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Middle School Newsletter

Seventh Graders Enjoy Workshops

during Upper School Exam Week

The Falcon Times

Joshua Rothstein, Staff Writer

Grade 7

WHILE the sixth graders were away in Becket and the eighth graders and Upper School students

took exams, the seventh grade students got to participate in various workshops and see the

Broadway show West Side Story during the week of January 18.

On Tuesday, the students participated in five workshops, three in the morning and two in the

afternoon. The topics ranged from “Baking Scones” to “Immigration Law and Reform.” Some

of the workshops were led by parents, such as “Juggling,” led by Max Dobens, and “Magazine

Editing,” led by Will Dana, the Managing Editor of Rolling Stone magazine. The great thing about

the workshops was that there was something for everyone, whether you wanted to learn about

something serious or something amusing.

On Wednesday morning, students participated in five workshops relating to West Side Story.

These included dance, learning about Shakespeare, learning about various aspects of theater,

watching a video about Broadway, and making mini adaptations of classics like Snow White and

The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. Following this, the students and some teachers traveled

to The Palace Theatre by bus and enjoyed seeing West Side Story.

On Thursday morning, the seventh grade class had a Skype video chat with RCS alumna Emily

Katz ‟01, a staff member for Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. Ms. Katz is very involved with the

Health Care Bill. In addition to answering questions about the Health Care Bill, she also

answered questions about how a bill is made, other bills, and her favorite part of her job. After

this, a panel including Chuck Lesnick (President of Yonkers City Council), Bill Weitz (Chief of

Staff for Congressman Elliot Engel), Heather Grossman (political blogger and reporter), and

others talked to the students. Following the panel, the students were put into break-out groups

led by the speakers on the panel. The students talked about being involved in politics, from

student government to volunteering, and other topics of interest relating to the panel.

During the lunch break that followed, New York State Senator Eric Schneiderman talked to the

members of The Falcon Times. After this, he spoke to the entire seventh grade class about the

importance of staying involved with and aware of current events and politics. He urged the

students to volunteer and write to government officials about their concerns. After this, break-

out groups were led by Mr. Dana and Donna Liberman, the Executive Director of the New

York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), on the topics of “Politics and the Media” and “Politics

and the First Amendment.”

At the end of the week, the seventh graders all agreed that they had a great time and left school

excited for the coming weeks.

Senator Eric Schneiderman of NY sits

down to speak with the members of the

Falcon Times.

V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 2 M A R C H 2 0 1 0 I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E

Camp Becket 2 Diversity Assembly 3 Winter Olympics 2010 4

New Orleans 6

Haiti 7

Black History Month 8

Movie and Book Blurbs 9

2

Day 1: Bus ride to Becket

Tuesday, January 19

I woke up very early around 6 a.m. I dragged myself

out of bed so early for one reason and one reason alone:

Today is the day that the sixth grade is leaving for the

Berkshire Mountains.

I ate breakfast with feelings of excitement, fear, and

longing in the pit of

my stomach. After

breakfast, I put on

long underwear and

jeans, a combination

that I would wear

almost every day

while at Becket.

When I

arrived at Riverdale around 7:40 a.m., most of my grade was

already there. I stood by the gate, talking to people about my

conflicted feelings of wanting to go and not wanting to go,

feeling excited and scared, and everything in between.

Eventually we loaded the buses, one for 6-1 and 6-3 and the

other for 6-2 and 6-4. On the buses, we watched movies to

pass the time.

Day 1-Day 2: Activities

Tuesday, January 19-Wednesday, January 20

We arrived at Becket in time for lunch: grilled

cheese. During lunch, we were told our bunk assignments,

table groups (which made sitting with our tables very easy

because we didn‟t even have to choose where to sit), and

activity groups: A, B, C, D, and E.

After lunch, we all got ready for our activities for the

afternoon: cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, team building,

rock climbing, or tubing down a snowy hill.

The first night was movie night. We watched the

new Star Trek, which, for a “Trekie” like me, was a good

choice. After the movie, we made our way back to our rooms

which each had six or seven people. We spread out sleeping

bags on the mattresses and changed into our pajamas at

Camp Becket for the first time.

The next morning we woke up to a breakfast of

waffles. After breakfast, we got ready for more activities with

our groups. We had two activities in the morning before a

lunch of BLTs.

After lunch we had more activity periods with our

groups, and then we played a game called “Dutch Auction”

around dinnertime. In this game, you are given a category,

like something that a teacher would have in his or her desk,

and we had to make up a story for why an object, like a

bracelet, would fit in that category.

After “Dutch Auction,” we had dinner: roast beef,

potatoes, and then ice cream for dessert. Throughout dinner

we were all very excited for the talent show, which was

coming after dinner.

Following dinner, we all went back to our bunks to

get ready for the talent show. Once we got to the Arts Center,

we were all very surprised when Lizzie, one of the staff

members from Becket, told us that we were going to play a

game called “Zingers” before the talent show.

Lizzie told us that our groups would be the same as

our lunch tables: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10. There were

many mini-games that were all part of the larger game. We

were told to keep track of the points we made from games

like passing a bucket of tennis balls around, naming

celebrities, jumping rope, naming countries, making animals

out of Playdough, passing a hula hoop around, or building a

tower with blocks.

After the game, Lizzie asked us to raise our hands if

we thought we had won. She then told us that there was no

winner. Our tables were our groups, not our teams. Zingers

taught us that winning is not the most important thing, even

though it might feel that way sometimes.

(continued on page 3)

Camp Becket: A Journal

Rebecca Thau, Staff Writer

Grade 6

3

After Zingers, we had the talent

show, which everyone was looking

forward to. Anabelle Getz, Eliza Lesser,

and Isabelle Leeds were the emcees. They

introduced people by way of commercial

and television shows.

Plenty of people preformed,

including even a performance of “Pants

on the Ground,” originally sung by

“General” Larry Platt on American Idol.

Day 3: Packing

Thursday, January 21, 2010

We woke up on the last morning

of our trip and got ready like any other

morning.

For our last breakfast at Camp

Becket, we had scrambled eggs, English

muffins, and hash browns.

After breakfast, we packed our

bags. Then we had a choice of what we

could do: play Gaga, an Israeli game

similar to dodgeball, play broomball, play

four square, or play in the snow outside.

We played until it was time for our last

meal at Camp Becket: hamburgers and

French fries.

Day 3: Bus ride from Becket

On our way home, we were again

split into two buses: 6-1 with 6-3 and 6-2

with 6-4. We watched movies again to

pass the time.

We arrived at school after three

days of being away. Even though it was

colder at Becket than it was at school,

everyone was happy to have a vacation in

the middle of a school week, especially

while the Upper Schoolers had to take

midterms.

Camp Becket: A Journal

(continued from page 2)

IN JANUARY, the Middle School had a diversity assembly with Gay

Lesbian Or Whatever (GLOW), the Hispanic Organization for Latino

Awareness (HOLA), and the Black Student Alliance. They spoke a little

at the beginning, and then we watched some video clips of an ABC

show called “What would you do?”

The first clip we watched was called “Shopping While Black.” It

showed how a black woman was discriminated against when shopping.

Most people ignored her as she fought with the saleswoman about why

she was considered “that type” or why she could not shop there

because she would not be able to pay, which was not true. Two ladies

saw the woman struggling and went up to her and told her that she

should not be treated that way and they walked out of the store with

her.

In the second clip, called “Overweight Woman Verbally Attacked,”

three girls teased an overweight woman who was sitting on a bench and

eating. Eventually a woman with a baby went over and told them to

stop, and she said she could not sit there and watch someone being hurt

like that with no one to stand up for her.

In the next clip, “Gay Men Criticized at Sports Bar,” people at a bar

told an affectionate gay couple that they were making them feel

“uncomfortable” and demanded they leave. Not many people were

willing to stand up for them.

The last clip we watched, “Confronting Racism,” showed a scenario

where immigrant workers were refused service at a deli because they did

not speak English. Another man told them to leave and listen to the

employees. No one stood up for them and eventually Marc Summers,

the host, had to step in and tell the man telling them to go that this was

for television to see how people would react. Then Marc Summers, a

Mexican American himself, decided he wanted to see how it would feel

to be in the immigrants‟ position so he went back in with one of the

original immigrants to do it again. This time, a man stood up for the

immigrants and helped them out.

It was very interesting to see how other people reacted to these tough

situations. I hope that if any of us were ever confronted in one these

situations or something similar, we would all do the right thing and

speak up.

Diversity Assembly Teaches the

Value of Speaking Up

Sarah Horne, Staff Writer

Grade 7

4

Winter Olympics 2010

Speed Skater Overcomes Injury to Win Bronze

Rebecca Thau, Staff Writer

Grade 6

ON SATURDAY, February 9, 2010, speed skater J. R.

Celski took home a bronze metal in the 1500 m final. This

accomplishment came after Celski had a very serious injury

during the Olympic trials just five months before that

threatened his chances at ever skating again.

When his injury occurred in September, Celski laid on the

ice with his left thigh cut open by his own blade. The injury

almost cut into the artery and might have been fatal.

Luckily, the blade only cut into the muscle. However,

Celski did need a total of 60 stitches for his injury.

After the injury, Celski entered rehabilitation with Dr. Eric

Heiden, a speed skating legend turned surgeon, and then

with Dr. Bill Moreau, Director for Sports Medicine Clinics

for the USA Olympic Committee.

By October, Celski stopped using crutches but still could

not skate. However, he did watch people skate at the rink

near his house to stay motivated.

When he finally got back on the ice in November, eight

weeks before the Olympics, he was very slow and tentative.

He fell a few times during his training.

But during the 1500 m race, he was skating in fifth place

when the two South Koreans in front of him knocked into

each other, literally knocking each other out of the running

and leaving an opening for him to take the bronze.

Later, during the 5000 m relay, Celski won another bronze,

proving that it is possible to come back from a serious

injury to win big.

Apollo Ohno Breaks Record

Olivia Corn, Staff Writer

Grade 7

APOLO Anton Ohno was just a regular kid whose life

was going in the wrong direction when his father took

him to the skating rink and gave him his very own pair

of speed skates. Now, Apolo Ohno is one of the best

speed skaters in the world. His father said “If I had not

taken Apolo to the rink at the time I did, he would either

be on the streets or in jail.” How does someone turn his

or her life around like that? The answer is passion.

In the 1500 m final, Ohno won his sixth medal, a silver,

after two Korean skaters, Lee Ho-Suk and Sung Si-Bak

crashed into the wall during the final turn of the final

lap. In the 1000 m final, Ohno earned the bronze,

making him the most decorated American athlete ever at

the Winter Games with seven career medals. In his last

event, the 5000 m relay with teammates J. R. Celski,

Simon Cho, Travis Jayner, Jordan Malone, he won his

eighth medal, a bronze.

Through many dramatic and edge-of-your-seat events,

Ohno broke the record and remains one of the most

well-respected speed skaters of all time. I hope he will be

back for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia. If he does

skate, I can guarantee a medal for the U.S.

The United States relay team celebrates the bronze medal after the Men's 5000m Relay Short Track Speed Skating Final on day 15 of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics

Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images

5

Winter Olympics 2010

Canada Takes Ice Hockey Gold

Ethan Rosenthal, Staff Writer

Grade 7

THE MEN‟S Olympic ice hockey tournament this year was full

of exciting finishes and great games. I had the pleasure to see

the first United States-Switzerland game. The atmosphere was

unbelievable. Fans from all over the U.S. came out to support

our country. During the game, the family of American captain

Jaime Lagenbrunner predicted that the American team would

travel far in the tournament, and of course they did! One

interesting fact about the American team is that there are seven

people who have Ryan in their name. This includes the most

valuable player of the tournament, goalie Ryan Miller.

Hockey is a religion in Canada. During the winter, people turn

backyards into ice rinks and from a young age, most Canadians

are exposed to the sport. Some of the greatest NHL stars have

come from Canada, including Wayne Gretsky and Sidney

Crosby. Team Canada faced a great deal of criticism after their

4-3 loss to the United States but rebounded to beat Germany,

tournament favorite Russia, and in a close, gold-medal matchup,

the United States. Some standout players from the Canadian

team during the tournament were Captain Scott Neidemeyer

and assistant captain Sidney Crosby.

When the final whistle blew at Canada Hockey Place, otherwise

known as GM Place, the Canadians had won the gold, the

Americans had won the silver, and the Finnish won the bronze.

After the loss to the Americans, Team Canada was able to

regroup and take the gold. The Americans, who went unbeaten

into the finals, played an extraordinary game but were only able

to win the silver. The Finnish team had gone mostly under the

radar for the whole tournament but ended up winning the

bronze. As the Olympics ended, Canadians were able to come

away buzzing with national pride as their countrymen took gold

in hockey. For all the other teams, they will have to wait another

four years until they have the opportunity to fight for the gold

again.

Team Canada's Joe Thornton, Dan Boyle,

Jarome Iginla, Sidney Crosby and Chris Pronger

pose for the team photo with the gold medals

they were awarded after their overtime victory

over the USA during the gold medal men's

hockey game during the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Photo: John Mahoney / Canwest News

Service

Team Canada's Corey Perry (24, right)

scores on Team USA's goalie Ryan Miller

(39, center) and Ryan Whitney (19, left)

during the second period of the men's

Olympic hockey gold medal game during

the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Photo: Ric Ernst / Canwest News

Service

6

ON FEBRUARY 24, at 5:30 a.m., 24 Riverdale students,

Mr. Sipp, and two enthusiastic parents met at the John F

Kennedy International Airport to embark on a three-day

visit to New Orleans. All of us were exhausted from the

early wake up, but excited to begin the trip.

From the moment we got to New Orleans to the moment

we left, we were on the move. Once we got off the plane,

we met Big E (Eric) and the rest of his drivers to drive to

the restaurant Oceana. Once there, we talked and ate the

great food. After this we drove to the Samuel Green

Charter School. We saw the library that everyone helped

build last year. It is not just a library, though; it is also a

center for reading, studying, learning, and just hanging

out…quietly. We then got to see the “edible schoolyard”

outside of the high-tech-cooking classroom. The edible

schoolyard is a garden where each class has time to learn

about how to grow and prepare the vegetables and food.

The kids grow things that have to do with what they are

learning about. The thing that stands out to me about the

school is that not one resource is left untouched. For

example, there was a natural low spot in the garden that

often filled up with water, so the school decided to

permanently make it a swamp area so they could teach kids

about swamplands.

After this we went to speak to Robert Green, a man who

spoke to the students on last year‟s trip. Last year, he was

living in a trailer, and now he is living in a two-story house.

All of the students were extremely impressed with his

attitude and personality.

Following our visit, we went to the hotel to relax and rest

from the tiring first day. After dinner that night, we saw

the filming of a new movie called Earthbound, starring Kate

Hudson and Whoopi Goldberg.

The next day we went to the renowned restaurant, Café

Du Monde for breakfast. After this we went to do our

community service project. We worked with the Beacon of

Hope to scrape off an entire layer of paint so that the

house we were working on could be repainted a few days

later. Following this project, we went shopping and

swimming in the hotel.

The next day we woke up at 7:20 a.m. and drove to the

airport. We ended up having a five-hour delay. To pass the

time we did activities like card games and hide-and-go-

seek. By the time we finally arrived back in New York all

of us were exhausted, happy to be home, but already

missing New Orleans. This trip had a huge impact on all of

us, and we will remember it for the rest of our lives.

Riverdale Takes Second Annual Trip to New

Orleans Joshua Rothste in , Staf f Writer

Grade 7

7

Haiti: Life after the Earthquake Kirk Thaker, Staff Writer

Grade 7

ON JANUARY 12, 2010 at 4:53 PM, the earth shook in Haiti for a total of

35 seconds. When it stopped, countless people were dead, and many more

were trapped in the rubble of innumerable collapsed buildings.

A few months later, Haiti still needs help. The earthquake, which measured

7.0 on the Richter scale, devastated most of the cities in Haiti. The worst

hit was Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, which was 15 miles west from

the epicenter of the earthquake. A 7.0 magnitude earthquake in itself would

not have destroyed Haiti as it did, but combined with poor infrastructure, it

was a recipe for disaster.

According to the Haitian government, the death toll is approximately

217,000 people, which is approximately half of the population in Wyoming.

In fact, a large amount of these deaths did not directly come from the

earthquake. Most died because they were trapped in the rubble of a

building for too long without any aid. Of course, people were rescued from

the rubble, and those that had the best chance of survival and rescue were

the ones trapped in the rubble with easy access to food and water. A

Haitian man said, “I survived by drinking Coca-Cola. I drank Coca-Cola

every day, and I ate some little tiny things,” after he was pulled from the

rubble of a grocery store 11 days after the earthquake.

Still, the hope for rescues from rubble have waned after more than a

month, and now the focus is on rebuilding Haiti. Some of the problems

include shelter and disease outbreaks. People are taking shelter in massive

“tent cities,” which are crowded and in danger of disease outbreaks.

Typhoid, malaria, and cholera are just a few of the worries of the Haitian

people due to the upcoming monsoon season.

Medicine is also needed, and some hospitals in Haiti have collapsed, while

others have been overwhelmed with patients. Food and water is becoming

less scarce as more aid comes in, but it is arguably not fast enough. The

government is in disarray – even the Haitian Prime Minister‟s palace

collapsed, a structure which a person would expect to be safe, showing just

how badly the earthquake affected Haiti.

Another concern would be about the children of Haiti, many of whom are

orphaned and without an education. Yet as time moves on, and the

cameras move away from Haiti, the work in it will still go on. Eventually,

inevitably, Haiti will rebuild and come back to life, but it needs our help

right now.

Photo: Courtesy of the

Washington Post

Photo: Courtesy of

examiner.com

8

FEBRUARY is Black History Month. It is celebrated in

the USA and in Canada in February, and it is celebrated in

October in the UK. The holiday was originated in 1926 by

a historian named Carter Woodson. When it originated, it

was called “Black History Week.” It was the second week

in February because it was near the birthdays of two

important people related to black history: President

Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglass.

Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809. He served as the

sixteenth President of the United States of America. He

led the USA through the Civil War and wrote the

Emancipation Proclamation. He was an abolitionist. He

wrote the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery

and involuntary service.

Frederick Douglass was a slave who became an

abolitionist. He later wrote a book about his life, where he

talked about things like escaping from his slave owner, Mr.

Freeland. He boarded a train in 1833 dressed in a sailor‟s

uniform. He carried identification papers that were

provided by a free African American seaman.

A famous African American graduate from Riverdale was

Calvin Hill. He graduated RCS in 1965. He played football

for Yale University and graduated in 1969. For the 1968

season, his football team went undefeated except for the

last game of the season, which was a 29-29 tie with

Harvard. He later went on to play for the Dallas Cowboys,

Washington Redskins, and Cleveland Browns.

The first African American students came to Riverdale in

the 1950s, though many students of different backgrounds,

especially international students, came before then.

Dozens of students of color appear in the Riverdalian over

a span of 15 years after 1950. One of the most prominent

of those students was Adam Clayton Powell III, son of

Adam Clayton Powell Jr., the first African American

elected to Congress from New York. He graduated from

Riverdale in 1963 and is now currently the Vice Provost

for Globalization at USC and one of the world‟s leading

authorities on the use of the internet for journalism.

According to Harold E. Klue in his book Riverdale Country

School: The Jones Years 1949-1972, the board decided to

bring five students to Riverdale for the ‟67-‟68 school year

through A Better Chance, a program for economically

disadvantaged but academically able kids. The students

were given a crash course in English and math during the

summer and then guaranteed that they would be placed in

either RCS or another private school. At the board

meeting in November 1969, the school agreed to enroll

black and Hispanic students to make up 10 percent of the

school population if financing could be found.

According to Al Davis, the school historian, many of these

kids were put in a position that they were not used to. Mr.

Davis continued to say that it was not because they weren‟t

as good as the other students that they felt different; rather

it was because they were the minority. Mr. Davis

continued to say that once he was invited to a party where

the majority of guests were African American, and he felt

different because he was the minority.

As Mr. Davis starting thinking about when African

American students first started coming to Riverdale, he

started remembering how the students of color and

Caucasian students would separate themselves for

comfort. “But now,” Mr. Davis said, referring to a table in

the lunchroom near ours where African American students

and Caucasian students were sitting together, “It seems

natural.”

Discovering Black History Month Rebecca Thau, Staff Writer

Grade 6

9

LET ME start off by saying that nobody is truly satisfied

with a movie based on a book. In the end, the book is

always better. Words cannot explain how distraught I

was when I saw the Cat in the Hat movie. I have read that

book about 1,000 times and I still can‟t find the part

where that purple goo tornado sucks up Dakota Fanning!

When you make a movie

about a book you have to

take out scenes, add scenes,

remove characters, add

characters, and sometimes

even write a totally different

story. That‟s what happened

with Percy Jackson.

First, let me lay down the

plot. Percy Jackson is a

teenage boy who suffers

with ADHD and dyslexia.

He can only think clearly in water and stays under for 10

minutes at a time. For some reason, nobody called the

record book people. He soon learns that he is the son of

Poseidon, that his best friend, Grover, is a satyr (half

goat, half man), and his teacher is the centaur known as

Chiron. He goes to a camp made for people like him

(demigods: half gods, half humans) where he meets

Annabeth, a daughter of Athena. While he is there,

Zeus‟s master bolt is stolen, and Zeus frames Percy.

Percy then joins up with Grover and Annabeth to find

the master bolt in the Underworld and save the day.

I have read all the books in the Percy Jackson series and

actually re-read the first one to refresh my memory and

really see how well the movie followed the book. What a

pointless venture that was! The movie had almost a

completely different premise. Instead of Percy just going

to find the master bolt, he now has to find three pearls

hidden all around the U.S that will get him out of the

Underworld. In the book, the pearls were just given to

Percy in two pages, but now they are in the whole movie!

Two of them were hidden in places that were visited in

the book. Of course they were altered just a tiny bit, but

it was still nice to see something I actually remembered

from the book. The other one is a new scene that takes

place at a Parthenon replica in Nashville. When Percy

and his friends were there, monsters attacked them.

When I was in Nashville, I almost had to go into a mall

tornado shelter. Something is seriously wrong with

Nashville, and it is not Miley Cyrus.

Characters were also changed, their personalities mostly

but also some of their physical traits. Their ages were also

raised to make it more appealing to an older audience.

That didn‟t matter because they were all good looking.

All the books are told in Percy‟s point of view and since

the movie is not, everybody seems two-dimensional.

Percy just seemed really boring and confused all the time.

It was hard to believe that his thoughts are actually

interesting like in the book. They took out characters,

and with characters, go scenes, and with scenes, go plot

points.

The Lightening Thief is an okay movie with all the regular

clichés you would expect with some solid action and

effects. But as a book adaption, it is incredibly lacking.

Reading the book before just gave me the power to

nitpick it to death. If you haven‟t read the books, you

may like this movie. I know my sister did, but I‟m pretty

sure it was only because of the boy who plays Percy. But

as a person who has enjoyed these books for two years, I

felt mad that they could not capture the book‟s spirit on

screen. If they decide to make a sequel as the colon in the

title implies, they could barely do it because they didn‟t

add so much. As a lover of movies, though, I understand

why they did what they did and I forgive them… slightly.

MOVIE BLURB

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief John Cicco, Staff Writer

Grade 6

10

IN FEBRUARY, the movie Percy Jackson

and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

came out, and a lot of people liked it.

This July, everyone will be jumping and

screaming for a new sensation, the next

Harry Potter movie.

Some people question if Harry Potter

can be as good as the Percy Jackson series.

In an interview, David Heyman, the

producer of Harry Potter and the Deathly

Hollows has revealed that the movie will

be like one movie but will be shown in

two parts. The first part will come out

this summer, and the second part will

come out in 2011. It will be shown in

two parts because the length of the

movie is too much.

The whole crew barely made it through

the previous Harry Potter movie, Harry

Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The movie

was exactly 2 hours, 33 minutes, and 19

seconds. Since there is a lot more

information in Harry Potter and the Deathly

Hollows, there would be no way to fit all

of it into one movie.

Also this summer, the new Harry Potter

theme park will open in Orlando,

Florida. This theme park will be called

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

There is a lot to look forward to if you

like Harry Potter.

MOVIE BLURB Harry Potter

Jordan Knitzer, Staff Writer

Grade 6

When Jess, Emma, Cassidy, and Megan‟s parents tell

them that they are joining a mother-daughter book

club, none of them are anywhere close to being

thrilled to join. The girls are from separate cliques, you

could say different ends of the „food chain.‟ Emma

and Jess are best friends, the smartest ones in class,

and Emma is Jess‟s support foundation while Jess‟s

mom is gone in New York City for her lead in a soap

opera. Cassidy, daughter of supermodel Clementine,

can only think about her lost dad and sports, and she

can barely keep from failing, so the book club is just

another lame responsibility for her. Megan, who is an

upcoming fashion designer, is the hated one in the

group. She is in the ever-exclusive, “Fab Four,” and

just about everyone can‟t stand these superior

fashionistas. However, all of these girls have one thing

in common. They are positive that the book club is an

apocalyptic disaster waiting to happen.

The Mother Daughter Book Club is an excellent series

written by Heather Vogel Frederick. Frederick clearly

has a love for literature because throughout the

novels, the young protagonists learn to appreciate

literature and connect it to their real lives. However,

despite a few conflicts, the girls seem extremely happy

in the end. They never have to face something serious,

and have to live with the problem, which makes the

series fun to read but may not teach us as much about

real life. In each part of the series, the girls and their

mothers read a classic story and discuss it. Through

the series, the girls go through middle school together,

with Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Daddy Long

Legs, and many more classic novels as guides. When

being picked on by the “Fab Four,” they think back

and try to do what Jo March or Louisa May Alcott

would do. This isn‟t the right book if you want to cry

or learn serious life lessons. However, if you are

looking for a laugh or something that will make your

heart warm and fuzzy, this is the perfect book for you.

BOOK BLURB

The Mother-Daughter Book Club Anabel Getz, Staff Writer

Grade 6

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Sudoku

Fill in the blanks so that each row, each column, and

each of the nine 3x3 grids contain one instance of each

of the numbers 1 through 9. Solutions can be found in

First Class under “Student Bulletins.”

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Riverdale Country School 5250 Fieldston Road Bronx, NY 10471 www.riverdale.edu

Staff

Faculty Advisor

Ms. Huggins

Managing Editor

Forrest Simpson

Production Editor

David Silverman

Staff Writers

Sarah Horne, Joshua Rothstein, Kirk Thaker, Rebecca Thau, Ethan Rosenthal, Anabel Getz, Jordan Knitzer, John Cicco, Olivia Corn

Middle School Newsletter

The Falcon Times

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