A little note about The Tattoo's latest

We've had a couple of Tattoo issues that are well worth your time.
For instance, you won't want to miss Bristol Eastern High School senior Rachel Glogowski's piece for Youth Journalism International about former Sudanese slave Francis Bok:

'I'm not an animal' : A former slave's story of the Sudan

What began as any normal day for Sudanese man Francis Bok ended in the hell of being captured into child slavery that would change the rest of his life. Yet Bok is now seeking forgiveness for the people responsible for the nightmare.
Bok was only seven when his mother sent him to the local market to sell peanuts and eggs for the family and Northern Sudanese men raided the village, viciously slaughtering the men and capturing the women and children.
Bok, who could only speak his native tribal language as a child, said he couldn't understand why they hated him.
"I knew that I couldn't fight back, because if I do, I would get killed," Bok said at a recent appearance at the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury.
That terrible night in 1986, Bok's captors took him into Northern Sudan and forced him to be a child slave for an Arab family. He never saw his parents or sisters again, and learned years later that they were burned alive in the raid on his Southern Sudan village.
Although his masters were cruel and spat on and beat Bok daily, he never lost hope.
"I may not have anyone to talk to me and to love me but I know God does," he said.
Bok said he dreamed of being free and growing up to be like the man his father was. Read the whole article

You'll also want to catch Senior Cartoonist Justin Skaradosky's latest, The Life and Times of Peter Rabbit, and the review by West Hartford, Connecticut teens Wesley Saxena and Kiernan
Majerus-Collins of the play "The Seafarer" at Hartford's Theaterworks. Skaradosky is a senior at Bristol Central High School in Bristol, Connecticut.
For an inside glimpse into South Korea, be sure to read the travel pieces by Minnesota teen Minha Lee in our December 22nd issue. Lee also took some great photos.
Finally, New Jersey teen Shekinah-Glory Dhanie-Beepat wrote about the hit movie "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" in a review published this week.
We're working on a package of stories about the election of Barack Obama that features the views of teens around the globe. With luck, it will appear soon, certainly before Obama's January 20th Inauguration. I'll let you know when it's available.

For those who don't know, Jackie Majerus and I have been mentoring young journalists for the past 15 years for The Tattoo, which has become the largest and best teen-written newspaper in the world. We're incredibly proud of what these great young people have done over the years.
Let us know what you think of our talented teens' work. We love constructive criticism, tips and any help you can offer. Feel free to tell any young people in your lives.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com