my name is . . . abby - washington postmedia.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/kidspost/pdf/tabby.pdf ·...

on the British Empire,”because the United Kingdomruled a quarter of the globe,including Canada, Australia,India and many parts ofAfrica. Today there is noempire, but it is still aprosperous country.

Religion: The majority ofbelievers are Christian. Butmany other faiths arerepresented.

Money: The English usepounds sterling, denoted by the symbol £. All moneyhas an image of QueenElizabeth II on one side.

School age: Children mustattend school from 5 years

old until they are 16.

TV and Internet: More than 98percent of households own aleast one TV set, and morethan 62 percent have apersonal computer.

Famous people: K Playwright WilliamShakespeare, whose workincludes “Romeo and Juliet”and “Hamlet.”K Queen Elizabeth II, whovisited the United States thisyear for the Jamestownanniversary.K Princes William and Harry,her grandsons.K Actor Daniel Radcliffe, whoplays that other famousHarry (Potter).

abbyMy name is . . .This is the 13th in a series of KidsPost

Journeys around the world to show readers how children in other countries and cultures live and play. Today we JOURNEY TO ENGLAND.

his is the 13th in a series of KidsPThJourneys aro

Th

ENGLAND3,650 milesFROM WASHINGTON

Food: A typical school lunch is roast beef withpotatoes and vegetables, followed by yogurt or fruit.Tabby says “I like meat.” When the family went toArgentina, they saw a cow being killed for food.Tabby grimaces a little at the memory but admits “itdidn’t really put me off. It’s natural.”

Pets: Tabby loves animals. She has a dog, Maisie, aNorfolk terrier-Jack Russell mix. The family hashorses, polo ponies and two cats, Tiger and Scooby.

TV shows: “I like ‘The Simpsons.’ I think they are veryfunny.”

Music: “I like most modern music. I like RobbieWilliams. But I also like the music my dad likes, likeTina Turner.”

Fun fact: The area where Tabby lives was home in the1880s to H.G. Wells, the author of classic sciencefiction books “The Time Machine” and “The War ofthe Worlds.” Wells said it had “always been a happyplace for me. I suppose it rained there sometimes,but all my memories are in sunshine.”

DAILY 09-18-07 MD RE C12 CMYK

C12CMYK

C12CMYK

In England, cupcakes

are called fairy cakes.

TODAY: Sunny;breezy.

HIGH LOW

78 58TOMORROW:Cloudy. High 78.Low 60.

ILLUSTRATION BY BRENDAN CLARK, 6,BURKE

WEATHERTRIVIA

WHAT IS THESEPTEMBER FULLMOON CALLED?ANSWER: FRUIT ORHARVEST MOON.

WEATHER

TODAY’S NEWSHere’s an Idea: Put a Kid in ChargeKWhile his District classmateswere in school yesterday, 10-year-old Ricky Washington was run-ning the city.

The Lafayette Elementaryfifth-grader was sworn in as may-or for the day by his father, Eric,chief judge of the D.C. Court ofAppeals. Ricky then spent hisshort time in office meeting withother city officials and servinghot lunches at a senior center.

Ricky was among 43 D.C. stu-dents who entered this year’s “10Who Are 10” contest, sponsoredby the Marriott hotel company.Applicants had to make their casefor why they should be mayor fora day.

“I knew I had some great ideasfor the city,” Ricky told KidsPost.

His ideas included setting up aweek of events to stop school bul-lying — “getting people to be re-spectful of each other’s differenc-es” — and involving kids in clean-ing up the city. “When I go toRock Creek Park, I see a lot ofbottles and trash lying on theground,” he said.

Ricky met Mayor Adrian M.

Fenty, whose job he took for theday, and Delegate EleanorHolmes Norton, the city’s repre-sentative on Capitol Hill, withwhom he discussed efforts to ob-tain full voting rights for D.C.residents.

Ricky and nine other contest fi-nalists each will receive $2,500for college.

Looking ahead, one of Ricky’steachers said it’s “easy toimagine him becoming mayor ofD.C. one day” for real.

But Ricky told KidsPost he’dlike to be a lawyer — or an actor.

Scaredy-CatK A cat stuck high up in a tree fora week in Yonkers, New York,was blasted to safety by a high-pressure fire hose Sunday night.

Volunteers held a sheet underthe tree and caught the soakedbut otherwise unharmed feline asonlookers cheered.

BY SONNIE MASON

Ricky Washington: mayor for a day.

WRITE KIDSPOST, THE WASHINGTON POST, 1150 15TH ST. NW, WASHINGTON, D.C. 20071. K E-MAIL US AT KIDSPOST@WASHPOST.COM K FAX US AT 202-496-3780. PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR NAME, AGE, ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER.

C12 Tuesday, September 18, 2007 R The Washington Post

SPEAK OUTTHIS WEEK’S TOPIC

Family DinnertimeThis is National Eat Dinner

Together Week. With every-one’s busy schedule these days,it’s getting harder and harder to

gather for a family meal. How often does your family

have dinner together? Go towww.kidspost.com and tell us.

K My family eats dinnertogether:

A. Every night of the week B. 5-6 nights each weekC. 3-4 nights each week D. 1-2 nights each weekE. Never

BY SARAH L. VOISIN — THE WASHINGTON POST

Last week’s surveyasked: Which war doyou want to knowmore about? Morethan 425 readersresponded:SU

RV

EY

SAY

S

American Revolution 10.2%

Civil War 13.0%

World War II 30.1%

Vietnam War 9.2%

War in Iraq 37.5%

MIDHURST, England — In her fi-nal days at Conifers last spring,Tabby Taylor enjoyed being “headgirl” at the private school locatedabout 50 miles from the capitalcity of London.

She proudly wore a little metalbadge identifying her as such onher school uniform. Her job, shesaid, was “to keep everybody hap-py” and make sure there was al-ways good communication be-tween students and teachers.

Conifers has about 90 pupils —boys from ages 2 to 8, and girlsfrom 2 to 11. It is in Midhurst, atown of about 5,000 people in theEnglish countryside.

Tabby turned 12 last week. Hername is short for Tabitha, but somany people call her Tabby that,as she very politely explains,“sometimes I don’t realize Ishould answer when I’m calledTabitha.”

At Conifers, which is just a fewmiles from her home, school start-ed at 8:45 a.m. One day a weekTabby would arrive 15 minutesearly for her music lesson. Sheplays flute and guitar, and she ledthe school’s orchestra and themarching band.

After passing exams in Englishgrammar and essay writing, sci-ence and math, Tabby headed offto boarding school this month.She’s at Downe House, a schoolfor girls, about 50 miles from herhome.

Most children who attend pri-vate school in England go off toboarding school at Tabby’s age, soshe wasn’t too worried about thechange. She will be able to comehome every third weekend and onholiday breaks.

Tabby thinks that science is“okay — because I quite like ex-ploding things. It’s always moreinteresting when you do experi-ments. I prefer the practical thingsrather than things like writing.”

Recess in English schools iscalled break. Conifers, like manyprivate schools, has a tennis courtand lots of space for team games

such as rounders (a form of base-ball). The grass playing field is fre-quently wet and muddy because ofthe rain, and students stack theirweatherproof boots outside thedoor, always ready for wear.

Tabby loves living in the coun-try. One of her favorite times ofyear is early spring “when every-thing is green . . . and everythingblossoms.”

She also loves summer —school vacation is two monthslong — when “we play polo.” Thefast, exciting stick-and-ball gameon horseback is played by hermother, Vanessa, a photographer;her father, David, a businessman;her brother, Jack, 12; and her sis-ter, Jemima, 9.

“I love riding,” Tabby says. Shealso competes in show-jumpingcompetitions on her pony, Mur-phy. She was very young when shefirst rode a horse — “a polo ponythat was really calm” — and by thetime she was 5 or 6 she was learn-ing to play polo.

If she doesn’t become an ac-tress when she grows up, Tabbysays she will be a horse trainer.

— Bridget Byrne

Country: England is 50,351square miles of the 93,788square miles that make upthe United Kingdom, whichincludes Wales, Scotland andNorthern Ireland.

Capital: London.

Population: About 60 millionpeople live in the UnitedKingdom; about 50 million ofthem are in England.

Geography: Even the biggestcities are surrounded byvaried and beautifulcountryside. BecauseEngland is on an island, noplace is very far from the sea.It rains about a third of thetime, and it occasionallysnows in winter.

History: The seafaring peopleof the British Isles exploredand conquered many parts ofthe world, which is whyEnglish is spoken andunderstood in so manyplaces, including the UnitedStates. In the late 19th andearly 20th centuries, it wassaid that “the sun never sets

About Tabby About England

BY DAMIAN DOVARGANES — ASSOCIATED PRESS

Daniel Radcliffe was born in Fulham,an area of west London.

200

MILES

0

Detail

Paris

London

NorthSea

IRELAND

AtlanticOcean FRANCE

UNITED KINGDOM

United Kingdom

Atlantic

Ocean

North

America

North

America

Africa

Africa

Euro

peEu

rope

U.S.

WashingtonMidhurst

40

MILES

0

BY NATHANIEL VAUGHN KELSO — THE WASHINGTON POST

Gatwick

Heathrow

Isle of Wight

London

Portsmouth

English Channel

Thames

Proofed by: websterb Time: 18:44 - 09-17-2007 Separation: C M Y K HIGH-RES PROOF. IMAGES ARE RIPPED. FULL PROOF INTEGRITY.Product: DAILY LayoutDesk: STY PubDate: 09-18-07 Zone: MD Edition: RE Page: KIDPST