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Some aid trucks have entered Gaza, bringing food, water and medical supplies, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues. Charities say that Gaza’s 2.2 million people need far more aid than this and have called for a ceasefire (when fighting stops). What happened in Gaza and Israel? A long-running conflict between Israel and Hamas recently became much worse. Hamas (a group classed by the UK Government as a terrorist organisation) controls Gaza, a strip of land between Israel and Egypt that is home to Palestinian people. On 7 October, Hamas attacked Israel with rockets (bombs) and armed men, killing 1,400 people and taking many people back to Gaza as hostages (prisoners). Israel then attacked Gaza with rockets and planes, and blockaded it (stopped food, fuel, medicine and water getting…

If you are lucky enough to have travelled to Italy, you will have seen that pizza and pasta are both an important part of people’s diet there. Whether gluten-free or regular, a plate of steaming hot, rich and tasty spaghetti bolognese and fresh pizza topped with hot cheese are both loved by millions in the UK. In fact, pizza and pasta are enjoyed across the world. Many people claim that pizza, with its simple base and wide variety of toppings, is the perfect food. It is easy to make, relatively cheap and perfect for sharing with family and friends around the same table. Others say that pasta – in all its shapes and flavours – can be used in so many dishes that it deserves to be the champ. What…

During the Covid-19 lockdown, Joshua Blackburn invented a quiz game, League of the Lexicon. He was at home with his two sons, aged seven and nine, and Blackburn found helping them with their English homework “really dull”. However, he has always been fascinated by words and how they work. “It’s an infinitely interesting subject,” he tells The Week Junior, “From how alphabets were created to the history of slang.” So he decided to think of a way to liven up his sons’ comprehension exercises. The idea was for an “Indiana Jones of the word world”, says Blackburn. He wanted to create a band of “lexicographers” (people who write dictionaries) on a mission to find rare words. The quiz game’s questions are all about words and language, and Blackburn says he…

Many creatures have inventive ways of avoiding predators. Decorator crabs conceal themselves in coral and Arctic hares turn white to blend in with their snowy habitat. However, a new study has discovered that Wallace’s flying frogs have a particularly off-putting disguise – these small frogs from Southeast Asia seem to be pretending they are poo. When they are young, Wallace’s flying frogs have reddish-brown bodies covered in small white dots. Experts think they are deliberately disguising themselves as animal poo so nothing will want to eat them. Researchers tested their theory at Schoenbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria. They created different coloured wax frog models, which they placed around the zoo’s rainforest house. Birds inside the rainforest house often use colour vision to detect frogs to eat. The team found that…

Hidden rooms have been detected in one of Egypt’s pyramids, using a special scanning technique that can “see” through solid rock. The pyramids were burial places for pharaohs (the rulers of ancient Egypt). They often contained lots of treasures because it was thought that a pharaoh’s spirit would live on and they could take their possessions with them into the afterlife. The hidden rooms are inside the Pyramid of Sahure. Sahure was a pharaoh who ruled around 4,400 years ago. Nearly 200 years ago, an expert on ancient Egypt called John Shae Perring explored the pyramid, and he suspected that there were hidden rooms there. He found a passage blocked with fallen rocks, and had a feeling there was more to be discovered behind. Thanks to a modern technique called…

Can you imagine having a teacher who is also a European weightlifting champion? Lucky reception children at Talbot Primary School in Poole, England, have just that. Their teacher, Hannah Lewis, has only been competing in the sport since last year but she has already become a big success. At the European Masters Championships earlier this year, Lewis won a gold medal. “I was aiming for a medal but I didn’t expect it to be gold,” she tells The Week Junior. “It was my first international competition and only my third weightlifting competition in total.” There are two techniques in weightlifting, one called “snatch” and another called “clean and jerk”. In snatch, the bar must be lifted from the floor to above the head in one movement. In clean and jerk,…

A new TV show with a with a creepy twist has been released by CBBC in time for Halloween. In Spooky Files a group of four children team up to investigate strange creatures – nicknamed Spookies – that have begun to appear in Sunny Valley, a small, made-up town in Australia. They base themselves at a local bowling alley while doing their detective work. Guy Edmonds plays John, one of the people who own the bowling alley. He told The Week Junior that Spooky Files is “funny, spooky, and packed full of adventure”. The show uses its characters to show viewers that being afraid sometimes is perfectly natural. “Embracing and accepting your fears is a big part of life and growing up,” said Edmonds, who also directs some of the…

(Particular Books) Travel back in time to delve into the fascinating long-ago world of the Aztecs in this immersive history book. Author and podcaster Dominic Sandbrook brings to life one of the greatest civilisations in the world. He conjures up vast cities, soaring pyramids, glittering treasures and a great leader, the all-powerful Emperor Montezuma, who is said to speak with the voice of the gods. Our story begins in November 1519, with the arrival of a band of Spanish explorers, seeking their fortunes – but what will the appearance of these strangers mean for Montezuma and his people? Drawing in intriguing real-life characters, adventures and events, this is a brilliant book, packed with rich details, that will take you away to another world. By showing different sides of the same…

When he was a teenager, author Gabriel Dylan moved to Cornwall in the south of England. He tells The Week Junior, “I loved those sleepy little towns by the sea that felt forgotten, with closed down cinemas, rusty piers, abandoned fairgrounds, and a sense that nothing ever happens.” This was part of the inspiration behind Shiver Point, his spine-tingling new book. The story is set in the town of Shiver Point, where there’s never anything fun to do. Until, that is, a meteorite plummets into Howlmoor Forest, setting off a series of spooky events. When the main character, Alex, spots the unusual occurrence and tries to investigate, he meets a group of other kids with the same questions as him. The five of them must work together to save the…

Travis Gienger has channelled the spooky spirit more than most by growing a record-breaking pumpkin in time for Halloween. The mammoth vegetable was revealed at a competition in the US state of California, and came in at a whopping 1,247 kilograms. That’s heavier than many cars and would provide enough filling for several hundred delicious pumpkin pies. “I was not expecting that,” said Gienger after breaking the world record. “It was quite the feeling.”…

Teacher’s name: Miss Quillogitti School: St Catherine’s RC Primary School, Didsbury, Manchester “Miss Quillogitti is very fun and has organised a lot of events in her first year as our headteacher. We are very grateful to have her.”Amelie and Benjamin 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…

1 What does “The Finest Flower of the Mangroves” photograph focus on? □ a) A tree □ b) A flower □ c) A tiger 2 True or false? The Junior Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Italy. □ True □ False 3 Dutch art detective Arthur Brand has been likened to which film hero? __________________________ 4 The modern style of pizza was invented in which Italian city? □ a) Rome □ b) Naples □ c) Milan 5 True or false? A lexicographer is someone who writes dictionaries. □ True □ False 6 What kind of frog disguises itself as a poo when it is young? __________________________ 7 What are we asking you to design for our Christmas issue? □ a) A poster □ b) A badge □ c) The…

A 13-year-old boy has spoken to Reuters news agency about life in Gaza during the war between Hamas and Israel. Omran Abu Assi, who moved to Gaza from the UK a year ago, spoke from the city of Khan Younis. He said, “The kids are playing in the park, with the bombs going off, there’s planes above that could bomb at any moment. It’s unsafe. It’s not the kids’ fault that this war happened. It’s not fair that this is happening, it shouldn’t be happening. The war really has affected Gaza in a horrible way. Homes have been destroyed, there’s people sleeping on the streets, you can see rubble nearly everywhere”.…

CARING NHS WORKERS After spending months in a Glasgow hospital, Campbell McDonald decided to thank all of the NHS staff who cared for him. A keen carpenter, McDonald made 50 personal wooden gifts, including a guitar stand. He said, “They were all so important to my recovery.” AN ADVENTUROUS SNAKE On 2 October, a corn snake was safely reunited with its owner in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, after spending a year on the run. Emett the snake was found and handed in to the SPCA (an animal charity). The snake was a baby when it escaped. Since getting home, Emett has enjoyed a nice bath and a good meal. CELEBRATING A SWEET CHESTNUT In Wrexham, Wales, a 484-year-old tree has been crowned Tree of the Year 2023. This year’s competition, organised…

• Some people believe that the Italian explorer Marco Polo brought pasta to Italy from China in the 13th century. Others say there is evidence of it in Italy even before Roman times.• Modern pizza is said to have been born in the city of Naples in the late 18th century. The Neapolitan pizza (from Naples) has a thin crispy base and a fluffy crust. Sicilian pizza has a thick base, fluffy crust and different cheese.• There are around 350 different types of pasta, from orecchiette (meaning little ears) to conchiglie (meaning shells). In Italy, each is used for a particular dish.…

A Barbary macaque has been born in Wild Ireland Park, Donegal, Ireland. The park said that the birth was “of international importance in the fight against extinction”. • LIFESPAN IN THE WILD: 22 years.• HABITAT: Algeria and Morocco in North Africa, and Gibraltar in Europe.• SIZE: About 60 centimetres long. Adult males weigh about 16 kilograms.• DIET: Caterpillars, frogs, fruit, insects, leaves and roots.• FUN FACT: The monkeys store their food in cheek pouches that are nearly as big as their stomachs.…

Marc Guiu The 17-year-old Spanish footballer scored the winning goal just 33 seconds after coming on as a substitute in his first game for Barcelona. Mia Brookes The 16-year-old British snowboarder won a bronze medal at the Big Air World Cup in Switzerland. Las Vegas Aces In the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Finals in the US, Las Vegas Aces became champions by beating New York Liberty. Grace Harris The Australian cricketer scored a record 136 as her team, Brisbane Heat, beat Perth Scorchers in the Women’s Big Bash League.…

Would you travel back in time to visit the Aztecs? Absolutely! I’d love to go for the Feast of the Flaying of Men which sounds like a tremendous laugh. Will you be celebrating the Day of the Dead on 2 November? If so, how? I will dress in the flayed skin of a rival historian and go around terrorising my neighbours. Have you ever visited Mexico? I went this year to Mexico City, Puebla and Oaxaca. It’s a wonderful country and the people are so warm and friendly. What motivates you to keep writing? I love exploring other times and places and it’s such a privilege to be able to share my enthusiasm for history. Most fascinating fact you learned through this book? Although the Aztecs had tiny wheels on…

It may not be the most famous celebration of the year, but 31 October is World Cities Day. It’s an event created by the United Nations (UN) that gets people to talk about how to improve our cities – including making them as kind to the planet as possible. The UN is an organisation of 193 countries that work together on challenges that face humanity. Could you design the perfect city? City-building games have been popular since 1989, when a game called SimCity – made by the same company that would later make The Sims games – first came out. The most recent SimCity game is SimCity Buildit on mobile phones. Although it came out in 2014, it is still being updated for Apple and Android devices. You are the…

Hundreds of politicians gathered at Disneyland Paris for a meeting about the future of tourism in Europe. The group, made up of top decision-makers for the European Union (a collection of 27 countries that work and trade together), felt the French theme park was the perfect place to discuss giving out money to boost the tourism industry. They were keen to stress that neither Mickey Mouse nor Donald Duck took part in the meetings. Is this true, or pure fantasy?* *Rubbish! They were actually on a train on their way to a meeting at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. Thanks to a mistake with the signalling on the line, they ended up at the station for Disneyland.…

Research shows that giving choice to readers helps to inspire a lifelong love of reading, and Farshore is giving readers the ultimate decision-making power. Children can vote on which three themes they would like to see in the fifth Pick a Story adventure book. Do you want to see wizards? Minibeasts? Pyramids? All entrants can nominate their primary school when voting, to be in with a chance of winning a bookcase (supplied by Peters) filled with 100 books chosen by their school. The closing date is 31 October. To find out more and how to vote, have a look at tinyurl.com/pick-a-story…

Now that you’ve read a bit more about it, tell us what you think by voting in our poll at theweekjunior.co.uk/polls. Vote YES if you think pizza is better than pasta, or NO if you don’t. We’ll publish the results next week. The aim of the Big debate page is to present two sides of an issue fairly and objectively, in order to stimulate discussion and allow our readers to make up their minds. The views on the page do not reflect those of The Week Junior, and the page is not funded by third parties. The page is created in association with the English-Speaking Union, an educational charity helping young people discover their voice and realise their full potential. For more information, please see esu.org…

Slugs are active in gardens all year round but you are most likely to see them after rain or when it’s dark. During October, the population of large red slugs reaches its autumn peak. This species lives all around the UK but is less common in Scotland. It can grow up to 14 centimetres long. The colouring on the slug’s main body actually varies from grey and brown to orange and red. However, around the bottom of its body, the bit known as the “foot”, there is always a bright stripe in a Halloween-style orange or red. This also has vertical stripes on it. Like all slugs, this species is covered in a slimy layer of mucus to stop it from drying out. The slime also protects slugs from predators…

Are you feeling creative? We need your help! We want YOU to design the cover for our Christmas issue. It doesn’t have to be Christmassy – it could be a winter theme, maybe snowmen, a cute robin or polar bears. To help us choose the winning entry, we’ve asked the brilliant author and illustrator Rob Biddulph to join the judges. Rob won Children’s Book Cover of the Year at The Week Junior Book Awards this year for Peanut Jones and the Twelve Portals. All of us are very excited to see what you come up with. The prize The winner will have their design featured on the Christmas issue of The Week Junior and receive a framed print of their artwork. What to do You’ll find the template for your…

Researchers at the University of Ulster have been studying how the coastline of Northern Ireland has changed over the last 200 years. They discovered that in some places the land area has increased and in others the coastline has been eroded (worn away by natural causes such as the pounding of the sea). The project took each 25-metre section of the coastline, studying aerial photographs and maps dating back to 1830 and up to today. They also took measurements using LiDAR, technology that uses lasers (powerful beams of light), to work out the exact shape of objects. Professor Derek Jackson, who led the team, called the work “a huge technical challenge.” After putting together all their observations, Professor Jackson’s team found that the land had increased and the shoreline had…

Making a difference to other people doesn’t only do good for them – you can benefit too. What is Make a Difference Day? It’s a day to celebrate making a positive difference and it began in the US in the 1990s. It takes place on the fourth Saturday in October and this year it falls on 28 October. The idea behind it is to encourage people to do something helpful in their local community. It doesn’t need to be something big or that takes up a lot of time or costs any money. It’s simply doing something to help make someone else’s life a bit better. How you can make a difference? There are lots of ways you can make a difference to people close to you and those you…

The Minecraft Ideas Book (DK Children) Spark your imagination with more than 70 amazing build ideas for Minecraft. You will find inspiration for constructing all sorts of things, including the famous ship Titanic, the Great Barrier Reef and the International Space Station – plus tips, tricks and hacks from expert builders, along with lots of fascinating facts. Pokémon Super Duper Extra Deluxe Essential Handbook (Scholastic) The updated edition of this bestselling handbook is packed with all the essential stats and facts that the best Pokémon trainers need. Containing information about more than 900 different Pokémon characters, it’s an incredibly useful and informative guide for anyone who wants to catch ’em all. Level Up 2024 (Scholastic) This annual video game guide is full of information about the biggest games of the…

Email your book review to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk. If it’s printed in the magazine you’ll receive a Roving Reporter badge. Describe the book in three words, what you liked about it and why you’d 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 found at futureplc.com/privacy-policy…

This Halloween, craft a spooky dancing skeleton out of straws and string. You can make your bony figure bop like a puppet or simply dangle it from your door as a creepy decoration. What you need • Paper drinking straws• Scissors• A ruler• Glue• Two pencils• Card• Pens or paint• String• Sticky tape TOP TIPS • It’s easier to glue the straws if you slightly flatten each piece before applying the glue. • You may need a double or triple knot between “bones”, or you can thread a bead instead. 1 To make the body, cut a 12-centimetre bit of straw. Glue a 7cm straw across it near the top, a 5cm bit across it near the bottom and two shorter bits under this. 2 Cut four pieces of straw…

We are getting ready for Halloween – as you might have guessed from the cover this week. We’ve got lots of ways to get you in the mood for some fabulous frights, too. You could snuggle up and watch the exciting new TV series Spooky Files or have a family film night with some creepy movies (page 20). Maybe settle down with some scary stories (page 23) or craft some brilliantly bony skeletons and turn your bedroom into a Halloween lair (page 25). Are you planning to carve a pumpkin? The EatYourPumpkin campaign suggests ideas that are better for the planet than cutting up a pumpkin and throwing it away afterwards. Author and illustrator Rob Biddulph has joined the campaign this year, with a special video, which you can find…

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 page. We will only use the details you provide to arrange delivery of badges, and we will not share them with anyone else. By submitting your reports and pictures, you give consent to The Week Junior to print them in the magazine and digital editions. We reserve the right to edit contributions for length, accuracy and suitability. Ensure you have your parent/guardian’s permission before sending anything to us.…

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. Last week we asked if schools should offer community service… “I think it should be an optional thing like the Duke of Edinburgh. Some kids want to do it and others don’t!” “Yes, it would teach children the value of helping others.” “Kids are already so busy that it’s not fair to make them do more.” “Yes, for example if people pick up rubbish it will be good for the environment.” Tell us what you think of this week’s issue and we’ll print some of the best comments here.…