Table of contents for June 2022 in K-Zone

GET INTO 2nd Pil’s Adventures in cinemas 3rd World Bicycle Day 5th World Environment Day 8th Best Friend Day 8th World Ocean Day 9th Jurassic World: Dominion in cinemas 14th Monkey Around Day 15th Smile Power Day 16th Lightyear in cinemas 16th International Waterfall Day 21st Go Skateboarding Day 22nd World Rainforest Day 23rd Minions: The Rise of Gru in cinemas SPORT 3rd Panthers vs Bulldogs in NRL 8th State of Origin Game 1 10th North Melbourne vs GWS Giants in AFL 18th Warriors vs Panthers in NRL 24th Brisbane Lions vs Melbourne in AFL 26th State of Origin Game 2 HAPPY BIRTHDAY 1st Tom Holland, AKA Spider-Man 2nd Awkwafina, AKA Ms. Tarantula, Katy Chen, and Sisu 13th Chris Evans, AKA Steve Rogers/ Captain America 15th Jett Klyne, AKA Tommy…

GAMES BY THE NUMBERS 5 new monstrous rides have zipped into Hot Wheels Unleashed. The Monster Trucks Expansion has new diorama tracks. Quash Quarry, dash in the Desert, juice through Jungle, and conquer cool Ice Mountain! 48 rad remastered courses are on the way to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. There will be six waves, and eight courses dropping each time! 100 challenges are waiting to be conquered in Bugsnax: The Isle of BIGsnax. This dino-sized free-LC has it all; prehistoric Bugsnax, a beautiful island, and a stack of towering threats!…

K-Z: Hi Ed! What’s the backstory for the world of Submerged: Hidden Depths? E: At the start of the game, the two siblings, Miku and Taku, boat into this mysterious, sunken city. The pair are determined to investigate the city, and maybe even help restore it. K-Z: Do Miku and Taku get along? E: Like any siblings, they have disagreements, but they love each other. They have been through a lot. That relationship is tested as the game progresses. K-Z: Is the sunken city a real city, a fictional city, or a fusion of many real cities? E: The city isn’t one city in particular. We deliberately tried to create an ‘every city’, with elements of different cities across the world, mixed in together. K-Z: Who created the term ‘relaxploration’?…

TRANSFORMERS: BOTBOTS STREAMING NOW ON NETFLIX When a shopping mall is affected by a strange Energon cloud, the objects become tiny transformable robots! A group of items that were separated from their original stores are also transformed in the lost-and-found room, and call themselves the Lost Bots. Their dream is to return to their original homes, but the number one rule is to never be spotted by a human and reveal the BotBots secret, and there’s a security guard working in the mall! WATCH OUT FOR: BURGERTRON! MAVERIX STREAMING NOW ON ABC IVIEW Six young motocross riders want to form a team and nab national titles! Scott, Jenny, Bear, Richie, Angelique, and Kaden are the first group accepted into a riding academy where they’ll have the chance to level up…

K-Z : Hi Nat and Mike! The main characters in We Run Tomorrow go on a big adventure. What was your biggest adventure as a kid? N: I tried to run away from home a bunch of times. I never got very far. We lived on a farm with a long driveway, and I kept getting attacked by magpies as I tried to leave. I used to sneak onto the neighbour’s farm too. Doing that meant sliding under an electric fence, dodging an angry bull, and getting to the back of the property where there was a swamp with lots of bugs and creepy crawlies to throw at my brother. M: I once unwittingly camped in a dry riverbed with some friends. It was pretty uneventful, until it started pouring…

LIGHT LUMINARY Name: Cohen Heroic feat: Winning the 2021 Origin Little Big Idea Years 5 & 6 category with his Biolume Tree idea! FAST FOUR WITH COHEN K-Z: Hi Cohen! Why did you enter the Origin Little Big Idea competition? C: My teacher introduced the competition. I just completed my Year 6 science fair project – I learned about bioluminescence and how creatures use it to protect, adapt, and communicate. I successfully cultivated natural bacteria, then introduced it to a green fluorescent protein, allowing it to glow under a UV light. I learned about global warming and its impact on our planet. My goal was to develop an idea that could make a difference. K-Z: Tell us about your Biolume Tree idea! C: Biolume is a dispenser strapped to a…

DOCTOR STRANGE Our favourite neurosurgeon-turned-sorcerer is on a mission to save the day – and all the days after that, because the multiverse is in danger! While jumping between dimensions and making new friends (or enemies), Doctor Strange will find he isn’t the only Stephen Strange looking for adventure and trouble in the big bad multiverse. There’s Defender Strange (who might be a hero), and a corrupted Strange. Listen for the shuffling feet of an undead variant too! WONG After the battle with Dormammu, Mordo left the group while Wong remained to care for the Sanctums. When Doctor Strange disappeared in the Blip, Wong became the Sorcerer Supreme. Since Avengers: Endgame, we’ve seen him fight Abomination in the Golden Daggers Club, analyse Shang-Chi’s Ten Rings with Captain Marvel and Bruce…

K-Z: Hi Ewan! We know where your character, Obi-Wan, ends up in the Star Wars universe. What do you hope fans learn about all of the characters and the world from this new series? E: I always thought there was a good story to be had between Episode III and Episode IV; between the last one I did, and then Alec Guinness in A New Hope. I think we did find a really good story to tell. I don’t know what I want the audience to take away or what they’ll learn – I’ve no idea. What I thought would be interesting is taking a character we know and love, and putting them into a dark place. At the end of Episode III, the Jedi are being wiped out, we…

COMIC COMP Neo Tokyo has been a hot spot for nailing neat netters for yonks in Rocket League, but now all of those determined and driven devs at Psyonix have honked out a cool, colourful comic version of the full-throttle field. Splice in some car hoon with a dash of cartoon in this animated riff on the map. Bring the kapow to each round, and a bit of zap and boom to your zoom! NEXT-LEVEL NOMAD Don’t worry – ponying up for the heroic horsepower of the latest and greatest Rocket Pass comes with an immediate perk... The gnarly Nomad body! This very versatile van is built on the mighty Merc car body. It’s much more than a van-ity project! All that extra height helps make it an awesome all-rounder,…

N: Mike is one of the most talented and creative people I’ve ever met. He is very funny, plus one of my best friends and favourite people. He brought so much to this book and these characters, I couldn’t have done it without him. Don’t tell him because he might get a big head. He also has a pool, which is my favourite thing. M: Nat is not only a creative genius, she’s also an extremely generous collaborator. Plus she’s one of my best friends.…

K-ZONER PRANK NICE NOTES Write notes with nice messages like ‘Have a great day!’ and ‘Your shirt rocks!’ Leave those notes in random letter boxes. The people who find them will be flattered, but also a bit confused. SKY SCAM Stand outside looking up at the sky, and make different faces. If anyone asks, say something odd like, ‘Someone just swung by up there in a red suit’, or ‘Something really big just crawled up that building…’ Eventually you will gather a big crowd of people looking up! ELBOW BLUFF Say to your pranking victim, ‘Did you know, three-quarters of the population can’t lick their elbows?’ After that, get set to giggle as they give it a go!…

1. ALADGYMA IS A TINY BEAN-SHAPED CELL FOUND IN THE BRAIN OF SHY PEOPLE. 2. AN INTROVERT IS A PERSON WHO LIKES SPENDING TIME ALONE AND PREFERS TO LISTEN RATHER THAN TALK. 3. FAMOUS SCIENTIST ALBERT EINSTEIN WOULD PRETEND TO BE SOMEONE ELSE WHEN RECOGNISED IN PUBLIC. 4. ACTRESS EMILY BLUNT (AKA DR. LILY HOUGHTON IN JUNGLE CRUISE) HAD A STUTTER, BUT ACTING IN THE SCHOOL PLAY HELPED HER GAIN CONFIDENCE. 5. ACETYLOCHOLINE IS A CHEMICAL IN THE BRAIN THAT IS RELEASED WHEN WE DO QUIET ACTIVITIES INVOLVING THE BRAIN, LIKE READING, WRITING, AND PAINTING. 6. SHINRIN-YOKU IS THE JAPANESE TERM FOR A CALMING BATH IN MUD. 7. IN THE 1800S, THE FIFTH DUKE OF PORTLAND (AN IMPORTANT ROLE) BUILT A MAZE UNDER HIS HOUSE, TO TRAVEL WITHOUT SEEING ANY…

Congrats to this month’s ScreenSpace artists! You have scored a Treasure X Minecraft Overworld Single Pack! We Want YOU! Have you made something AMAZING on your computer, console, tablet or phone? To be in ScreenSpace, visit www.kzone.com.au and click on ‘Be in K-Zone’! Go to ‘ScreenSpace’ to submit your epic gaming screenshot, coding creation and digital artwork. Remember K-Zoners, it’s all about protecting your identity. Be a safe gamer and don’t talk to anyone online who you don’t know for real.…

1 READY, SET... GO! Use a pencil to lightly sketch the shape of the speedy hedgehog. Start with a circular shape for Sonic’s heroic head. Add in the rounded crosshair to mark the centre of his face and eye line. Sketch triangles for the ears, and spiky fur. His body, feet and shoes are a bean shape, but his arms and legs are cylindrical, and his hands and fists are circles. 2 RACE TO THE FACE Draw his large eyes. Add scribbly fur lines between the eyes. Draw Sonic’s small pea-shaped nose and add his curved, smiling mouth beneath it. Add the lower portion of Sonic’s face, like in the example. 3 STREAMLINED Sketch in the blue blur’s triangle-shaped ears. Add the lines to the spiky fur behind his head,…

BAT STATS REAL NAME: Bruce Wayne HOMETOWN: Gotham City FIRST SEEN: Detective Comics #27, published in 1939. FRIENDS: Robin, Alfred, James Gordon, Superman, Wonder Woman, and more. ENEMIES: Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Bane, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, and more. SKILLS: Intelligence, sleuthing, martial arts and strategy. TOP TECH: The Batmobile, Batsuit, Bat-Grapple, Bat Computer, Bat Signal. WEAPONS: Batarang, Flamethrower, Bat-Darts, Bat-Bolas. COMIC CROSSOVERS BATMAN + THE HULK (1981) COMIC: Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk SPOILER: It’s a superhero showdown! Who wins? Batman – he uses brains to take down the Hulk! True story. BATMAN + SPIDER-MAN (1995) COMIC: Spider-Man and Batman: Disordered Minds SPOILER: The duo face their archenemies (Joker and Carnage) together! BATMAN + WOLVERINE (1996) COMIC: Legends of the Dark Claw #1 SPOILER: Batman and Wolverine merge into Dark Claw,…

Meet John Siemon, a horticultural scientist and Director of Horticulture for the Botanic Gardens, Greater Sydney. John loves plants and enjoys finding out what makes them tick! K-Z: Hi John! What do you work on as a horticultural scientist? J: Horticultural scientists study the growth and development of plants, including vegetables, fruit, and other crops. They help us understand why sunflowers face the sun, how we might grow plants in space, how we can grow more plants to feed the world’s expanding population, and how plants perceive gravity. Most of the plant-based foods you eat involve a horticultural scientist who studied plants to improve the taste or the yield (the volume of fruit, seeds or nuts produced), and perhaps the shelf life of a fruit. K-Z: Wow! What experience did…

SWIFT AND HAWK CYBERSPIES LOGAN MACX Swift and Hawk, teen experts in AI and robotics, are recruited to crack a code. Plunged into a dangerous mission, the pair must go from the hidden tunnels under the British Museum, to the docklands of Amsterdam. Their search for the mysterious ship Nightfall leaves them caught in a world of spies and sabotage. READ IT... UNDERCOVER YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE LOUD A QUIET KID’S GUIDE TO BEING HEARD BEN BROOKS ILLUSTRATED BY NIGEL BAINES Did you know more than half of adults are shy? There are many famous shy people from the past and present, and often they were quiet because they saw things differently to everyone else. In the end, that’s why they had so much to offer! Find how to…

Q When does Batman like to play chess? A When he can be the Dark Knight! Jason, NSW Knock knock!Who’s there?Theodore!Theodore who?Theodore wasn’topen, so I knocked! Peter, Tas Knock knock!Who’s there?Hatch!Hatch who?Bless you! Jamie, NT Q Why did the two A4s skip dinner? They already 8! Keith, Qld Q What did the big flower say to the little flower? A Hey bud! Cooper, SA Q Which hand do you think is better to write with? A Neither, it’s better to write with a pencil! Gale, NSW Q What do you get when you cross a shellfish with a rabbit? A The oyster bunny! Leopold, Vic Q Why did the A bicycle fall over? It was two tired! Lisa, Vic Q What does Batman put in his lemonade? A Just-ice! Yuta,…