The Week Junior -julkaisun 516 -irtonumeron sisällysluettelo

This week, Comic Con attracted crowds dressed as their favourite film, game or comic character. If you were to go to Comic Con who would you dress up as? Find out more about the event on page 7. The Wellbeing page this week focuses on managing your money and how to budget. What would you like to save up for? Read some top tips on how to get smart with your money on page 21. Scientists found that peppermints can help people with a cold to feel more alert. What makes you feel better when you’re ill? Explore how researchers tested different types of sweets on page 17. The big debate Should feeding pigeons be banned? Page 10.…

The United Nations (UN) has called for the protection of civilians (people who aren’t part of the military) in el-Fasher, Sudan, after an armed group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took control of the city. The UN is a group made up of most of the world’s countries, working on challenges facing people across the globe. The RSF is a paramilitary group. That means it is organised like a military force but it isn’t part of a country’s official armed forces. What happened? On 26 October, the RSF said it had taken control of el-Fasher. The RSF is fighting a civil war (one between groups in the same country) with Sudan’s army. There have been reports of shootings and other violence carried out by the RSF, which had surrounded…

A DETECTORIST A metal detectorist in Wales has discovered up to 15,000 Roman coins in two clay pots, which could be the country’s largest hoard. David Moss, said he was in disbelief and had “goosebumps” upon finding the buried treasure. The coins are now at the National Museum Cardiff for analysis. CLOCK WATCHERS Workers at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England, have finished restoring its magnificent 18th-century clock tower. The tower houses a rare clock installed in 1710 made by clockmaker Langley Bradley. The seven-week project used more than 1,000 sheets of gold leaf (very thin gold). A SPECIAL BUNNY A bunny born without ears has been given special woolly replacements by farmers at Smithills Open Farm near Bolton, England. A farmer there made the tiny ears so that the four-month-old rabbit,…

Eileen Collins was the first woman to pilot and command a NASA spacecraft, and now a company has made a documentary (non-fiction) film about her life. Collins told BBC News that reading a magazine article about astronauts when she was about nine inspired her passion for space travel. ”I thought that’s the coolest thing. That’s what I want to do,” she said. After graduating from university in 1978, Collins joined the US Air Force, where she trained to be a pilot and became its first female flight instructor. Collins became an astronaut at NASA in 1991 and in 1995 was the first woman to pilot a US space shuttle on the orbiter Discovery. In 1999, she was the first woman to command a shuttle mission on the spacecraft Columbia. During…

Dozens of white-clawed crayfish, a threatened species, have been moved to a special pond at Wildwood Devon, a zoo and nature park in England. These crustaceans are the UK’s only native freshwater crayfish and are classed as an endangered species. They grow up to 12cm long and are important for river health because they eat plants, invertebrates (small animals that don’t have a backbone) and dead things, which keeps the water clean. However, disease, pollution and a species called the American signal crayfish (see panel) are killing off large numbers of white-clawed crayfish. The charity Wildwood Trust has been rescuing the crustaceans from rivers in Devon. These crayfish were taken to a “specialist hatchery” and encouraged to breed. More than 1,100 baby crayfish have been born so far. Thirty-seven white-clawed…

Northern Ireland’s government has responded to a charity’s report that says it is not planting enough trees. Officials say they will draw up an action plan to plant more. The charity the Woodland Trust published a report, State of The UK’s Woods and Trees: Northern Ireland, that says tree-planting is happening too slowly. Northern Ireland has the lowest woodland cover in the UK: just 8.6% of land is covered in trees, compared to 19% in Scotland, 15% in Wales and 10% in England. In 2020, the Northern Ireland government’s Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) set a target to plant 18 million trees by 2030, and create 90 square kilometres of new woodland by 2030. Between 2020 and 2025, just 22 square kilometres have been planted, leaving 68…

Researchers have discovered a major “dinosaur highway” in a quarry in Oxfordshire, England. A quarry is where rock is dug out for building. A team first found dinosaur footprints in 2024, but more digging this year uncovered 200 across four trackways (series of footprints) – made about 166 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period. The longest trackway is 220 metres, which is around twice as long as a football pitch. Four of the tracks were made by massive plant-eaters called sauropods, probably a type called Cetiosaurus (see panel). Some of the footprints are a metre long – more than twice the size of an elephant’s print. Sauropods were not the only dinosaurs walking in the area, which in the Jurassic Period was the muddy edges of a lagoon. There…

Major sports such as football, rugby, tennis and athletics regularly take place in London. Recently, an ancient Japanese sport came to the city when the Grand Sumo Tournament was held at the Royal Albert Hall. Sumo was first contested around 1,500 years ago. Two big and powerful wrestlers dressed in a traditional cloth belt grapple in a ring. The winner is the first to force their opponent out of the ring or make them touch the ground with any part of their body other than the soles of their feet. Punching and kicking is not allowed but a wrestler, known as a rikishi, will often use spectacular throws and twists to win a match, which is called a bout. The Japanese word for the wrestling ring is dohyo, a mawashi…

In 1843, author Charles Dickens published a short book called A Christmas Carol. He wrote the story to raise awareness about issues in society in Victorian Britain. He believed many of the problems could be solved if people were kinder to each other. Film writer and director Gurinder Chadha (see panel) thinks that message is just as important today, and her new film Christmas Karma is a musical comedy version of Dickens’s original story. Set in modern-day London, the film is about Eshaan Sood, a grumpy man without much Christmas spirit. One night, he receives three visits from the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. They try to remind him what the festive season is all about. Chadha told The Week Junior that Christmas is “a wonderful, warm time…

by Russell Tovey and Robert Diament. Illustrated by Rose Blake (Hachette Children’s) The artist Henri Matisse made one of his most famous artworks, The Snail, in 1953 when he was in his 80s. He made it while in bed, cutting coloured paper into shapes to make a collage. The Snail is just one of the artworks featured in this guide to the wonderful world of art. Written by Russell Tovey and Robert Diament – the team behind the popular podcast Talk Art – it will introduce you to a wide variety of artists from the present day as well as the 20th century. It features their favourite artworks, including those by famous names such as Frida Kahlo, and works by less well-known artists like Sri Lankan sculptor Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran.…

The creator of the Isadora Moonbooks, Harriet Muncaster, has written a new magical adventure series called The Diary of Wiska Wildflower. Wiska is a “wiskling”, a tiny magical creature born from crystals. She’s nervous about starting at her new school, Inkcap’s Academy, so starts a diary to record her thoughts and feelings. Muncaster told The Week Junior that she loves writing in a diary format, because “it is so much fun to really be right inside the head of your character”. She had already written two stories about Wiska that weren’t in diary format but she said they didn’t feel quite right. In the stories, Wiska was always writing and doodling inside a diary. When Muncaster tried to write the story a third time, she decided to do it from…

Shed reaches record speed Brian Cade has smashed the world speed record for driving a shed, reaching 123mph at Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire, England. He built it himself, and named it Ed the Shed. The first time he tried to break the record, Cade only reached 96mph. He had to beat the record of 106mph, which was set in September 2020. On his second attempt, he reached 123mph. He didn’t know how fast he’d travelled until he got out but he is sending his results to Guinness World Records for them to check and confirm his achievement. Baker creates life-sized K-Pop cake Lara Mason challenged herself to create a life-sized cake of Rumi from Netflix’s hit film KPop Demon Hunters in under a week. Mason carefully sculpted every detail –…

Teacher’s name: Miss Proctor School: Downham C of E Voluntary Controlled Primary School, Ramsden Heath, England “Miss Proctor has taught us about the Romans and fun facts about volcanoes and the Earth’s crust that are mind-blowing. She loves netball and organised a competition that gave children the opportunity to play against other schools. She runs the school choir and has organised for us to perform at the Royal Albert Hall with the Philharmonic Orchestra this year. She is kind and we love having her as a teacher.” Rosie 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 JOKE OF THE…

“My first time making my own tasty tarts. Everyone loved them!”Jacob “This is me reading The Week Junior in our allotment while my parents work hard growing fruit and vegetables.”Affan “The Week Junior inspired us to cycle to school because it was Cycle to School Week. It’s a very hilly two-mile journey in the Lake District so we did it with our neighbours. It was hard work but great fun.”Lorna, Elsa and Thomas “I read the article about eating pumpkins (issue 514) so I cut out this pumpkin and made pumpkin pie. It was delicious.” Lila We’re proud to be plastic-free The Week Junior is delivered without a wrapper. This decision was made in response to requests from our readers who wanted us to reduce waste. Since removing the wrap…

Our cover this week features the fascinating story of the dinosaur trackways found in a quarry in Oxfordshire. A quarry is where stone is dug out to be used to make buildings and roads, and it was thanks to controlled blasting with explosives that the footprints were uncovered. (Do you think they called the explosives dino-mite? I hope so.) Anyway, scientists say this discovery will reveal a lot about these massive ancient creatures. To an expert, the footprints show how the animals moved, and from that, they can build a picture of how the creatures might have looked. You can read more on page 16. Have you found anything interesting on a walk lately? It needn’t be as astonishing as a dinosaur footprint – it could be a strange fungus…

On 25 October, Catherine Connolly was elected Ireland’s 10th president. The Irish president’s role is mostly ceremonial – their job is really to represent Ireland across the world. The president does have some powers but they don’t make laws or run the government. Ireland also has a prime minister (called the Taoiseach), who is the head of the government. It is the government that runs the country. Connolly is an independent candidate (someone who isn’t part of any political party) from Galway. She is a former lawyer and has been a TD (member of Ireland’s parliament) since 2016. Connolly won 63% of votes, defeating her opponent, Heather Humphreys. Around 46% of people who could vote took part in the election. In her winning speech at Dublin Castle, she promised to…

On 27 October, new rules came into force that are designed to make landlords in England take action quickly to fix dangerous homes, including those with mould and damp issues. Landlords are people or organisations who rent their properties out to other people, known as tenants. The new rules are known as Awaab’s Law. What are damp and mould? Damp is when there is too much moisture in a home and it can’t escape. It can show up as wet patches on walls or peeling wallpaper. It has an earthy smell. Lots of things cause damp, including cracked pipes, a leaky roof or badly fitting windows. Mould is a type of fungus that grows in damp homes. It can appear as fuzzy or slimy patches. Damp and mould can cause…

This rare bird has been spotted in “never-before-seen numbers” in Scotland. The birds usually live in warmer climates but are occasional visitors to the UK, usually the south. • LIFESPAN: Around 15 years. • HABITAT: Wetlands in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North, Central and South America. • SIZE: 55–65cm. • DIET: Dragonfly larvae, frogs, newts and water beetles. • FUN FACT: When trying to attract a mate, glossy ibis bow to each other (a bit like the hippogriffs in Harry Potter).…

Trials of a new ultra-strong road surface in Essex, England, have been a success – and it is hoped that the material could mean the end of pot-holes. These are holes in roads caused by water getting into cracks in the road’s surface and weakening it. They can damage cars and cause accidents. The new substance, called Gipave, contains graphene, the strongest material ever discovered – about 200 times stronger than steel but really flexible. Gipave is added to asphalt which is often used to surface roads. Enjoy these stories? Find more in this month’s The Week Junior Science+Nature magazine sciencenature.theweekjunior.co.uk…

Mimi Xu The 18-year-old tennis player from Wales won the singles and doubles titles at the Lexus Wrexham Open tournament. Australia women’s golf team On 26 October, Australia were the champions at the LPGA International Crown golf event in South Korea. They beat the US in the final. Jake Jarman and Luke Whitehouse Jarman won gold and Whitehouse took silver for Great Britain in the men’s floor final at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Indonesia. Hearts In the Scottish Premiership, Hearts defeated Celtic 3–1. It was the Edinburgh club’s sixth win in a row.…

Panjabi MC Panjabi MC is a British bhangra musician and DJ, best known for his 2002 hit song Mundian To Bach Ke. It sold more than 10 million copies, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time. Gary Barlow Aside from being in Take That, Gary Barlow has written music for movies like Argylle (below). “Gary has written some beautiful songs in the film,” said Chadha, “He’s my new bestie.” Shaznay Lewis Chadha has worked with Shaznay Lewis before; Lewis was in Bend It Like Beckham (see panel). She also used to be part of a band called All Saints. “She’s a really amazing songwriter,” Chadha said.…

Who is your favourite artist in this book?  Diament: Frida Kahlo. I discovered her work when I was nine years old, leading to my passion for art. Tovey: Roy Lichtenstein. His work made me realise cartoons could be art. His work Whaam! (which is in the book), painted with Lichtenstein’s trademark spots, changed the way I saw everything. Do you ever paint? Diament: No, but I used to write songs, so that was my art. I collect art and spend my free time visiting exhibitions. Tovey: I make “telephone doodles” for charities to sell – they usually involve a man with sticky-out ears next to a French bulldog. It’s pretty telling who it is. Tell us about your favourite teacher growing up. Diament: My favourite teacher was Nel Card. She…

Players of the Football Manager games are dedicated. Some put on the kind of clothes real managers wear for matches within the game. “It’s the only gaming community I know where people get dressed up in a suit and tie to play,” says Jamie Stewart, who works at Sports Interactive, the company behind the Football Manager simulation games. After skipping a year, the latest version of the game is Football Manager 26. It features more realistic-looking matches; deeper tactics to help turn your players into world-beaters; and for the first time it includes women’s football alongside men’s football. Stewart says a lot of work has gone into the women’s football: scouting players in 14 leagues across the world – including the top two divisions in England – and making sure…

Wordsearch Can you find all the words listed here? They are hidden horizontally, vertically or diagonally and may read forwards or backwards. ACTIVITY BISCUIT BOOK COLLAGE CRAYON GLUE HELPER JIGSAW LEARN NOISE PAINT PAPER PENCIL PICTURE PLAYMATE POSTER TANTRUM TEACHER TEARS TODDLER Split words Piece together the letters and pairs to find four parts of a theatre. 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 144 532 581 736 4 numbers 4476 4805 6471 6481 6847 5 numbers 20254 76780 85748 6 numbers 243064 245787 645187 684751 7 numbers 2127807 4681348 7800641 8 numbers 26722216 66647531 87872234 91461374 9 numbers 288086406 460114172 753189826 Sudoku Place the numbers from 1 to 6 exactly…

1 Who was declared the new President of Ireland? ☐ a) Micheál Martin ☐ b) Catherine Connolly ☐ c) Simon Harris 2 True or false? The MCM Comic Con event was held at Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre, London. ☐ True ☐ False 3 In which country have mosquitos been spotted for the first time? 4 Where did a Picasso painting recently go missing? ☐ a) France ☐ b) Greece ☐ c) Spain 5 True or false? In 2012, a racing pigeon called Bolt sold for £100,000. ☐ True ☐ False 6 Roughly how many stray dogs does animal shelter owner Feven Melese feed every week? 7 What are baby numbats called? ☐ a) Joeys ☐ b) Kids ☐ c) Pups 8 True or false? The largest dinosaur footprint ever uncovered…

Across the world there are many species of pigeon. In UK cities, a common bird is the feral pigeon and in London there are thought to be around three million of them. That’s about one for every three people. Some local authorities have brought in rules to stop people feeding them, partly because of the damage they cause. The former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, once said that pigeon droppings had caused £140,000 worth of damage in Trafalgar Square. However, others see pigeons differently. Humans have bred pigeons for thousands of years – using them for their eggs, meat and sending messages – and some people say the birds are very intelligent and friendly. What do you think? Should there be a ban on feeding pigeons? Yes – pigeons pose…

James Vickery is a popular singer-songwriter who is touring the US and Europe to promote his second album, JAMES. When he was aged nine, Vickery had an operation on his brain and lost the hearing in his left ear. After the surgery, a vocal coach helped him rediscover his voice. The hearing loss was a challenge, especially during his teenage years but he learned to adapt. “It’s a disability that isn’t visible,” he told the Red Bull website. Vickery said his new album “represents all the different sides that make me: the fun side, the emotional side”. He added, “I definitely lean towards being open and emotional.”…

This plant is a type of fern that doesn’t stay green all year – instead becoming warm shades of yellow and copper. Ferns are plants that reproduce using spores (cells that disperse in the air) which land to grow a new fern. Bracken is an ancient plant, that’s been around for 55 million years and is found everywhere on Earth, except Antarctica. It grows on heathland, moorland, hillsides and in woods. Its fronds (large, divided leaves) are triangular with oblong leaflets growing on each side of the stems. On the underside of each leaflet are the spot-like spores. The plant provides shelter for birds, mammals and reptiles but its leaves can be poisonous. Bracken grows up to two metres high and a metre wide, but it starts to die back…

Pacific Ocean A marine heatwave in a part of the North Pacific Ocean known as the “warm blob” is causing its hottest summer on record. It is thought to be partly caused by climate change and natural variations in the weather but a change in shipping fuels could also be to blame. The engine oil previously used by ships produced a gas harmful to humans. However, the gas formed tiny Sun-reflecting particles, which helped to keep temperatures lower.…

Next time you’re feeling under the weather, reaching for a peppermint sweet might help you feel a bit more alert, according to a new study by Cardiff University in Wales. Scientists monitored 81 students over 10 weeks, and 17 of them caught colds. The researchers gave six of the ill students peppermints, six got butterscotch sweets and five got no sweets at all. Some of the healthy students were also given the sweets, so the scientists could compare the difference with the results. All the volunteers were tested on their mood, performance and reaction times. Having a cold made people slower and less alert but researchers found that sucking on peppermints increased alertness in both ill and healthy people. However, the sweets didn’t improve performance. Researchers think that peppermint helps…

SEND YOUR PHOTOS Email them to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk Once a month we feature photos by our readers. Ask a parent or carer to send in photos for you and make sure they read this: upon submitting images for publication, you the adult grant Future Publishing Ltd permission to publish the submission in The Week Junior publications and on their associated web and social pages. You warrant that you own or have the right to grant this permission and that Future’s use will not infringe the rights of any third party.…

Talk Money Week (3–7 November) aims to help people talk about money and is a good opportunity to learn more about spending and saving. What is money management? This means learning how to use your money wisely so you can pay for things you need. It teaches you about saving, spending, earning and borrowing, and helps you understand things such as bank accounts and debit cards. If you’re given cash for your birthday, money management means deciding whether to spend it straight away or invest the money in a savings account and watch it grow. Research shows that young people start to develop financial habits (learning to manage money) from the age of seven, so the sooner you understand how to make good choices, the easier it will be to…

Scarlet Morning by N.D. Stevenson (HarperCollins Children’s Books) In this fabulous new fantasy, Viola and Wilmur leave behind their boring town to join Captain Cadence Chase and her eccentric crew of pirates. Soon they are setting sail on a grand adventure filled with mystery, excitement, strange secrets and unsettling creatures. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (Penguin Random House Children’s UK) The most famous pirate story of them all introduces us to young Jim Hawkins, who discovers a treasure map that once belonged to the notorious Captain Flint. Soon he’s aboard a sailing ship, on a voyage to find the lost treasure – but among the crew is Long John Silver, a ruthless pirate with a dastardly plan to keep the treasure for himself. The Ship of Shadows by Maria…

Name: Izzy Turtle Moon by Hannah Gold “Heartwarming, captivating and curious. I loved how this book could explain so much about the environment yet still be a well-thought story. Perfect for anyone who wants to do their bit for the planet.” YOUR TURN Please email your book review to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk. If it is printed in the magazine you will receive a Roving Reporter badge. Describe your chosen book in three words, tell us what you liked about it and why you would recommend it to others. Don’t forget to include your name and address.* *If you are the competition winner, we will only use the details you provide to contact you and arrange delivery of your competition prize. Further details about how we manage the data you provide can be…

Autumn is a beautiful season when nature transitions from the warmth and new life of summer to the cold and bare winter months. In the UK, autumn is known for its changing and falling leaves. As the weather gets colder, some trees stop producing a substance called chlorophyll, which gives leaves their green colour, and they reveal other, spectacular colours. No matter where you live, the atmosphere of autumn can be captured in a photo. You just need to photograph the changes happening in nature, whether that’s plants dying back, leaves changing colour or animals preparing for the colder months. A pigeon, fluffing up its feathers to stay warm or standing on a pavement covered in dead leaves could make a great autumn shot. The important thing is to embrace…

Congratulations to the winners of the Sketch your Monster competition, organised by children’s charity Coram together with film distributors KOVA International. The competition ran alongside the UK release of Sketch, a film that sees a young girl’s drawings of fantastical creatures come to life. Young people were asked to design their own monsters. Here’s what winners Berik and Ayden had to say about their drawings: “The robot in my drawing represents strength and protection. It’s powerful and kind of like a guardian. The alien, though, is really different – it’s curious, adventurous and always exploring. Winning made me feel proud and motivated to keep drawing and create new characters. The film was really inspiring. It showed how creativity can bring ideas to life and how everyone’s imagination is unique. ”Berik…

Share your food photos The Jamie Oliver Youth Prize is part of the World Food Photography Awards, sponsored by Tenderstem. Young people aged 17 or under are asked to capture food moments on camera that tell a story. You don’t need a camera – a smartphone picture is fine. The winners will be invited to visit the Jamie Oliver HQ, go to the awards evening and have their pictures shown at the Mall Galleries, London. Send in up to five pictures by 8 February 2026. To find out more, ask an adult to visit tinyurl.com/TWJ-516-GI WIN A BADGE! 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 if your contribution makes it onto the…