Leon Klein, age 13, of Orlando, Fla., for his question:

WAS ROBIN HOOD A REAL PERSON?

Robin Hood was a legendary English hero of the common people, much as King Arthur was a hero of the upper classes. was a real Robin Hood. Early historians spoke of such a man living in the 1100s and the 1200s, and there are a number of early ballads about such a person.

But the Robin Hood we know today    the one who was an outlaw living in Sherwood Forest with his followers, including Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, Little John and the jolly band of yeomen    must be put into the literary world and not the real world.

Sir Walter Scott introduced him in "Ivanhoe" and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, made him the central figure in a drama. Howard Pyle wove old tales into the "Merry Aventures of Robin Hood."