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On 14 May, people in Thailand voted for who they want to run their country. Pita Limjaroenrat’s Move Forward party won the most votes, which could mean big changes to the way that Thailand is run. How do Thai elections work? The parliament is made up of 500 members in the House of Representatives and 250 members in the Senate. Members of the House of Representatives are chosen by the Thai people in an election. Any party that wins more than 25 seats (members) can put forward their leader as a possible prime minister. Those in the Senate have been appointed by the military since it seized control of the country in 2014. The prime minister is chosen by members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The voting…

A GREEN LOAF OF BREAD The award for Britain’s Best Loaf 2023 has been won by a green bread, which beat more than 150 other loaves. Miyo Aoetsu’s Brioche Japonais loaf was flavoured with fruit, white chocolate and green tea. The judges said it delivered “a wonderful eating experience”. RARE PONIES Stallions (male ponies) have been released into England’s New Forest to help preserve the population of its rare pony breed. Eighteen stallions were released in the hope that they will breed with female ponies. There are more than 4,000 ponies living in the New Forest, which covers parts of Hampshire and Wiltshire. TAKING UP THE AWARD Record numbers of young people aged 14 to 24 are working towards their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE). The award is a chance…

Author Sathnam Sanghera asks The Week Junior, “Have you seen Star Wars?” In the Star Wars films, he says, “One bunch of planets take over another bunch of planets.” This happens in real life, too. “Everyone has empires,” Sanghera says. “The British Empire was the biggest in human history, which makes it really interesting.” Britain began to build its empire in the 16th century, and by the 20th century it controlled almost a quarter of the Earth’s land, including areas of Africa, America and Asia. Sanghera wrote a bestselling book about the empire, which he has now rewritten for children and called it Stolen History. The British Empire left its mark on people living across the world and in the UK, yet schools don’t tend to teach what happened. “It’s…

Brazilian scientists think they might have found a way to reverse the damage caused by deforestation (the cutting down of trees) and turn farmland back into forest. The secret lies in ancient local knowledge of soil. Amazonian dark earth (ADE) is a thick, black soil found deep in the Amazon rainforest, and it could help restore forests around the world. ADE is a kind of compost (a soil made from dead plants and animals). Various kinds of compost are sold in gardening centres around the world, but ADE is unique. It was created by indigenous people (the descendants of people who lived somewhere before another culture arrived and took over) from the Amazon between 2,000 and 2,500 years ago. The Amazonian people, today known as Amerindians, created ADE using charcoal…

Great crested newts A building company has used sniffer dogs to find great crested newts in Warrington, England. It’s illegal to harm the rare newts or their habitat, so the company needs to know if the creatures are on a site before building starts. The dogs are trained to find the newts without hurting them. Soay sheep Two vets have asked the Scottish government to look into the welfare of wild Soay sheep. The animals have lived on the islands of St Kilda for 6,000 years but over the last 20 years more than 16,000 have died from illness or lack of food. The National Trust for Scotland owns the islands.…

A new exhibition at the Design Museum in London (until 17 September) is celebrating the sari – a garment worn by many women. It is mainly worn in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan, as well as among South Asian communities around the world. The sari (also known as saree) has been around for thousands of years. Where did the sari originate? It was first mentioned in The Rig Veda, an important collection of hymns in the Hindu faith dating to between 1500 and 1200BC. Records also show that garments very like saris were worn in the Indus valley civilisation, which lasted from around 2500 to 1700BC. This was one of the world’s earliest civilisations and stretched across what is now Pakistan and north India. The Indus valley civilisation…

The Sport page in The Week Junior usually features a superb athlete or team competing for national and international glory. This week, however, is a bit different because giant sausages, dogs, dinosaurs and cartoon heroes take the spotlight. These crazy characters and many others took part in the Sue Ryder Mascot Gold Cup. It’s a wacky race held each year at Wetherby Racecourse in Yorkshire, England. People dress in funny mascot costumes – usually representing a sports team or business – and dash along a 200-metre course. The Mascot Gold Cup raises money for Sue Ryder, a charity that supports people who have a life-ending illness or a condition that affects their brain or nervous system. This year, 75 mascots lined up for the start of the sporting spectacle. They…

by Rashmi Sirdeshpande. Illustrated by Juliana Eigner (Words & Pictures) Empathy is the power to share someone else’s feelings and it is an important life skill. Written by Rashmi Sirdeshpande in partnership with the organisation EmpathyLab, this book is a handbook to help you develop empathy. It focuses on six simple steps you can take to boost your empathy skills. You’ll learn about how empathy really works and discover lots of activities and games you can try at home, at school, or out and about. In particular, you’ll find out how reading can help you become an empathy hero, with advice and ideas from authors like Michael Morpurgo, Cressida Cowell and Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho. Empathy Day is on 8 June and empathy is your human superpower. Why not take…

This year’s SATs may be out of the way for Year 6 students but lots of other young people will be preparing for end-of-year tests at school. Revision (going over the things you have learnt before to help you remember them) is a big part of preparing for tests and there is lots of help online. BBC Bitesize is one of the best and easiest websites to use when preparing for a test. Based on your school year, whether you’re in primary or secondary school in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, it lets you choose a subject so you can see lots of articles, fun games, podcasts and videos that match each topic. Whether it is Roman Britain or creative writing, calculating fractions or understanding the food chain, everything…

The streets of Japan are paved with beautifully decorated manhole covers. Manhole covers are the heavy lids that hide the entrance to tunnels leading down to drains or underground railways. Decorating them has been a tradition since the 1980s. Artists take melted-down scrap metal and turn it into the right shape for the manhole, then paint on it scenes from Japanese culture. Designs include Mount Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan, and Pokémon characters.…

When we plan the stories and features that we want to put into The Week Junior, we always think about our readers and ask ourselves what would YOU want to read? Here’s a behind-the-scenes secret, though: we also choose them based on what WE want to read (and talk about on the podcast). Whether it is some tricky SATs (page 4), Paddington’s reaction to winning a BAFTA (page 9) or a satellite that was made on a knitting machine (page 15), everything we put in the magazine makes us smile, think or wonder. One of the pages we have been talking about a lot is the Wellbeing feature (page 19), and how to stop worrying about what other people think of you. Nearly everyone needs help with this from time…

1 Swedish singer Loreen won Eurovision with which song? □ a) Cha Cha Cha □ b) Euphoria □ c) Tattoo 2 True or false? Tyger by S.F. Said, won the Children’s Fiction prize at the British Book Awards this year. □ True □ False 3 In which country will the world’s first permanent e-motorway be built? 4 Red squirrels have lived in the UK for roughly how many years? □ a) 100 years □ b) 1,000 years □ c) 10,000 years 5 True or false? All of the Amazon rainforest is in Brazil. □ True □ False 6 By what other name are cockchafer beetles known? 7 A popular way of wearing a sari, in which it is wrapped and pleated around the waist and draped over the shoulder, is…

Growing up in Kenya, Robert Mokaya was always curious. Now, he researches chemistry at the University of Nottingham, England, and has just been chosen to become a member of the Royal Society. This is the oldest national scientific society in the world, founded in 1660 to encourage the development of science. Mokaya was chosen because of his research on environmentally friendly materials and his work to improve the access that African scientists have to chemistry knowledge. Mokaya is the UK’s only black professor of chemistry and he mentors other researchers and students.…

Scientists have discovered a new species of butterfly and called it Saurona, after the villain Sauron from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. It has black and white eye-like markings surrounded by orange, which look like Sauron’s evil eye. The scientists hope to draw attention to the global decline in butterfly numbers. ● SIZE: A wingspan of around four centimetres. ● LIFESPAN: Two to four weeks. ● DIET: Grasses and bamboo. ● HABITAT: The southern Amazon Rainforest in South America. ● FUN FACT: A dung beetle, a frog and a dinosaur have all been named after Sauron before.…

London Lions The London Lions won the women’s and the men’s British Basketball League play-off finals at the O2 Arena in London. Chelsea Women In the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium, London, Chelsea beat Manchester United 1-0 to win the trophy for the third time in a row. Sam Kerr scored the winner. Ireland women’s rugby sevens team Their 10-5 win against Fiji means Ireland have qualified for the Olympics for the first time. The 2024 Paris Olympics will take place in July and August next year. Tom Pidcock The British cyclist won twice at the World Cup mountain biking event in the Czech Republic.…

If you’re looking for some festival fun this spring, there are plenty to choose from. The annual Edinburgh Children’s Festival (27 May to 4 June) has invited 14 colourful performances from around the world to appear at different venues across Edinburgh. The programme includes Too Close to the Sun, a show using ballet and spoken word to tell the story of a young girl learning to fly. BullyBully is a fun show about two childish world leaders meeting and bickering, which includes songs, dance and lots of laughs. Festival director Noel Jordan says the shows have been carefully chosen because of their big ideas and epic stories that help audiences make sense of the world in “joyful, visual and accessible ways.” In England, the Leeds 2023 festival is spending a…

The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe Available on Cartoon Network from 13 May This series follows the adventures of Ivandoe, the young prince of the forest, and his trusty squire Bert. They are sent on a quest to find the Golden Feather of the fearsome Eagle King. Secrets of the Elephants Disney+ from 21 April We already know that elephants are powerful, loving and wise, and this series dives into the way they think, feel and communicate. The series will challenge the way viewers think about these majestic mammals.…

What’s your favourite joke? What do planets like to read? Comet books! (I KNOW, I KNOW, sorry!) What are your hobbies? I love music, dancing, video games, reading, travel and strength training. How will you mark Empathy Day? I’ll make a promise to use empathy more in my life, AND I’ll be talking about empathy with 1,000 students at the Manchester Velodrome with superstar authors and illustrators Rob Biddulph, Sophy Henn and Paul Jenkins. What did you learn while writing this book? It was fantastic to learn about the science behind empathy – how the brain is like an amazing virtual reality machine that can really imagine what it’s like to experience what someone else is experiencing (both real and fictional), including their feelings and emotions. What’s your favourite day…

Hello, my name’s Olaf Falafel. I’m a children’s author, illustrator, comedian and dad. I love to share drawing tips and jokes, like this: What does the ocean do when it sees its friends? It waves! My latest book, Trixie Pickle Art Avenger: Toxic Takedown, features lots of famous artists, including Katsushika Hokusai. A Japanese artist, he is most famous for his print The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Hokusai made most of his images by carving into blocks of cherry wood and printing with them. I’m going to show you how to paint your own Great Wave picture. I won’t be using cherry wood though – I’ll be using lettuce! What you need • Pencil • Black paper • Scissors • Brown paper (I used an envelope) • Glue • Blue and white…

Name: Isla “From 1–5 May, my year (Year 6) went on a trip to France. We stayed at a hotel in dorms of five people and we did loads of different fun things every day. On one of the days we went to a theme park where we went on loads of scary rides. We also made croissants and milked goats. For lunch one day we went to a market and bought our lunch, which made us practise our French. I hope I inspire you to become interested in different cultures.”  What have you been up to lately? Which books have you enjoyed reading? What have you made? Have you written a poem or drawn a picture that you’d like to see published on this page? Whatever you have to show…

Teacher’s name: Mrs Grosvenor School: Penkridge Middle School, Staffordshire, England “Mrs Grosvenor is a really kind and helpful teacher, and always understands our problems. She always explains things in a different way to help us understand. Mrs Grosvenor is never grumpy and always has time to help us. Thank you, Mrs Grosvenor!”Molly If we pick your teacher as Teacher of the Week, we’ll send your school three free issues of The Week Junior. Send your nominations, along with a picture of your teacher and your school’s full name and address, to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk…

We see grey squirrels all the time – scampering up tree trunks in woods and parks and sometimes stealing from garden bird feeders. There are fewer than 280,000 red squirrels in the UK – compared with 2.6 million grey squirrels. In the UK, reds have only survived in Scotland, in remote areas of countryside and on some islands. Grey squirrels have pushed red squirrels out by competing more successfully for food and passing on squirrel pox, a virus that is deadly to reds. Some conservationists say that the only way to restore the UK’s red squirrel population is to cull (selectively kill) grey squirrels. Some people have suggested that eating them would ensure their meat isn’t wasted. What do you think? Should grey squirrel be on menus? Yes – it’s…

Battling the wind and tides, Kerry Baker has paddle-boarded her way across the Bristol Channel to raise more than £3,000 for the special education school where she teaches. Ysgol Y Deri school in Wales is the largest special education school in the UK, and Baker wanted to raise funds to improve the outdoor learning area. So she set off on her paddle board for a 13-mile journey from Weston-super-Mare, in England, to Barry Island in Wales. Baker is also a watersports instructor in Barry Island. After finishing her challenge, said she was proud to show “how beautiful this area of Wales is”.…

Scientists have discovered a new way to help people who have nightmares, and it involves playing sounds as they sleep. A study was done in Geneva, Switzerland, last year with 36 patients who had been diagnosed with “nightmare disorder”. This is a condition in which someone has lots of very realistic bad dreams that affect their life by making them feel tired and unhappy. Most people with nightmare disorder are treated using imagery reversal therapy (IRT), in which they write down their bad dreams then give them a happy ending. They then imagine the new story during the day, rehearsing for bedtime. Although IRT helps many people, it doesn’t work for everyone, so scientists wanted to see if using sound could boost its success. Everyone taking part in the study…

Scientists have made virtual reality even more real by using the power of smell. Virtual reality, or VR, is a computer-generated 3D world that people can see through special headsets. Now a face mask has been created that produces nine smells. If the user approaches an object in VR that would have an odour in real life, such as a flower, the mask releases a suitable scent. The smells come from liquid perfumes stored inside the mask. When a smell is needed, the liquid is heated to 50°C to activate the fragrance. Enjoy these stories? Find more in this month’s The Week Junior Science+Nature magazine sciencenature.theweekjunior.co.uk…

The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Portraits and Poison by J.T. Williams (Farshore) In the second book in this series set in 18th century London, Lizzie Sancho and Dido Belle team up to solve a crime. It’s the theft of an important painting – but they are soon entangled in a much bigger mystery involving a sinister secret organisation. Where the River Takes Us by Lesley Parr (Bloomsbury Children’s) Wales, 1974. For Jason and his older brother Richie, times are tough. When Jason learns that a reward is being offered to anyone who can prove the existence of The Beast – a creature that is supposed to roam the forest – he thinks it could be the answer to their problems. He sets out with friends to find it, but the…

Name: Freddie The Beast of Buckingham Palace by David Walliams “Action-packed, mythical, futuristic. Alfred is the main character, a prince who lives in Buckingham Palace in the year 2120.” YOUR TURN Email your book review to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk. If your review is printed in the magazine you’ll receive a Roving Reporter badge. Tell us what you liked about the book and why you’d recommend it to others, and don’t forget to include your name and address.*…

Number fit All of these numbers fit in the grid. Can you work out where they go? We’ve placed one to start you off. 3 numbers 415 418 447 564 657 4 numbers 5569 5663 6460 7536 8016 5 numbers 25023 31204 57825 78456 6 numbers 116716 523863 737416 883513 7 numbers 4446435 6844327 7652365 8 numbers 13085655 67551413 97783884 9 numbers 112372501 257501286 Word search Can you find all of the words listed here? They are hidden horizontally, vertically or diagonally and may read forwards or backwards. BARBECUE BOILER BONFIRE CANDLE COCOA COOKER DESERT EMBERS FIREWORK FURNACE GEYSER KETTLE KILN LAVA OVEN RADIATOR SPARK STEAM THE SUN TOASTER Sudoku Place the numbers from 1 to 6 exactly once in each row, column and 2x3 bold-lined box, to complete the…

There are just a few weeks left to take a photo and submit it to the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition. Open to young people aged 18 and under who live in the UK, this fantastic competition is free to enter and the top prize is £1,000. The aim of the competition is to inspire people to experience the joys of the British landscape through taking photos. Your entry can be shot on a smartphone or camera, but don’t delay entering because the 31 May deadline is fast approaching. To find out how to enter, head to lpoty.co.uk and click on “competition”. GET INVOLVED Email your news, views and pictures to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk Please include your full name and address so that we can send you a Roving Reporter badge…

We love hearing from you! It’s easy – just write a comment when you vote in our online Big Debate poll, or even record a voice note for The Week Junior Show. Should cats be kept inside at night? You said… “I like to keep my cat safe and don’t want him to bring animals inside. He never goes out at night. He doesn’t know any different.” “I think that there are better ways to prevent cats from killing birds.” “Cats are natural hunters, why should they be kept inside?” Tell us what you think of this week’s issue and we’ll print some of the best comments here.…