dust to make her meal. When it was done, she gave her wand an abrupt flick and some sweetgrass tea came out on a china teapot that she herself had made. Then came her “hibiscuits” on a plat-ter and her acorn pancake with the juice sitting on the side.

After a delicious breakfast, Jay set off for Maple Roots Mall to get a few errands that she needed to run from her to-do list.

This is how everyday started for Jay! She was calm and effi-cient and she was very helpful around town.

CONSIGNMENT STORES: A CLEVER WAY TO BE GREENby Patty Gómez, Editor In Chief

Did You Know...…that the first fast food establishment opened in 1916? White Castle was founded by Walter Anderson in Wichita, Kansas and featured small square hamburgers for 5 cents each! This hamburger chain still exists today throughout the United States.

Lots of people attended the A BABY CONSIGNMENT Marketing Event on Saturday July 24, and everybody came

out of the store with great deals and big smiles.

by Daniela Gómez

PAGE 12 THE CIRCLE GAZETTE AUGUST 2010

A Russian patchwork quilt made of keepsakes from home by Emma

Gómez, Age 6. Inspired by the book

The Keeping Quilt

by Patricia Polacco.

Watercolor pencils on

paper.

“Everwonder” ceramic bowl by Daniela Gómez,

Age 10. Pressed mold with “squish dish”

technique.

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your golden hair!” by Emma

Gómez, Age 6. Colored pencils, watercolor

pencils and yarn.

A Selection of Trains by Chase Kennedy, Age 5. Marker on paper.

Dylan Rodier, Age 10. Margate, FLBy: Glen Oglesby, Age 14. Margate, FL

Pictured left: Diagram of an ant body. Colored pencil on paper

Pictured right: Diagram of an ant nest. Construction paper and

crayon. Art by Sofia Serrano, Age 4