Ask The Post

KidsPost Editor Tracy Grant (Julia Ewan -- The Washington Post)

This Week: Washington Post KidsPost editor Tracy Grant was online Wednesday, July 26, at noon ET to field your questions about The Post's coverage of news for children ages 8-13.

A transcript follows.

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Bethesda, Md.: Why did you want to be an editor of the kidspost? What papers did you work for before The Washington Post and which one did you enjoy most? How long have you been writing? What did you study in college?

Tracy Grant: Hello everyone and thanks for joining me today. I'm looking forward to hearing from lots of readers about stories they'd like to see us cover in KidsPost, what their interests are. I'm also fascinated to hear from people about who they think will die in the next Harry Potter and if they care. So join in the fun!

Hi Bethesda. Well who WOULDN'T want to be the KidsPost editor. It's really the best job at the Post because we can write about (just about) anything that interests us. It's a real call to tap into your inner child, awaken your curiosity about the world. I worked at the Boca Raton News and the Miami Herald before coming to the Post 13 years ago. The Boca news was a great first job because it was a small paper that gave you lots of opportunities as a young journalist. I studied journalism at Northwestern University.

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Key West, Fla.: A comment on "Bird Brains" 7/24 story, as a 65 year old "momma bird" to a 3 year old Quaker parrot I was fascinated by the story AND LOVED THE PHOTO! After living together 3 years Paulie & I communicate pretty well--I've learned what he means by the type of cheeping he does--he knows what I mean by 'want a bath?,' 'momma loves you,' and, when I go out, 'I'll be back.' If I don't say that, he'll go crazy when I leave. Dr. Dooling's work must be fascinating. KidsPost readers aren't necessarily young kids -- they can be "kids" like me and love your section!)

Tracy Grant: Hi Key West,

As someone who worked in South Florida for a number of years, Key West was always a favorite spot. I envy you. Let me tell you a secret about KidsPost, it's almost ALWAYS about the photos. The writer pitched me a story about bird hearing and I thought that was pretty interesting and then she sent me the photo and my reaction was: YESSSS! We must do this in KidsPost.

We know that many of our readers are "kids at heart" and we love those readers just as much. We also know that when we tackle some big, serious topics --- such as the Lebanon, Israel situation which we did a page on yesterday -- many adults welcome that we try to explain the history and context of the situation.

But we really are a section for kids ages 8 to 13. The Washington Post is the only newspaper in the country that does a daily section for that age-range, I might add. So when we get the chance to write about fossilized dinosaur poop, we go for it, knowing that our core audience just loves that!

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Fairfax, Va. : What is a good way for parents to teach their children about the world but not expose them, too early, to violence.

Tracy Grant: This is a really tough issue for parents. I think the best way is to let your child take the lead on the issue. If your child asks a lot about world events, then engage them in the conversation. If your child covers his ears when the news comes on the television, you shouldn't push it. I like to think that in KidsPost we offer a good mix, but I still think that as parents, you want to look at the page and make sure that the topic isn't going to be something that's disturbing to your child.

We've done a really nice series of pages called "My Name Is ..." which features kids from all over the world that tells about their lives, their families, their countries and cultures. They are all available online at www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost and those pages are a wonderful way to show kids here in the Washington area ways in which kids halfway around the world are just like them and ways in which their lives are different.

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Washington, D.C.: Another grown KidsPost reader here: I love the features where you look at what life is like for a child in another country. Is there an archive of them online? Any idea where you'll go next?

Tracy Grant: Washington,

See above, the folks at the web site have done a great job of creating an archive of them. They are PDFs and you can print them out. We know that lots of teachers do that. (Can I just say here how FANTASTIC the teachers in the Washington area are and how clever they are about using KidsPost in the classroom). Washington Post foreign correspondents have been great about filing those stories for us and we're looking forward to doing more in the next few months.

We also have another really cool ongoing feature that's available online ... it's called "When I grow up," and looks at careers kids might be interested in. So far we've done a firefighter, a vet and a doctor. We have a real police CSI we're going to profile soon, as well as an astronaut who was on the most recent shuttle mission.

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Falls Church, Va.: I think the exhibit at the Explorer's Hall at the National Geographic Building would be a good article for the Post. There is a model of a Castle that Children would enjoy. Steps up to the model make it easy for little children to see inside.

Tracy Grant: Isn't it fascinating. I've actually gone twice with my own kids. We did an item on it on a Sunday a few weeks back, but I highly recommend it.

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Arlington, Va.: There has been a lot of talk in the schools about bullying and initiatives to stop it. What other topics are going to be on the minds of kids when they go back to school this year?

Tracy Grant: Bullying is a big issue and it's gone well beyond the playground bullying that we knew about as kids. Cyber bullying and online safety is a HUGE issue with kids in the kidspost demographic. We'll have a story next month about ways to stay safe online.

also think that as you head back into the school year, a lack of downtime is a big issue for kids that they may have a hard time expressing. Sure they want to play soccer and be in the band, but there's homework and projects and that can leave very little time for thinking or chasing fireflies or shooting hoops in the neighborhood. I think parents needs to pay very careful attention to the clues that their kids may be sending about being overstressed or overwhelmed.

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Washington, D.C.: How old are your kids? Do they read the section?

Tracy Grant: I have 10-year-old twin sons who are not as faithful readers of the section as you might think. Certain topics or page appeal to them. I will say that they are a great source of story ideas, however. We have a story planned for next week that is a direct outgrowth of my son Christopher asking me at the beach earlier this summer: "why do we get prune fingers." I couldn't answer but I knew we could do a page on it!

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Tracy Grant: I can't believe nobody out there wants to opine on Harry Potter ... have you outgrown it? Do you care who dies? Are you just dying for the last book? (BTW, J.K. Rowling is doing her first reading in the United States in six years next week. She'll be in New York. We'll have a full report in KP next week).

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Springfield, Va.: My daughter loves to visit her grandmother because grandmother has a library of hardback books of all kinds. I thought readers would like to know this. Grandmother got most of them at the library book sales where good books for children are sold at reasonable prices. Fairfax County and Arlington County libraries have these sales twice a year.

Tracy Grant: Library book sales are a great way to pick up books for kids who are voracious readers and who want books "of their own." Most Montgomery County libraries have a sale one weekend a month.

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Sterling, Va.: Over the years, has the paged changed to keep up with children's lives. For instance, what kind of stories do you do now that you would not have done five years ago?

Tracy Grant: Well I think kids today are so much more technologically savvy than they were even five years ago. We've done stories about cell phones for kids as young as 7 years old. The whole issue of online safety is huge and I think as we approach the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, we have to realize that our kids are growing up in a pretty scary world and we have to recognize that. Having said that, kids are still kids, they love toys, they love animals, they love puzzles and games and so there are still some universals.

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Tracy Grant: Thanks to everyone who chatted today!

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