Turn of the Page: 'The Hobbit (There and Back Again)'

by Elizabeth Ostrem and Kayla Werner

A prequel to the famed “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy written by J. R. R. Tolkien, “The Hobbit” tells the story of Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit (which are described as “little people, smaller than dwarfs, who love peace and quiet and good tilled earth”) who is well-respected in The Shire for staying out of trouble and keeping well away from any adventures.  However, Bilbo’s plans to remain unremarkable change the day a gang of dwarves and a wizard named Gandalf show up on his doorstep, looking to hire him as a burglar in their company.

The dwarves wish to reclaim their home, Lonely Mountain, and vast wealth from the fearsome dragon Smaug, who captured the mountain. Following Gandalf’s advice, they recruit Bilbo into their service, although they are thoroughly unimpressed with the hobbit at the beginning of their meeting. Gandalf assures them that there’s more to Bilbo than meets the eye.

The group encounters many hardships along their journey, including brushes with goblins, trolls and enormous spiders as they head to overthrow Smaug. Often it’s up to Bilbo to deliver them from trouble, which progressively earns him respect from the entire company.

Tolkien’s novel is being adapted into a two-part movie and will be directed by Peter Jackson, who also directed the successful “The Lord of the Rings” film trilogy. The movies will hit theaters Dec.  2012 and Dec. 2013.

Liz:

I really enjoyed “The Hobbit” when I read it for the first time some years ago. I was already familiar with “The Lord of the Rings” from the most recent movies and ready to start on the books, but I thought it would be prudent to start with the precursor.

I’m glad I did for a number of reasons. One reason is “The Hobbit” was originally geared towards children, although there are adults that enjoy the book equally. It’s faster paced than “The Lord of the Rings,” which is better suited for younger readers, and the story has a lighter, more humorous air as opposed to the gloomier mood of “The Lord of the Rings.”

Another reason would be starting in chronological order. While there are some series that are arguably better to be read out of chronological order (e.g. The Chronicles of Narnia), I don’t think this is one of those series. You could save “The Hobbit” for last, but personally I prefer having it as the starting point in Tolkien’s saga.

One of the only things I didn’t particularly care for in the book were the songs. The amount of them in the book seemed just a touch on the excessive side. I found some of them to be clever and amusing to read, however, especially “Fifteen Birds in Five Fir Trees.”

If “The Lord of the Rings” books or movies interest you, I wholly suggest picking this book up. It deserves its place as a fantasy classic for good reason.

Kayla:

It was hard for me to get into this book. Although it was a good read, it was slower paced than I personally would have liked. The feeling of this book is generally happy with some gloomy parts and the author makes jokes at his characters’ expense. I got a laugh or two out of it. 

I do suggest reading this book if you are into  fantasy. It might not jump right into it, but it definitely picks up in the middle.

Kindergarten and preschool registration

by Vincent Bushong

The time has come to register your child for kindergarten or preschool in the upcoming weeks. All registration meetings will be held in the Montezuma elementary library.

The parent’s meeting for the kindergarten roundup will be held on Wednesday, April 11 at 5:30 p.m. 

Parents need to bring their child’s updated immunization records and birth certificate. In order to enroll in kindergarten, students must be five years of age by Sept. 15, 2012. 

Kindergarten roundup itself will be on Monday, April 16, 2012. It will occur during the students’ regular preschool time, with morning preschool students attending the morning session and afternoon students attending the afternoon session. 

Students should first report to the preschool room, and from there they will be sent to the library. Parents of students not enrolled in the Montezuma preschool can contact the elementary office at 623-5129 to set up the student for the roundup. 

The parent’s meeting for preschool registration will be on Wednesday, May 2 at 5:30 p.m.

Items that parents should bring are their child’s birth certificate, social security number and immunization records. Students being enrolled in preschool must be four years of age by Sept. 15, 2012.

Shooting sports team gets fired up for the season

by Elizabeth Ostrem

The shooting sports team has begun practicing for the 2012-13 year. The team started Feb. 28 and 29 with safety and rules meetings, with range practice beginning on March 6 at the Big Springs Shooting Complex.

48 students, in grades 4^th-12^th, are involved in the program this year. 22 are in high school, and the other 26 are in elementary and junior high. The team is up a total of 20 shooters from the previous year.

Coach Tom Sheets is excited about the number of kids out, saying, “We have a very good chance to have Montezuma High School be in the top running for state honors with everyone returning. All our shooters improved last year and have started off ahead of where they left off at the end of last season.”

One of the returning shooters, sophomore Elijah Bryan, said, “My goal for next year is to finish well at the state meet and continue to have fun.”

This will be Bryan’s third year out for shooting sports. His favorite thing about being involved in it is being able to compete and have fun with friends. Although he won’t be at state this year, he hopes to do well at other meets and win one or two.

Norman Martin, a returning junior, says his favorite thing is the comradery of doing the sport with pals. “I always look forward to going out to the range with my friends.”

This will mark Martin’s fourth year out for shooting sports. His goal this season is to shoot a 50 out of 50.

Their first competition will be on March 31 at the AIM Shoot in Big Springs. Official SCTP and high school meets will commence on April 1. The team will be able to compete each Sunday following until the state shoot on June 2 in Cedar Falls.

Coach Sheets said, “Our goal right way is getting the mental game of trap going and getting them into a rhythm. We have some very good shooters that could and will be competing for top honors at state.”

Students compete in Battle of the Books

by Bridgette Moore

On March 20 and 21, 12 Montezuma students traveled to the AEA Conference Center in Cedar Falls, Iowa, to compete in the Battle of the Books.

In order to compete in the battle, the team works together to read as many books as possible from a pre-selected list of books. Each student could be asked to read five or so books. 

After the program is over, the teams from  different schools gather to “battle” by answering fact-based questions about the books. 

The books included fantasy, realism, mystery, non-fiction, fiction, animal fiction, humor, science fiction and historical fiction. 

A few examples of books Junior High students were required to read are “Witness” by Karen Hesse, “The Truth about Truman School” by Dori Hillestad Butler and “Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins. 

The books read by elementary students included “The Sherlock Files: The 100 Year War” by Tracy Barett, “Matilda” by Roald Dahl, “Singing Hands” by Delia Ray and “Turtle In Paradise” by Jennifer L. Holm.

The elementary team consists of six students:   Carissa Vanzee and Medelyn Dejong from fourth grade, Olivia Mortez and Tyler Cuppus from fifth grade and Vance Bushong and Casey Pfiffer from sixth grade. They competed on March 20.

The middle school team consists of six students in seventh grade: Tyler Meyer, Kennedy Phillips, Zach Townsend, Carmen Stover, Grant Johnson and Allison Wheeler. They competed on March 21.

“I am looking forward to the competition and being able to interact with other students with the same interest as me,” said seventh grader Kennedy Phillips.

FFA Banquet awards members and community

Nathan Wheeler awards Keith Brake  with the Blue and Gold Award at the FFA Banquet on Thursday, March 15.

by Vincent Bushong

The Montezuma FFA wrapped up this year with the annual Parent-Member Banquet on Thursday, March 15.

 The events included presentation of awards for FFA members, parents and community members and scholarships for senior members, as well as the installation of the 2012-2013 officers. To end the banquet, the annual work auction fundraiser was held, bringing in $10,600. 

The awards presented to 9-12 grade members were the Scholarship Awards, the Leadership Awards and the Outstanding Service Awards. 

Awards for Career Development Events (CDE’s) were presented to the following teams: Business Management, Agriculture Sales, Agriculture Communications, Marketing Plan, Soil Judging and Conduct of Meetings. 

CDE awards for individual events were Radio Broadcasting, Job Interview, and Individual Agriculture Sales. 

Awards given to members of the community for their support for the FFA were the Outstanding Mom Award, presented to Shawn Doty; Outstanding Dad Award, presented to Kevin Osborn; Outstanding Parents Award, presented to Don and Betsy Cranston; and the Blue and Gold Award, presented to Keith Brake.

Scholarship Awards for the senior members were the Montezuma FFA Scholarship; the Rempp FFA Achievement Scholarship, awarded to Nathan Wheeler; and Matt Mann’s scholarship, awarded to Nathan Wheeler and Aly James. 

The Star Greenhand award was given to Vincent Bushong and Clara Johnson, and the Star Chapter award was given to Nathan Wheeler, Kendra Doty and Kendra Cranston. 

Members of the 2012-2013 officer team, as voted on by all members of the Montezuma FFA, are: President Tyler Swenson, Vice-President Halley Ogan, Secretary Norman Martin, Treasurer Courtney Petersen, Reporter Carly Steele, and Sentinel Colleen Johnston. Assistant officers include Vincent Bushong, Katelyn Gregory, Karah Hansen, Abbi Nelson, Steven Kopp and Jack Little.

Kony 2012 Youtube video makes an impact on Montezuma

by Morgan Sanders

I’m sure you have heard about the Kony 2012 video on Facebook or Twitter. If not, Kony 2012 is a video about a warlord named Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and their actions in central Africa. 

The video brings light to the subject and shows how The Invisible Children plans to “make him famous”. The video’s goal is to raise awareness. After being posted to Youtube, the video had over 70 million views in just seven days. 

The LRA has been kidnapping children for over 26 years and making them into sex slaves and child soldiers. They have kidnapped over 30,000 children. 

In the video it mainly shows the violence happening in Uganda, but it is also happening in Sudan and Congo. Kony  has made his way to the top of the International Crime Councils list for most wanted criminal. 

Invisible Children was created in 2003 after three filmmakers went to Africa looking for a story. After returning from their trip and people viewing their footage, people wanted to help and created the organization.

They first started working in Uganda in 2005. In Uganda, Invisible Children works with locals to develop programs where there are needed on the ground. Their mission is to use film, creativity and social attention to end the use of child soldiers in Joseph Kony’s rebel war and restore LRA-affected communities in Central Africa to peace and prosperity. 

This campaign has been called Kony 2012 because it is a time sensitive mission. Right now, the United States has 100 troops stationed in Africa helping them with the repairs of the damage of the LRA. 

At Montezuma, students and teachers are interested after watching the video and want to make a change. In Miss Farrington’s  current issues class, students are writing letters to policymakers about how they feel about the subject. In the video, it states that in order to raise awareness they are involving 12 policymakers and 20 celebrities to raise awareness. 

After watching the video, my personal reaction was that I wanted to do something to stop Kony. I believe this is the reaction most people have after viewing it. 

There are many things you can do to raise awareness; you can order the action kit, sign a pledge, donate money and repost the video to Facebook.

I ordered an action kit as my contribution. Many people have supported the cause, but I have also heard a lot of criticism about Kony 2012 and what Invisible Children really is. This is not anything the government has started; it was started by a nonprofit organization to raise awareness and to raise funds to help stop it and help the victims recover.

If you have any questions or want to learn visit www.invisiblechildren.com/critiques.html and www.kony2012.com.

Boys track gears up for the season

by Andrea Farrington

The boys track season is starting off with warm weather and a total of 24 boys on the team, which includes three seniors, six juniors, seven sophomores, and eight freshmen.

The three seniors out this year are Stephen Vavroch, Shane Lyons and Matt Armstrong. They are all looking forward to the upcoming season.

Lyons says, “My goals for this season are to maintain good grades, get back in shape and stay involved.” He has been out for track for two years.

Vavroch’s goal is to make it to state, and it is his fourth consecutive year.

This year is Armstrong’s first year out for track. His goal is to have fun.

Coach VanVeen said, ”I am looking forward to seeing how much our returning athletes have improved from one year to the next. We have some very solid kids coming back from last year. We’ll need them to make that jump for us to compete in the conference. We also have some promising newcomers that need to make an impact.”

The boys kicked off their season with an invitational indoor meet on Tuesday, March 13 at Iowa State University.

Four advance to All-State

by Natalie Kirton

On Saturday, March 10, 14 students had the opportunity to perform in front of three judges while at the State Speech & Drama competition in Clinton, a two-hour drive from Montezuma. Some students chose to leave the night before competition and stay in a hotel. Others woke early in the morning and rode in a group to the school. 

Students whose performance received an over-all I rating were Luke Goodman, Cassie Corbin, Alyssa Lyddon, Aly James, Mariah Hirsch, Shena Bryan, Clara Johnson, Karah Hansen and Abbi Nelson. Macy Taylor and Destiny Romberg received over-all I ratings in two categories. 

Zach Gibson and Niall Lyons received II ratings, while Seth Fahlenkamp received II ratings in two categories. 

“We had an awesome season and everyone worked really hard! Liesl Roorda and Derek Bates deserve a huge thanks for all the time they spent getting us to where we are now,” said Hirsch. 

Four of these students received the honor of moving on and performing at the All-State program, hosted in Cedar Falls at the University of Northern Iowa. These students are Hirsch in Storytelling, Taylor in Literary Program, Goodman in Prose and Johnson in Storytelling. They will be performing their pieces on Monday, March 26, beginning at 8:30 a.m.