Birdie: By recent Pinecrest High School graduate Nick Reed, who took an early fascination with the HBO series "Band of Brothers" and parlayed it into a book of his own.

His consuming interest in World War II led him to conduct numerous first-person interviews of his own with veterans of the greatest conflict in world history. The result is a book called "World at War: First Hand Accounts From America's Greatest Generation."

As Nick takes off for N.C. State, he can take pride in the fact that few college freshmen can claim to have published a book - especially one on a subject of such profound importance - before even showing up for that first class.

Birdie: By 5-year-old Eva Roukema, for the youthful compassion and initiative she showed last week in setting up a stand on Main Street in Aberdeen to sell cookies and lemonade to benefit a most worthy cause: Animal Advocates of Moore County.

Such humane impulses would appear to run in little Eva's family, which leads a very cosmopolitan life. They live in Paris during the school year, where Eva's father, Ron Roukema, runs Marymount International School. At Christmastime and in the summer, they stay with her mother's parents here.

We salute Eva for finding time to do something so meaningful with at least part of her summer vacation.

Oh, and the animals thank her.