Kids Toon In

Five San Fernando Valley-area students are amonth 100 kindergarten through 12th-graders whose work was selected to appear in ‘Editorial Cartoons by Kids 1997,’ recently published by Zino Press Children’s Books in Madison, Wis. The cartoons were chosen from 10,000 entered in the national ninth annual NewsCurrents Student Editorial Cartoon Contest. Entries were judged on their originality and intelligence, not artistic merit. Seeking a closer view of the creative muse that visited the Valley last school year, The Times caught up with the young artists and talked with them about their work.

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BRANDON BARUCH, 12, Laurel Canyon

School: Entering seventh grade at Oakwood School in North Hollywood

Inspiration: It’s so hard. You see the stereotypes, you see certain people at McDonald’s, and then you see other people in big businesses. I hate it that different minority and religious groups get different pay.

OSVALDO RIOS, 16, Los Angeles

School: Entering 12th grade at Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies.

Inspiration: When the [North Hollywood] shootout was going on, people in school were talking about it, like, Hey, did you see those robbers on TV? Everybody was doing cartoons on it. So I had to come up with something different.

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AMY REYNOLDS, 13, Sherman Oaks

School: Entering ninth grade at Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies in Reseda.

Inspiration: I was reading the newspaper and the Lincoln Bedroom controversy was in there a lot. Lincoln has that distinctive look. [Teacher Don LaFraniere] said I needed to make him look more presidential. So I started looking at a line of presidents he has on his wall.

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MARISA LEIGH KROLL, 14, Woodland Hills

School: Entering ninth grade at El Camino Real High School in West Hills. (Completed cartoon while a student at Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies.)

Inspiration: I was thinking about how we’re having so many problems with weapons and drugs in the schools. It seems like you can buy all kinds of drugs off the back of a truck. And then they arrest this girl for having Midol [at an Ohio school]. It’s so ridiculous.

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MINA NASSERI, 13, Reseda

School: Entering ninth grade at Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies.

Inspiration: Marisa [Kroll] and I were on the phone, and the idea just came to us. We actually came up with five of them all together.... The ideas kept flowing.

Compiled by correspondent DADE HAYES; cartoons courtesy of Knowledge Unlimited Inc.