Kitchen Changes for the New Year

By Penny Rhoads 

Portfolio Elective kids cooking in the new kitchen.

Last spring Ian Holbrook’s dad, John Holbrook, contacted Roni Anton, Project Learn School’s (PLS) Administrator about an IKEA grant for $ 10,000. The grant, sponsored by IKEA was for IKEA materials and design expertise for a given project. The staff thought it would be a great way to get the older kitchen remodeled. Daily votes was the way to win the grant. Roni sent out an email to the PLS community asking each person to vote. She sent reminders each day to go onto the IKEA website and vote for Project Learn. The results came back and PLS had the most votes. This meant that PLS won the ten-thousand dollars worth of IKEA planning and cabinets and hardware. So began the summer renovations of PLS’ old kitchen.

    Joan Fox, PLS’ art teacher, describes the old kitchen as old, dirty, and dingy. There were no doors on the cabinets and at one point, Roni brought some from her house.

    Roni says it took all summer to demolish and rebuild the new kitchen and they had to hire people to help put in the appliances. Lots of people came in to help put together the kitchen. Some of those people were Joan, her daughter Annie, Fran her mother in law, Roni, John Holbrook, Zulette Henry, and James Strauss, Aidan and Cora’s dad.

    Joan says that even before the remodeling the kitchen was used a lot. She says that cooking is a big part of PLS but the new kitchen has made it a lot easier.

    Nadja Anderson Oberman in sixth grade says,” It’s made cooking a lot easier. The new set up makes the kitchen look much bigger and the new kitchen has improved cooking at PLS, so much.” Cooking is a big part of PLS, but with the new kitchen  cooking is much easier.

     Roni says that five or six years ago an anonymous person donated a large amount of money to PLS. In the end, PLS only had to use a small portion of it to help offset the cost of the kitchen. With the extra money it was decided to buy new water fountains for the first and third floor.

     All the groups who cook in the kitchen agree the remodel has been a perfect addition to PLS’ cooking adventures.

Book Review: Wonderstruck

By Sylvie Goodblatt

The characters of the book Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick, Rose and Ben, seem to have nothing in common, other than that Rose is deaf and Ben is deaf in one ear. They are from different time periods and places; Ben from Gunflint Lake, Minnesota, in 1977, and Rose from Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1927. Even though Wonderstruck is historical fiction, it is told in a way that I think, even people who don’t like that genre can enjoy.

Rose and Ben’s stories are even told differently; Ben in words and Rose in pictures; though both are pretty amazingly done.

    When Ben’s mom dies in a car crash, he moves in with his aunt, uncle, and cousins, and his house is left to be dealt with by his aunt and uncle, although he doesn't want them to sell it. On a stormy night, he visits the house and finds what might be information about his long lost father. Trying to contact him by phone, Ben gets knocked out by a lightning strike. He is sent to a hospital and his good ear is damaged. Then, without anyone knowing, Ben sneaks out to  New York City to find his father.

    Rose spends her time looking out her bedroom window at New York City and making models of the buildings she sees. She keeps a scrapbook of an actress named Lillian Mayhew, who is actually her mother. Her dad does not like Rose going out in the city, as he feels it’s not safe for a deaf girl to be out alone. However, Rose sneaks out to the movies anyway, and then sneaks out to New York City to see her mother. Lillian Mayhew gets very annoyed and gets someone to bring Rose back, but she sneaks back home by herself.

   These two stories intertwine in unpredictable ways, not unlike the way the characters in Brian Selznick’s last book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. In Wonderstruck, Brian Selznick takes Ben and Rose, and joins their stories together, helping both protagonists.

Wonderstruck has slight mystery, and even though it is short, it is very thoughtful.

Brian Selznick has found a creative new way to write books for kids.

    I would rate Wonderstruck three out of five, because even though it is very good, it is a little too short in my opinion. The concept is so thoughtful, I would have liked to have read more. In the beginning it was also a little hard for me to get into the book because of all the illustrations.

 I think Wonderstruck is good for a lot of different ages. From a nine year old who is a good reader and who wants a more interesting story, to an eleven or twelve year old who wants a quick read with pictures, that still has a good story.