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Chipmunk Chat

Actor and singer Jesse McCartney knows how to
hit the high notes. In Alvin and the Chipmunks:
The Squeakquel, he’s back as Theodore, the shy, cuddly member of the high-pitched troublemaking trio. McCartney recently spoke with student reporter Arin Soileau about his new movie, which comes out December 25.

Arin Soileau: What do you like about the character Theodore?
Jesse McCartney: I grew up watching [the show] Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was one of my favorite cartoons, and Theodore ... was actually my favorite chipmunk. He’s a very loveable chipmunk. He’s easy to like, [and] he’s very friendly.

AS: Did you originally try out for the role of Theodore?
JM: Yeah. I went into the recording studio, and I had a microphone in front of me, and a little bit of instruction. It can be challenging at times to get [my] voice sounding just like Theodore’s. But after ... a few weeks of practice, I finally got it. They called, and [said] we’d love for you to play the role.

AS: How long did the movie take to make?
JM: Compared to the rest of the team, and the rest of the people working on the movie, I actually have a relatively small job. It takes ... about six to eight weeks to record all the voices, but it takes the animators up to two years to animate all of the cartoons. [There are] over 370 animators working to bring the movie to life.

AS: How did you create the voice of Theodore?
JM: My voice is relatively low, and Theodore has the highest voice of the three chipmunks,
so I have to talk, like, really high. … I know it sounds funny. And I have to talk very slowly,
but with the same intensity of a normal conversation. … They run [the recording] through a couple different processes where it speeds up the voice and still maintains its clarity.

AS: What do you like to do when you are not acting or singing?
JM: I love to cook. … Now [that] I live by myself, I have to learn how to feed myself. I [also] love classic cars.

AS: What advice do you have for kids who are interested in a career in movies or music?
JM: It is one of those things that just doesn’t happen overnight. You have to put a lot of time into it. … One of the greatest things someone told me is that when you’re prepared, and the opportunity arises, you’re going to be ready to go. And when preparation meets opportunity, you’ll be golden.

Photo credits: McCartney: AP Images; Chipmunks: 20th Century Fox

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Teen Idol

By student reporter Meghan Coyle

On American Idol, David Archuleta was known for putting a fresh spin on the songs you know and love. The 18-year-old is at it again with Christmas from the Heart. The new album includes traditional carols, a few rarities, and a new song he cowrote called “Melodies of Christmas.” I spoke with David days before he set out on a monthlong holiday concert tour.

Meghan Coyle: Why did you choose to record a holiday album?
David Archuleta: (singing) “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” … I’ve always sung during Christmastime. It’s always been my favorite time to sing because they’re just great songs, and they have such great messages and meanings behind them. I’ve been singing these songs since I was a little kid, and now I’m making an album with them. So it’s really cool to be able to do that.

MC: What makes Christmas From the Heart different from other holiday albums?
DA: Well, it’s kind of just my take on the Christmas songs. They’re [mainly] the songs that everyone knows. But there’s a couple of different ones that people might not be as familiar with. There’s a song called “Riu Riu Chiu” on it and a song called “Pat-A-Pan” that were fun to do. I’m trying to keep it really just kind of reverent.

MC: What is your favorite thing about touring?
DA: It’s really fun to see how each crowd is really pretty different from the next, so you never know what’s going to happen, but it’s fun.

MC: How is your next album coming along?
DA: It’s going well. I’ve been writing for it, and that’s what I’ve been working on for the last month, but now you know we’re taking a Christmas tour break.

MC: What can we expect from your next album?
DA: I’ve been writing a lot more. I don’t know how many songs that I write will make it on the album, but I’m hoping it will be a good amount, because that’s what I want to do with the album—I just want it to be more me. I want my personality to really show in these songs.

MC: What has surprised you most about fame?
DA: Just the fact that people know you when you don’t know them. … You just kind of get used to talking to people you never met before. But they feel like they know you, you know?

MC: Did you watch the most recent season of American Idol?
DA: I tried to watch it as much as I can. It is so weird watching after being on it.
It’s like, “Whoa, I know what they’re going through! I went through all of that.”

MC: What advice would you give to other aspiring singers out there?
DA: I would say, if they really love it, keep on doing it. And the way to best get experience is from just performing anywhere you can, whether it’s at your school or at your church or parties.

Photo credit: Jason Imber

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Poverty in America

Poverty in the U.S. today has many faces. For a homeless man on the streets of Los Angeles, it means not knowing where he will spend the night or where his next meal will come from. For a child in rural Alabama, it means going without breakfast and wearing tattered hand-me-down clothes. For a New York businesswoman laid off by her company, being poor means having no income and feeling a rising sense of panic in a depressed job market. For a teen in the suburbs of Cleveland, it means giving up a dream of college to search for work and help support a struggling family.

The Poverty Line
How many such faces are there? The Census Bureau says that slightly more than 39.8 million Americans, or 13.2 percent of the U.S. population, lived below the “poverty line” in 2008. That’s a lot of people, but according to an October 20 report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the HHS formula seriously underestimates the number of poor people in the U.S. According to the NAS, the real percentage of poor people in the U.S. is 15.8 percent. That’s 47.4 million
people—nearly one in every six Americans.

Effect of the Recession
Most researchers agree that the poverty situation in the United States is getting worse. The country is mired in a deep recession, a time of worsening economic activity. Companies are failing and eliminating jobs. The national unemployment rate is 10.2 percent, the highest it’s been since 1983, and it is expected to climb. With more people out of work, more families will drop below the poverty line. There will very likely be more homeless people, more hungry people, and more people who need financial help.

What are some ways the United States can combat poverty? Let us know in the comments section below.

Eyewitness to History Contest

What was it like to march with Martin Luther King Jr.? to stand on the front lines during the Vietnam War? to evacuate New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina? There’s an easy way to find out—ask someone who was there! Some of the most interesting stories about history come from eyewitnesses. Current Events is looking for interviews with people who have experienced events firsthand—and we want them to come from you! First, interview a person who has lived through a historic event. Then, send us the write-up. One grand-prize winner will receive $200 and have his or her interview published in Current Events. Two runners-up will receive $50 each and a mention in the magazine.

Contest Rules
• Interview someone who personally witnessed a historic event. (Witnessing an event on TV doesn’t qualify.)
• Type up the interview in a question-and-answer format. It should be no more than 1,000 words. You should also include a paragraph explaining what you learned from the interview.
• Have your teacher sign the written interview.
• Entries should be mailed by Feb. 26, 2010, to Current Events, Eyewitness to History Contest, Weekly Reader, 1 Reader’s Digest Road, Pleasantville, NY 10570-7000.

iTalk With iCarly

It’s easy to confuse Miranda Cosgrove with Carly Shay, her character on the top-rated
series iCarly. They are both overachievers with hit shows who have to deal with the usual stresses of being a teenager. But unlike Carly, Miranda seems to have it all figured out. Her latest single, “Raining Sunshine,” was featured in the film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and her first album is due out next year.

Current Events student reporter Lindsay Gleason spoke with Miranda, 16, about
her life as a teen queen.

Lindsay Gleason: Who are your role models?
Miranda Cosgrove: I love Gwen Stefani. ...
Her music I love and then her style—all of her different clothing lines and her purses and stuff. I just think she’s really cool. And I love Anne Hathaway also. I love The Princess Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada. 

LG: When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up?
MC: It’s funny because even though I’ve been acting since I was little and I’ve always loved music and stuff, I used to always say I wanted to be a marine biologist just because I love dolphins and I love the ocean. Just anything that had to do with sea life.

LG: What is it like playing the part of Carly Shay?
MC: It’s a blast. I love getting to play her. Just because a lot of the things she does are things that I would do. … But I think when things go wrong, or she has a problem, she definitely freaks out a lot more than me. And she usually doesn’t do the right thing right off the bat. She usually gets into a lot of trouble along the way. So it’s just fun getting to kind of go crazy and be silly.

LG: Other than singing and acting, what hobbies do you have?
MC: I love just hanging out with my friends, seeing movies. I go horseback riding sometimes with one of my best friends, Haley.

LG: How do you find time for your family and friends?
MC: It’s actually not so bad. I mean, when we’re filming, it’s cool because my friends will come visit the set a lot, especially in the summer. … Their moms would drop them off sometimes, or they’d come to my house in the morning and come with me to work.

LG: What goal do you still have for yourself?
MC: Well I’m really excited about my CD coming out, because it’s going to be my first solo album with songs that I’d actually gotten a chance to cowrite on. I’m just excited about people getting to hear that.

LG: What are you most proud of?
MC: Well, it’s hard to balance schoolwork … with being on set at the same time.
So probably just getting all the schoolwork finished. That’d be my main thing.

Photo credit: FilmMagic/Getty Images

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"One Fast Moment"

In June, Felice Luu, an eighth grader from San Lorenzo, Calif., won one of the three top individual awards in Weekly Reader’s 2009 Student Publishing Contest. (Click here find out more about Weekly Reader’s 2010 Student Publishing Contest.) Luu won $500 and a trip with her parents to the awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. Here is her award-winning essay—a gripping story about a 2008 car accident that she and her parents were lucky to survive.

"One Fast Moment"

    One fast moment; that’s all it takes for everything to go right or wrong. The opening of a door, the flicking of a wrist, the pressing of a button; any of these things can change someone’s life. I had to learn this the hard way.
    My dark brown eyes opened and noticed that everything was upside down. Blinking a few times, they realized that it wasn’t a dream and started to look around. Soon hands began to come alive and moved to a seatbelt, unbuckling it to let a body fall to the ground. Quickly, those hands found a 24 Hour Fitness bag, a small thing really, and continued on to find the handle of the car door. Then, once the body emerged, a voice started to scream. “Mom, dad? Mom, dad!” The voice belonged to me, as did the body, and the hands that got the bag while opening the door.
    I had just crawled out of the turned-over black Acura and was screaming for my parents. Barely noticing anything or anyone around me, I kept screaming for them. Finally, someone pulled me away from the car and sat me down by the rest area.
    “Sweetie, sweetie, calm down, take deep breaths and lie down, ok?” someone said. I thought it was a woman. I wasn’t sure, but the voice sounded soft, like a mother’s voice. Too focused on the car and my parents, I never bothered to look at her.
    Then I screamed at her with my usual temper, ”I can’t calm down! My parents could be dead! How can you tell me to calm down?” Now cue the “everything is going to be all right” moment.
    Then, as I predicted, she said, “Don’t worry, everything is going to be all right. You’re just in shock.” Why don’t people understand that sometimes things just won’t be all right no matter how much we wish that they could be? Why do they always tell you that everything will be all right even when they themselves know that it won’t be?
    Soon, I calmed down a bit and stopped trying to get up. I knew that if I got up someone would just hold me back. Their hands were strong though gentle at the same time. I assumed they belonged to a man, probably her son or husband. It could’ve also been someone else at the rest area. Whoever he was, he kept pulling me back whenever I tried to go to my parents and telling me that I needed to stay still in case I had a concussion. Obviously, going to my parents was out of the question. “You need to sit still or at least stay still. You may have a concussion, but we don’t know yet, so just stay still. We’ll take care of your parents.” Didn’t he know that these people are my parents and they were all that I had? I needed to know that they were all right.
    I still tried once more, but I only got repeated results. Besides, the car was really far away from me, almost five meters from the road while I, on the other hand, was all the way back at the rest area. At that point I just sat there, near the divider for the exit into the rest area and the rest area, crying my eyes out and begging God that my parents would be all right.
Now calm and sitting, I took a look at the car. Even though it was pretty dark, I saw my dad and an outline of the black car. First I saw that my dad was hanging out of the side window with his upper half on the ground and lower half in the car. The only reason I saw him was because he had a really clean white shirt. I couldn’t really see my mom so I assumed she was still stuck in the car. Later, I found out that she was and the window was also broken.
    After my last failed attempt, I needed someone to talk to, so I thought of some names. I didn’t need to think much because, automatically, one name popped into my head: Jonathan Clayton. I didn’t even know why but his was the number I dialed as soon as I got my phone out of my bag. It just seemed like he was always easy to talk to, and right then, I needed someone easy to talk to.
    I stood up and begged that he would pick up his phone. Finally, after what seemed like forever, his voice came up and said, “Hello?” He exclaimed, “Oh my God!” after I told him everything that had happened. Then he asked, ”Are you okay, Felice?” Gladly accepting his concern I silently thanked him.
    Then I replied quietly, “Yea, but my parents aren’t.” After I said that, I realized that I wasn’t crying any more. Of all times that I could cry, I chose then not to. Honestly, I was terrified out of my mind, and that was more than rare. I kept thinking, “What if they die?” or, “What if they end up in a coma for the rest of their lives?” Being only a 12-year-old at that time, I would have been forced by law to live with a guardian, like other family members.
    Almost hysterically, I said, “Can you believe this? My parents could be dead and I still can’t cry properly.” The worst part was that I didn’t even know why. Anyone else in my place would have been crying and showing their fears. Anyone else who was looking at their mom still stuck inside of an upside down car and their dad stuck in an upside down car at the same time would have been crying, probably harder than they ever had in their entire life.
    “No, you’re being very strong. Don’t worry, your parents are going to be all right,” said the motherly voice again. How could she still say that? How does she know? She was just a bystander, watching all of this happen. Apparently she was also the one who was to stay with me until medical attention had been given to my parents. So there we were, a woman slightly bending over to be somewhat face-to-face with a kid on the phone trying her best to calm down by the divider.
    Soon, it was time to say good bye to Jonathan, so I did. Just before he hung up he told me he hoped everything would be all right. I told him thanks and goodbye. It made me feel better knowing that our fate was still undecided, increasing the chances of my parents surviving.
    A little while later, some highway patrol officers came with an ambulance and helicopter. Since my dad was bleeding profusely, he took the helicopter to one hospital while I ended up riding to another one with my mom, nearly crying several times on the way.
    It wasn’t supposed to be like this. My mom wasn’t supposed to be like this. My mom wasn’t supposed to end up in a hospital with a fractured pelvis. My dad wasn’t supposed to end up in a hospital with multiple bruises, staples, stitches and, soon, a scar. I wasn’t supposed to walk out of the crash untouched. We were supposed to be home by 11:00 P.M. I wasn’t supposed to cry every five minutes in the bathroom.
    I just couldn’t believe it. My mom has driven perfectly every time before this, even in the rain, and nothing has ever gone wrong. This time there wasn’t any rain, there wasn’t anything wrong with the road, there wasn’t any traffic, there wasn’t any joking about how terrible her driving was, and there was no simple, “Oh well, we’ll go get it repainted tomorrow.” This time there was only cold and dry air, a near perfectly paved road, cars driving by with their lives undisturbed, screaming mixed with streaming of tears, and, soon, a trip to the junkyard.
    It was Friday, June 19, 2008, when we swerved into a divider. Trying to bypass a big rig, my mom drove into a sign, but then turned only to find that she nearly rammed into a tree. The last thing I heard was the screeching of tires before seeing nothing but a white airbag in my line of vision. The date of this entry is Monday, June 23, 2008. Today is Tuesday, March 2, 2009, and I am a girl who is afraid to get in a car with my mom driving.
    One fast moment; that’s all it took for everything to go wrong. The bypassing of a big rig, the bad timing, the abrupt turn of a steering wheel; all of these things all changed my life. I learned that the hard way.

Dragon Slayer

AP Images

At 15, Christopher Paolini began writing Eragon, a fantasy story about a boy and a dragon in a war-torn world called Alagaësia. To date, his Inheritance book series—which also includes Eldest and Brisingr—has sold more than 22 million copies. No release date has been set for the fourth and final book in the series, but fantasy fans still have reason to be excited: Eragon’s Guide to Alagaësia will hit bookstores on November 3. Paolini, now 25, spoke to Current Events student reporter Sarah Rothenberger about his mythical world.

Sarah Rothenberger: How did you create the world of Alagaësia?
Christopher Paolini: I worked out the story for the series before I began Eragon, and I worked out some of the details of the world. … As I worked on each of the books, I continued to flesh out all those different areas of the world, plus many more. So, it’s a combination of planning in advance and then allowing myself some freedom to invent and explore things as I’m actually writing the books.
 
SR: What excites you most about Eragon’s Guide to Alagaësia?
CP: The thing that really got me excited about the project, and the reason I agreed to it in the first place, was getting to share some the paintings and drawings and other images of various scenes and places, and even characters from the books, with the readers. I’ve been working on this series for over 10 years now, and I’ve been thinking about these characters and places for a long time, so to have a chance to share that with readers was really exciting for me. … I enjoyed working on it, because it gave me a change to sort of step aside from the main series and write a piece that is written essentially as a letter from Eragon to you, the reader. And that was really fun to put it all into Eragon’s voice.

SR: What do you think your fans will enjoy the most in Eragon’s Guide to Alagaësia?
CP: Well, hopefully the art. … But probably the main thing is the fact that the book collects a lot of information into one place that’s never been collected before. … This book pulls all the pieces together about the histories of the races, and where they live, and what they are, and what they look like. And I took the opportunity—I couldn’t resist—to drop in a couple of clues into the book about the future of the story, and where Eragon ends up.

SR: What can you tell us about the fourth book in the Inheritance series?
CP: Not much, because if I tell you anything more than the fact I’m working on it, I’ll have to start giving away story points. … It’s going to have a green dragon on the cover, which I’m actually very much looking forward to seeing ... Of course, it’s going to conclude Eragon and Saphira’s adventures. But I’m doing my best to make sure it’s the best book in the series, and I hope that fans are going to feel the same way about it.

SR: Did you always want to be an author?  
CP: No, I didn’t. … What I really wanted to be doing was riding dragons and fighting monsters and having adventures and doing all the stuff that Eragon gets to do. … So writing was for me just a way of exploring those daydreams and exploring those fantasies and telling a good story that I hoped other people would enjoy.

SR: What advice would you give to young kids like me who love to write?
CP: First of all would be to read. I don’t think you can write a good book unless you read a lot of books … Write about what you find the most interesting or what you enjoy the most yourself. … And of course, persistence. Sit down and write every single day.
 

A Story to Tell

When Shardy Camargo (third from left) was in ninth grade, she and her family lived on the streets in the Dominican Republic. She seldom went to school that year. Now 18, Camargo is a freshman at the University of Central Florida and a recent recipient of the Prudential Spirit of Community Award for her work in raising awareness about homelessness. She was chosen as one of the country's top 10 youth volunteers. Camargo worked with other Florida teens to publish the book Everyone Has a Story to Tell, a collection of interviews with 30 homeless adults at the shelter where Camargo now volunteers. Current Events caught up with Camargo to hear her story.

Current Events: How did you feel being chosen as one of the country's top 10 youth volunteers?

Shardy Camargo: That was a really big deal. … It was incredible. … Prudential picked … five middle school students and five high school students. Each of us got $5,000 towards a nonprofit of our choice and $5,000 for ourselves. It was a huge help. It helped me pay for school. … I work at the Boys & Girls Club [and] I volunteered at the Coalition for the Homeless [of Central Florida] for over two years, so it was hard for me to decide [which organization to choose, but I was able to split the award between them]. 

CE: How did your experience being homeless affect you? Tell us about that experience and the challenges you faced.

SC: It taught me that I really need to give back in any way [I can]. … [My family's experience] started with an issue we had with my sister, who made some bad choices. We pretty much gave up everything [and went to stay with family in the Dominican Republic]. We only took what we could carry. … After a point, we just realized we could not stay there. There were just too many people in the same house. We went to another city, called Puerto Plata. We were so transient. It was just so crazy. We wouldn't know where we were going. We just didn't know what was going to happen. We came back to America and went to Boston. I didn't go to school this whole time. … It's the worst thing to not have anything to do. I think people fall into hopelessness and helplessness because they don't know what to do. 

We spent several nights on the street. You'd be amazed how common that is [in the Dominican Republic,] especially in the tourist section. I met this one girl who had three kids and had not eaten in a week. 

I think that whole experience made me a better person. But I think that not going to school was not [the best decision]. … I think that's why I do the things I do at the Coalition for the Homeless. It's about how important school is. … The profits from our first book we donated to the coalition, and we set up a library for them. They have about 2,000 books.

Sailing the Dream

Sixteen-year-old Mike Perham boarded his 50-foot yacht last November with a single goal: becoming the youngest person to sail solo around the world. His planned four-month, nonstop circumnavigation became a nine-month odyssey. He faced many challenges and spent his birthday at sea. But after 30,000 miles, Mike returned to his starting place of Portsmouth, England, on August 29 to a hero’s welcome. Mike recorded his voyage in his blog (www.totallymoney.com/sailmike.) He told CE student reporter Gray Robertson about his record-setting trip.

Gray Robertson: What inspired you to try to break the record? Was there a point when you realized it was harder than you had originally thought?

Mike Perham: It was a real adventure. The ocean is a broad power of nature, and I wanted to go out and experience it. … [Yes, on] day 1, when the autopilot broke down for the first time. … It is [one of] the most important pieces of [equipment] on the boat, allowing me to leave the helm to adjust the sails, cook food, and catnap. I did everything possible to mend it, taking advice from my dad who was speaking to the manufacturers. Eventually, I had to give up on it—and my hopes of completing this solo circumnavigation nonstop—by [stopping to] get it fixed. I was pretty down, I can tell you.

GR: What was the scariest thing that happened on your voyage?

MP: Big storms in the Southern Ocean [were scary], but at the same time, this was the best part of the voyage. The Southern Ocean is the most fantastic place to sail. It is cold … and wet, but with the strong westerly winds and big waves constantly pushing the boat forward, the difference between windswept and wipeout is sometimes balanced on a knife-edge. As the boat accelerates down each wave, the adrenaline rush is intense. … It must be like driving a car really fast … I don’t know, because I was too young to drive when I set out around the world and have just applied for my … license. Passing my driving test is my next great challenge!

GR: What was it like celebrating your birthday on a boat?

MP: It was really cool. I was looking forward to it a lot. I cooked my favorite meal—chicken in wine sauce—and opened presents that family and friends had given to me.

GR: When did it finally sink in that you had broken the record? How did you feel when you completed your journey?

MP: [I realized it] only once I had got back on [firm ground] in Portsmouth. … [It felt] really fantastic. It can get quite lonely sailing a boat on your own, but to see the thousands of people lined up on the quayside at Gunwharf Quays, I realized that there have been many more people who have been living my dream with me.

GR: What would you say to kids who dream of sailing around the world?

MP: Go for it and live the dream, but to sail around the world you have to be totally focused.  Age is not the prerequisite—that is just a number. … The first requirement is to have the experience. … The second … is physical strength. Can you cope with pulling down a sail that got jammed in a force 8 gales while constantly being hosed down with cold spray? The third … is psychological. Can you cope with being alone for long periods? Can you function when deprived of sleep? The fourth … knowledge. [Do you] have … the knowledge to repair electronics and the general skills of mending and making do? Because when you are out there in the middle of the ocean, there is no one there to help. You have to do it all alone.

Life of Lego

Sean Kenney has a very interesting job. According to him, he’s a “professional kid”. He plays with Lego bricks—for a living.    

Actually, he doesn’t just play with the little square blocks everyone remembers from childhood. He designs. The massive sculptures he makes out of Lego bricks can contain thousands of pieces. Kenney has more than 1 million of the colorful pieces stored in his New York City loft. They are organized in countless drawers and bins according to color, size, style, function, and purpose. His office is filled with displays of his finished work—which are superglued for safety.

Kenney is building an empire out of Legos. His work has been featured everywhere from ELLE magazine to the hit TV show “30 Rock”. If you can think of it, he’s probably built it. From a Nintendo DSi that is taller than he is to a replica New York Yankees stadium that contains 45,000 pieces, he has built pretty much everything out of the plastic bricks. That is making companies notice. Google, Barnes and Noble, Borders, LPL Financial, and Good Morning America have all requested and received commissions to build giant Lego versions of their logos.

He also builds custom masterpieces on request. You can order two three-inch tall bride-and-groom wedding cake toppers—made to look like you—right off his website. You can also get Lego portraits, model cars, and even fully-functioning chairs. He builds by hand, too. Sean doesn’t use computer software or any technology to complete his craft.

Kenney is one of only nine “Lego Certified Professionals”. This elite title allows him to buy in the bulk sizes he needs and have access to pretty much anything he needs to build his amazing creations. To get that title, he had to take several tests and build several large-scale designs. Kenney isn’t associated or employed by the LEGO Company. His business of building art out of children’s toys has turned into a highly profitable and head-turning career. Check out his website at www.seankenney.com.

~By Maria Belding, Current Events student reporter

Photos: Copyright 2009 SeanKenney.com