ByDennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Kellie Nakahara, left, and Chelsea Iwami are thrilled
to win autographed copies of Lisa Matsumoto and
Michael Furuya's "Beyond 'Ohi'a Valley."

"Beyond 'Ohi'a Valley," written by Lisa Matsumoto and illustrated by Michael Furuya, tells the tale of the tree snail Kahuli and the dangers he faces after he accidentally is removed from his rain forest home.

To help spread their message of the need to protect the Hawaiian rain forest, and because they're generous people, Matsumoto and Furuya agreed to sponsor a contest for Kids Only! readers. They judged the entries and provided autographed cop-ies of "Beyond 'Ohi'a Valley" for the kid who wrote the best essay on the importance of saving the rain forest, and for the kid who drew the best picture of a favorite rain forest creature.

Chelsea went beyond Hawaii for her winning artwork. She submitted a crayon drawing of the kinkajou, a tree-dwelling critter resembling a raccoon. The kinkajou lives in the Central and South American rain forests.

Kellie went beyond the facts and wrote from the heart in a plea to save rain forests for the animals and plants that make their homes there and cannot survive in another environment.

In addition to being girls of the same age, our winners have much else in common. They are both third graders - Chelsea at Noelani School and Kellie at Punahou School.

They each have an older brother. Both have fishes, birds and dogs for pets. Both girls entered the contest at the urging of their mothers. And both girls are big fans of work by Matsumoto and Furuya.

You'll be sorely disappointed, potty-mouth.

Unlike many chat rooms on online services, FreeZone makes sure the talk stays at a PG-rated level. The site, run by a Chicago kid-stuff company called Curiocity, goes to great lengths making sure their 7-and-up readers don't face the Internet's ugly side.

"I think a lot of kids feel safe there," says Dan Gilbreath, a chat room monitor. "They talk about going into other chat rooms and seeing sexual language and being solicited to go into private chat rooms."

Staffers such as Gilbreath, 26, always join and monitor conversations to make sure topics don't stray into the foul, the violent, the insulting.

Plus, a computerized word filter instantly recognizes naughty lingo and replaces it with something harmless. Chit-chatters trying to type bad language will see on the screen, instead, stuff like "Kiss my cutie" or "Smurf you."

Gilbreath likes to keep the subjects fun, too, sometimes starting food fights ("dan gets a Jell-O banana pie in the face") and helping kids with their homework and problems.

"We offer a teen chat room a couple of nights a week where some topics aren't so taboo," he says. "They'll talk about sex in school, for example, as long as it's done tastefully."

Membership on the site, http://freezone.com, is free. Just watch your smurfing mouth.