Table of contents for 504 in The Week Junior

There’s a new video game based on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. If you could make a video game based on any book or film series, what would it be and why? See page 26. In Venezuela’s capital city, a dancing club is aiming to combat loneliness in the over 60s. What kind of club would you set up to help people who feel lonely? Read about how well it’s going on page 8. Sara and her classmates made a short film at their school and won an award. What would you make a film about? Sara explains what a film director does on page 11. The big debate Does it matter if music is made by AI? Page 10…

On 30 July, warnings sent out in several countries helped to protect millions of people and reduce damage caused by a tsunami (a long, high sea wave caused by an earthquake or other large disturbance) after a very powerful earthquake hit Russia. What happened? The earthquake struck off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East, a remote region that doesn’t have a large population. The quake had a magnitude of 8.8, which is classified as a “great” earthquake and can cause severe destruction and loss of life over a large area. There are fewer than three earthquakes of this magnitude each year, and it was one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded. It struck 30 miles below sea level and the shockwaves triggered tsunami waves…

French choreographer Yoann Bourgeois is bringing a performance called Passage to the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival in London on 6 September. A choreographer creates and arranges dance movements. In his work, Bourgeois plays with invisible forces like gravity. His show Touch had a man climbing stairs, falling and “magically” bouncing back up off a hidden trampoline. Passage features a dancer and a revolving, mirrored door. Bourgeois told The Guardian newspaper, “I really wanted to continue to be a child. I’ve searched for a life where I can continue to play; it drives my career even now.…

Also called black knapweed, this plant is found all over the UK in grassland areas between June and September. It pops up on roadside verges, farm land and meadows. It can be found in coastal areas such as clifftops, as well as people’s lawns and along woodland rides, which are open, grassy paths through woods. Common knapweed looks a bit like a thistle plant but isn’t prickly. It has a round brown flower head crowned with a bright pink-purple flower. This is actually a lot of florets (tiny flowers), surrounded by long, pink bracts (leaf-like structures). The leaves are a thin oblong shape with a pointed tip. Common knapweed’s nectar attracts butterflies and bees. Scientists have found it is one of Britain’s most important wildflowers for pollinating insects. After flowering,…

Eels in the South Downs The South Downs National Park is adding “eel lanes” to rivers to help European eels migrate. This fish species is spawned (from eggs) in the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean. After hatching they float on currents, thousands of miles to Europe. Some swim up English rivers and spend years maturing before returning to the Sargasso to spawn. In the Rother and Ems rivers in Sussex, England, experts have made paths for eels which help them swim around man-made barriers such as dams.…

The Online Safety Act has new rules that aim to make the internet safer for everyone. The rules were set out by Ofcom, which is an organisation that oversees TV, radio and the internet. Although the rules affect everyone, there is a strong focus on the wellbeing of children; and from 25 July, technology companies are legally required to protect children from harmful content on their websites and apps.A 2023 review by the children’s charity NSPCC found that many children in the UK had been exposed to “harmful content” online. This means anything that causes a person distress or harm. Companies such as Google, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube must now check the age of the person accessing their site or app and apply age limits. When people access sites with…

The exciting sports of javelin, long jump, pole vault, wheelchair racing and hurdles were just some of the events at the UK Athletics Championships. On 2 and 3 August, hundreds of athletes and para athletes from Great Britain and Northern Ireland competed – aiming to finish first and win a gold medal. A para athlete is an athlete with a disability or impairment. The tournament takes place each summer, and this year it was at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, England. Zharnel Hughes won two gold medals. His first success was in the men’s 100 metres race by finishing in 9.94 seconds. On the second day, Hughes took the men’s 200 metres title in a time of 19.90 seconds. It was the fastest time ever recorded in the event at…

A new exhibition shows visitors that, when it comes A to prehistoric animals, dinosaurs aren’t the only stars. GIANTS, at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, features reconstructions of incredible creatures from Earth’s past. There are nine animals in total: three almost-complete skeletons and six life-size models that contain bones. They all lived after dinosaurs went extinct. Katie Morton is the exhibitions manager at Birmingham Museums, an organisation that runs museums across Birmingham. She tells The Week Junior, “I certainly haven’t seen anything quite like it before… you normally seem to get a model, or you get the bones, but not so often combined.” There are some well-known giants on display, such as a woolly mammoth and a sabre-toothed cat, but some less familiar ones too, including a huge snake that…

by Huw Aaron (Puffin Books) Stories about fairies have been told all around the world since ancient times. However, the fairies you may have met in books before – like Peter Pan’s Tinker Bell or Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother – are a bit different to the crazy creatures in this new graphic novel. Far from being sweet, sparkly and magical, these fairies are sneaky, violent, and about as magical as a slug! The unlikely hero of this wild and wacky tale is “little lost fairy” Pip, whom we follow on an adventure among the warring “unfairy” tribes of The Garden. You’ll discover weird insects, miniature battles and thrilling centipede chases. It also busts some fairy myths about flying, fairy dust and granting wishes. The first book in a splendidly silly new…

The summer holidays are a great opportunity to try something new or find out more about a subject you’re interested in. The books on our shortlist for The Week Junior Book Awards’ Hobbies and Interests category are designed to inspire. Whether you like cooking or dogs, painting or sport, these books open up a fascinating world of facts to find out and activities to try. 100 Things to Know About Sport by Alice James, Jerome Martin, Tom Mumbray and Micaela Tapsell (Usborne) How swimmers eat in the sea and how blind people tell gold and silver medals apart, plus more amazing sporty facts. The Life-Changing Magic of Skateboarding by Sky Brown. Illustrated by Shaw Davidson (Magic Cat Publishing) Olympic medallist Sky Brown says anyone can learn to skateboard and she…

Dancing to honour a singer A crowd of people in red dresses danced through the rain in Folkestone, England, for an annual tribute to the singer Kate Bush. They recreated Bush’s video for the hit song Wuthering Heights, with two performances on 20 July. The event was inspired by a 2013 performance in Brighton by a dance troupe called Shambush! Since then “The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever” has become popular around the world, with similar gatherings in places such as Edinburgh, Canada and Australia. “Squirrel cars” help guide dogs The Guide Dogs charity has found a new way to train assistance dogs to ignore squirrels: attaching toy squirrels to remote-controlled cars. Dogs usually love chasing squirrels, which is a problem for guide dogs, which need to be calm and…

This week’s cover is about a topic that will affect all of us – the Online Safety Act. One part of this is that social media platforms, apps and websites intended for adults or older children will have to carry out better age checks. Now there are technologies that can help make sure a user is telling the truth – you can find out more on page 16. Meanwhile, on page 14, we reveal your responses to our survey in July when we asked about your dream job. The answers were funny, eye-opening and inspiring. Three-quarters of you said you already know what job you’d like to do. I’m impressed! For years I didn’t know what I wanted to do. My mum was an editor and she told me about…

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) in Hawaii, US, helps save people’s lives when a tsunami hits. It was set up in 1949 to provide warnings to people in coastal areas of Hawaii. This was expanded to the Pacific Ocean in 1965, the Indian Ocean in 2005 and the Caribbean Sea in 2006. When an earthquake happens, scientists at PTWC measure how strong it is and work out if it could cause a tsunami. They can predict when the tsunami will arrive at coastlines and then send out warnings to the public so they have as much time as possible to get to higher ground.…

REDUCING PLASTIC USE London Luton Airport has a new scheme for pool inflatables. It asks people coming back from holiday to donate items they no longer need so that others can use them. The idea is to encourage people to reuse inflatable items and cut plastic consumption. BAKING A SHREK CAKE Baker Lara Mason from Walsall, England, made a life-sized cake of Shrek, which she then cut up and donated to local food banks. The Shrek cake, which was 1.98 metres tall, took 40 hours to make. Mason had to stand on a ladder to decorate the cake. A POORLY PENGUIN A northern rockhopper penguin chick named Poly has made a full recovery after her eye had to be taken out during surgery to save her life. Although Poly was…

On 30 July, Professor Michele Dougherty became the first female Astronomer Royal in the post’s 350-year history. This is the King’s official adviser on astronomy (the study of space). Dougherty became interested in astronomy as a child, looking at Jupiter and Saturn through her father’s telescope. Her research has helped to discover that one of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus, might support life. Dougherty hopes to “open people’s eyes” to the wonders of space.…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already used for all sorts of things, including powering online search engines, diagnosing diseases and doing lots of other tricky jobs. It can help our lives in many ways but people also have concerns about it. Recently, a band called The Velvet Sundown was revealed to have been created using AI. They have more than one million monthly listeners on Spotify but it wasn’t just the music that was AI-generated – images of the band members and information about who they are were also said to be made up. To begin with, the public didn’t know this and when they found out, some people felt that The Velvet Sundown’s songs should have been labelled more clearly. What do you think – does it matter if music…

Grab your camera because our sister magazine The WeekJunior Science+Nature has launched its summer Scavenger Hunt Photo Contest. It invites you to explore the outdoors and capture its beauty on camera. This year’s theme is “Focus on Nature” and the challenge is encouraging everyone to disconnect from technology and reconnect with the natural world. To take part, you need to find the 10 natural treasures from the checklist, take as many photos as you like of them, and ask an adult to upload your best one to the competition website. Whether you’re visiting your local park or travelling abroad, anyone, anywhere, can participate. There are plenty of ways to connect with nature when you’re out exploring this summer, such as sniffing the salty tang of the sea, learning to identify…

Gorillas in the Congo The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is selling off 52 oil blocks (areas where companies can dig for oil) which contain wild forests and habitats that are home to endangered lowland gorillas. Experts are calling it “the world’s worst place” to look for oil. The plans threaten other rare wildlife too, like bonobos and forest elephants, and around 39 million people who rely on the forests and rivers. Cutting down trees could also accelerate climate change.…

Aluminium metal cans may be the solution to recycling more packaging from foods and household products. A company called Meadow has designed a series of containers for products ranging from tomato ketchup to shampoo. The aluminiumcontainers fit into a canister. Once the container is empty, it can be taken out and recycled, and a new one is fitted into the canister. With 81% of aluminium products being recycled compared to just 52% of plastics, aluminium is better for the environment. Enjoy these stories? Find more in this month’s The Week Junior Science+Nature magazine sciencenature.theweekjunior.co.uk…

Miyu Yamashita Japan’s Yamashita finished first at the Women’s Open golf event in Wales. England’s Charley Hull was joint second. Beth Shriever The 26-year-old won her third world title with victory at the 2025 BMX Racing World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot On 3 August, the cyclist won the Tour de France Femmes. She is the first French woman to win it in 36 years. Matt Richards, James Guy, Jack McMillan and Duncan Scott At the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, the four British swimmers won gold in the men’s 4x200 metres freestyle relay.…

Livyatan melvillei Livyatan had enormous teeth and jaws, like an orca. However, it was actually an ancient cousin of the sperm whale. It’s likely that its preferred food was baleen whales, which contained lots of fat. Megatherium americanum One of the largest species of giant sloth, Megatherium is thought to have walked on four legs and on the outside of its feet, like an anteater. Its short tail would have helped it stand on its back legs in order to eat. Mammuthus primigenius The woolly mammoth walked huge distances to find food and water. Its teeth were made of hard plates glued together by a natural cement. This created a large chewing area for munching tough grasses.…

What made you decide to become a cartoonist? I tried doing proper jobs but wasn’t much good – so I tried selling my cartoony drawings to a magazine. Amazingly, they bought some and it became my career. Tell us a joke that has made you laugh recently. I’m useless at remembering jokes. However, I did recently see a really big man driving a really small car, which for some reason made me laugh out loud. Are you anything like the main character in Unfairies? Pip is chaotic, impulsive and basically a disaster waiting to happen. You’d have to ask my family if that’s like me! Do you have a favourite magical creature? As a proud Welshman, it has to be the red dragon. Will we get another Unfairies adventure? I’m…

There have been a lot of games based on the Lordof the Rings books and films over the years, but most have been aimed at older gamers. That’s different for Tales of the Shire, which is less about violent battles and more about relaxing in the countryside. Released for Switch, PlayStation and Xbox consoles, as well as PCs, it’s a “cosy” life-simulation game: like Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley, except that it’s furry-footed hobbits doing the exploring, cooking and home-decorating. You don’t play the game as a famous hobbit like Frodo or Bilbo Baggins though. Instead, you start by creating your own character, who then moves into a new home in a hobbit village called Bywater. If you’ve read the books or watched the films, you’ll know how much hobbits…

Wordsearch Can you find the body parts listed? They are hidden horizontally, vertically or diagonally and may read forwards or backwards. ANKLE BRAIN CHEEK CHEST ELBOWS FINGERS FOREHEAD HEART KNEES MOUTH NECK NOSE SHIN SKULL SPINE STOMACH THIGH TOES TORSO WAIST Split words Piece together the pairs or groups of letters to find four instruments. 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 174 426 4 numbers 2831 5402 6456 5 numbers 36046 36167 36411 52661 77222 6 numbers 135358 285112 426083 466243 7 numbers 2221523 4882135 8533234 8 numbers 21748565 32872383 38384168 61725786 9 numbers 178643506 245583682 513532083 Sudoku Place the numbers from 1 to 6 exactly once in each row,…

Brian Black Memorial Award 2025 Yachting Monthly magazine has launched a photography competition in honour of Brian Black, an adventurer and journalist who loved telling people about nature. The theme this year is Our Changing Seas, and the idea is that if you spot something at or near the seaside that is surprising, beautiful or not what you’d expect, take your best photo of it and submit it – with some words of description – by the deadline of 31 August. Anyone aged 14 and under can enter. The winner will win a camera starter kit from Canon, and have their entry published in Yachting Monthly and The Week Junior. Three runners-up will also have their entries published in Yachting Monthly. Ask an adult to help you find out more…

1 How many earthquakes are there in the world each day, on average? ☐ a) 55 ☐ b) 66 ☐ c) 77 2 True or false? The last named storm in the UK before Floris was Edward. ☐ True ☐ False 3 Which country recently held a campaign to plant 700 million trees in one day? 4 Around how many AI tracks are uploaded to the music streaming platform Deezer every day? ☐ a) 200 ☐ b) 2,000 ☐ c) 20,000 5 True or false? Glasgow is hosting next year’s Commonwealth Games. ☐ True ☐ False 6 How many species of honeycreeper are there left in Hawaii? 7 How big is a Shark Bay bandicoot? ☐ a) Up to 20 centimetres ☐ b) Up to 40 centimetres ☐ c) Up…

On 3 August, the Red Cross, an international humanitarian charity and organisation that helps people in crisis, asked for permission to help Israeli hostages (prisoners) being held in Gaza. Gaza is a strip of land that borders Israel and Egypt and is home to around two million Palestinian people. Hamas, which governs Gaza and is classified as a terrorist group by the UK, attacked Israel on 7 October 2023. Around 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages were taken to Gaza. This made a long-running conflict between Israel and Gaza much worse. Israel responded by attacking Gaza, and Hamas says more than 60,000 people have been killed since then. There are 22 hostages thought to be alive and still being held in Gaza. The International Committee of the Red Cross…

On 4 August, Storm Floris brought strong winds and heavy rain to large parts of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the north of England. The bad weather disrupted power supplies, travel plans and sporting events. What is Storm Floris? Storm Floris was the sixth named storm of the 2024/2025 storm season. The Met Office (the UK’s weather service) names storms to raise public awareness around severe weather events. The last named storm in the UK was Éowyn in January. Storm Floris brought strong winds and rain to parts of the UK. A gust of wind blowing at 134 miles per hour was recorded at the top of Cairn Gorm, a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. Before the storm hit, the Met Office sent out amber warnings across most of Scotland…

This year was the first Children’s International Film Festival, an event that celebrated films made by young people. There were six awards and Homestart – made by Latchmere School, in Kingston, London – won the prize for Best Performance. The short film is about a struggling family who are helped by a charity called Home-Start.Sara was one of the directors of the film. A director is in charge of how a film is made and how it tells a story. Sara told The Week Junior that she had to choose the backgrounds for certain scenes, look at costumes and sort out the different characters. Making the film took between four and five weeks. During the recent film festival ceremony in London, Sara collected the award for her school. She said…

This summer, scientists began dropping containers of mosquitos over Maui and Kaua’i, two islands in Hawaii, US. The aim is to save the islands’ honeycreeper birds (see panel) from extinction. The birds are threatened by a disease carried by mosquitos but the new arrivals should help to stop this.Mosquitos are not native to Hawaii but they came on visiting ships in the 19th century. They now carry diseases such as avian malaria, which can kill birds. In fact, just one bite from an infected mosquito can kill a honeycreeper. In the past, Hawaii’s birds escaped mosquitos by flying higher into the mountains, where the temperatures were too chilly for small insects. However, climate change means mountain areas are warming – and birds’ safe zones are shrinking. Hawaii once had more…

The number of Shark Bay bandicoots – the tiniest species of this type of marsupial (animals that carry their babies in a pouch) – is rising. In 2023, 66 were released into the Pilliga State Conservation Area in New South Wales and they are now thriving. • LIFESPAN: Four years or more. • HABITAT: Areas with low-lying shrubs or mounds of grass. • SIZE: Their bodies can be up to 20 centimetres long. • DIET: Small animals and plants. • FUN FACT: Females’ pouches face backwards, to stop soil from entering while they dig with their front paws.…

We’re always interested in our readers and we love asking you questions. This time, we wanted to know about your future career and how you feel about it. Thank you to everyone who took part in our survey – more than 550 of you. Most of you are in the UK, but we also had responses from readers in Bermuda, China, France, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, the Netherlands, Singapore and the US. Three-quarters of you knew what job you’d like to do – although that changed in the different age groups. Younger readers had a fixed ambition – but by the age of 14, 44% of readers weren’t sure.Your responses are very useful because they help us to decide what to cover in the magazine and podcast. A whopping…

An artificial intelligence (AI) model can predict the direction of football penalty kicks more accurately than human goalkeepers, according to new research. AI is a computer system that can learn from experience and perform tasks that usually require human intelligence.Scientists at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in Spain, analysed more than 1,000 penalty kicks from televised matches. They chose 640 high-quality video clips, ignoring any that were too brief or unclear. The researchers then fed these clips to 22 different AI learning models. These then had to guess whether the ball would go left, right, or down the middle, based on the video footage and whether the player was right or left-footed. The best AI model correctly predicted the direction 52% of the time. Real human goalkeepers…

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.…

exciting but the prospect of new classrooms, teachers and friends can also make you feel a bit nervous. However, a bit of preparation can help you to stroll into secondary school with confidence. It’s normal to feel nervous Moving to a new secondary school is a big change, and any kind of change can make you feel a bit anxious or uncertain. “The unknown can be scary. You were the bosses on the benches, the biggest kids in a school which you knew inside out, and now you’re starting again as the smallest in a whole new place,” says teacher, rapper and author of Moving Up, Christian Foley. “It’s normal to be uncertain when doing new things,” he says, “but don’t worry, you’ll find your way.” Get prepped There are…

Pandora in Puzzlevale: The Secret Town by Paul Duffield, Siobhan McKenna and Poqu (David Fickling Books) In this interactive book, Pandora must solve a series of riddles and puzzles to find her missing parents, helped by Detective Crow. Follow the clues to navigate the mysterious town of Puzzlevale and uncover a story along the way. Hooky by Míriam Bonastre Tur (HarperCollins Children’s Books) Twins Dani and Dorian have missed the bus to magic school and now they’re mixed up in all kinds of trouble. Can they find someone to teach them before their parents find out – and help fix their kingdom’s problems at the same time? Based on a popular web comic, this is the first book in a fun and colourful magical adventure series. Lightfall: The Girl and the…

Name: Ada Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan “Unbelievable, mythical and utterly wonderful. All about death and Norse gods. The more you read it the better it is.” 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. Junior 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.*…

Pressing flowers is a technique that allows you to flatten and dry them so they can be preserved. Flowers are everywhere during the summer months so it’s a great time to try this. You can turn your pressed flowers into beautiful art or use them as a way to record your observations of nature. The idea is that squashing flowers between sheets of paper removes the moisture quickly. This kills off tiny organisms like bacteria and fungi, which can make flowers break down and lose their colour. Properly pressed flowers can last for a very long time. The Natural History Museum in London has books of pressed plants collected by scientists to record and study them that date back to the 17th century. All you need to press flowers is…

Teacher’s name: Mrs Burroughs School: Ingatestone and Fryerning CE Junior School, Essex, England “Mrs Burroughs is an absolutely fantastic teacher. She is very kind and caring. She’s not just an incredible teacher, she also helps me stay safe every day. I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes last year, and Mrs Burroughs helps me every day with carb counting and my injections. Thank you, Mrs Burroughs, for everything you do.” Emily 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 WEEK “How does Darth Vader prefer his toast? On the dark side.” Luca…

“This is me buried in The Week Junior issues that I collected. I love reading them but now my bed is overflowing.”Isaac “Nothing better than relaxing in nature reading my favourite magazine.”Noah “On a Brownies trip I did beekeeping and I learned a new fact: when bees think they are being threatened they make a banana smell to warn other bees. I got to hold some bees and they were adorable! We even saw a bee hatch.”Renu “I tried reading The Week Junior on a swing because they are two of my favourite things to do. I enjoyed it so much.”Amber 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…