Oakmont School

Why did the rooster cross the road? Because the chicken was on vacation. Haley, 10 Oakmont School Claremont -- What do you call a string that is bad? Knotty. Natalie, 11 Pasadena Christian School Pasaden -- Kids, send us your funny jokes and puzzling riddles.

The City Council is conducting a series of neighborhood meetings that will culminate in a town meeting Dec. 12 to solicit residents' ideas about ways to address anticipated city budget shortfalls in the next five years. The town meeting will be at 10 a.m. at Bridges Auditorium, 400 N. College Way. Three neighborhood meetings have been held. The remaining four, all starting at 7 p.m., will be as follows: Monday, Oakmont School, 120 W. Green St.; Tuesday, Sumner School, 1770 N. Sumner St.

Kristi Ahlstedt, who averaged 23.6 points a game for Oakmont High School in Roseville, Calif., signed a national letter of intent to attend UC Irvine on a basketball scholarship, UCI announced Friday. Ahlstedt, a 5-foot 6-inch guard, was voted the most valuable player of the Sierra Foothill League and was also being recruited by Air Force and San Jose State.

"A Father's Homecoming," airing Sunday at 9 p.m. (Channels 4, 36 and 39), was directed by Rick Wallace, who has "Hill Street Blues" and "L.A. Law" to his credit, and was written by the "American Graffiti" team of Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck. Which just goes to prove that nobody's perfect. Written in the dramedy vein--thoughtful and tragic, but full of yuks--the film features Michael McKean as a former child of the '60s who becomes headmaster of a ritzy prep school.

"The Midnight Fox" Betsy Byars This book is about a boy named Tom, but his mother calls him Tommy. One day, Tom's mother told him that he had to go stay at his aunt's farm for two months. He did not want to go since he was a city boy. On the farm, he saw baby lambs, dogs, and chickens. Sadly, Tom was very lonely, until he had a dream about the midnight fox. To his surprise, he meets the midnight fox. She had shiny black fur, brown eyes and white paws.

Quiet and polite, with a penchant for keeping his emotions in check and his clothes clean and pressed, Gurpreet Singh seemed a perfect fit as a retail shoe salesman. That was back when most people knew the 17-year-old Sikh American as "G" and he worked part time at a department store near his hometown of Antelope, outside Sacramento. But in 2007, Singh enlisted in the Marines and soon seemed older, more authoritative, those close to him said. Cpl. Gurpreet Singh, an infantryman, was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, based at Camp Pendleton . "G was a different guy when he came home on leave after his first tour in Afghanistan," recalled Joaquin Zavala, 22, of Antelope.

"Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Reader" Tracey West Jaden has to duel for his helper in the shadow realm, so he can become the next king of games. When Jaden is slammed by a card, it comes in front of him and he almost dies. When that happened, I felt like I was going to jump in the book and help Jaden become the king of games. I think the author wrote this book to teach kids how to play better.

"If You Give a Moose a Muffin" Laura Joffe Numeroff One day, a moose showed up in front of a boy's house. The boy gave the moose a muffin and the moose wanted more. First, the moose wanted jam with his muffin. When he finished the muffin, he wanted more again and again. When all the muffins were gone, the moose wanted the boy to make more. The boy was all out of muffin mix, so he and the moose went to the store. It was chilly outside, so the moose asked for a sweater.

"Magyk" Angie Sage Silas Heap is a seventh son. He rescues a half-frozen baby girl in the forest on the same night as his son, the seventh son of a seventh son, Septimus Heap, is born. Baby Septimus is destined for greatness, for the seventh sons of seventh sons always have great Magykcal powers. But he is pronounced dead by the midwife, who quickly carries him away. The Heaps care for the baby girl, Jenna, as if she were their own child.

This project was based in part on reporting from Times staff writers Richard Lee Colvin at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles; Mark Gladstone at Oakmont High School in Roseville, Placer County; Duke Helfand at Granada Hills High School in Granada Hills; Tina Nguyen at Katella High School in Anaheim; Tony Perry at Hoover High School in San Diego; Doug Smith at Taft Union High School in Taft, Kern County; and Elaine Woo at Arcadia High School, Arcadia.