High Schools Come Calling

By Meredith C.

The time of year has come where eighth grade students must make their decisions on what high school to go to. The eighth grade class at St. John is just finishing their decisions. Most of the students at St. John go to Bishop Blanchet High School. This year it is again a popular choice. But this year a record-breaking number of female students have chosen to attend Holy Names Academy, nine girls. Three years ago, only two girls decided to attend this school. There is also a large number of students choosing to attend Seattle Preparatory School. Other high school choices this year are, O’Dea High School, Ingraham High School, Ballard High School, and Shorewood High School. The staff of the St. John Eagle would like to congratulate the students and wish them good luck with their decisions and their futures!

‘The Lorax’ doesn’t meet expectations

By George K.

The classic Dr. Seuss picture book “The Lorax” is now a movie.  The book was a simplistic yet touching tale of a man who cut down all of the tufted “truffula” trees in the forest to make a super multi-purpose product called a “thneed” and the cute orange munchkin that tried to persuade him to stop (the Lorax).   It was an interesting representation of abuse of natural resources, and what it can do to the environment.  The books last line was, “You’re in charge of the last of the truffula seeds. And truffula trees are what everyone needs! Plant a new truffula. Treat it with care. Give it clean water, and feed it fresh air. Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack. Then the Lorax and all of his friends may… come back.”

The movie is set in “Thneedville,” a happy town where everything is artificial, the water is clean, and even the air isn’t safe to breath.  To combat the dirty air, a company called O’Hare Air sells fresh air to the citizens.  A young boy in the town, Ted (Zac Efron) to get the attention of his crush Audrey (Tailor Swift) heads out of town in search of the mystical “Once-Ler” who is the only person who still knows about trees. The Once-Ler tells Ted the story of the Lorax, taking up most of the movie, and containing most of the humor.

Somewhere along the line, Universal Studios manages to ad a “Bad Guy,” taking away from the simplistic feeling that was so treasured in the book.  The boss of O’Hare Air, Mr. O’Hare (Rob Riggle) gets angry at Ted for trying to return trees to the land, “I sell air, right? Trees make it for free!” The conflict between Ted and O’Hare is a rather pointless ungratafying aspect of the story that I would have been happy without.

The portions of the story in which the Once-Ler recounts his clash with the Lorax, however are overall interesting, and mostly manage to capture the spirit of “The Lorax” book quite well.  The young Once-Ler’s (Ed Helms) optimistic attitude towards life was not only uplifting, but often quite funny, and I continually found myself full out laughing.  However, there were a lot of supposed-to-be-funny moments that completely fell flat, usually involving an overweight bear.  The movie does a really good job of showing the corruption of money and power in a major musical number called “How Bad Can I Be?” portraying the Once-Ler’s transformation from a good natured guy determined to start a new business, to a power hungry tyrant only obsessed with becoming “…biggerer, biggerer, biggerer…”

Where voice-acting was concerned, Zac Efron (Ted) was, to my ears, terrible.  It seemed that he was sort of bored, speaking his lines without much heart.  Tailor Swift (Audrey) did well, but was only in about three major scenes, and didn’t say a lot.  Danny DeVito did well as the Lorax, managing to make him sound small and angry, yet somehow wise and kind.  Rob Riggle was horrible as Mr. O’Hare.  He was just too deep and gravelly to seem realistic, and just wasn’t a good pick for the part.

Overall it was a pretty good movie, with stunning visuals, and some very funny moments, but relatively bad voice acting.  It gets the point across, but is a little too cheesy to be a winner.

Some great quotes and jokes!

Compiled by Jamie P.

Quotes

Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed.

- Blaise Pascal

 

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!

Audrey Hepburn

 

Nothing makes one feel so strong as a call for help.

- Pope Paul VI

 

Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.

- Swami Sivananda

 

Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?

- Fulton J. Sheen

 

The best way out is always through.

- Robert Frost

Jokes

My Grandpa was a fake blacksmith you know.

He worked in a forgery!

 

Teacher: Tim, you missed school yesterday, didn’t you?

Tim: Not a bit!

 

Two cows were talking in the field one day.
First Cow: “Have you heard about the Mad Cow disease that’s going around?”
Second Cow: “Yeah, makes you glad you’re a penguin, doesn’t it?”

 

How many school teachers does it take to change a light bulb?
None. Anything not completed during the lesson is added to the homework.

 

Book Review ‘Jasper Dash and the Flame Pits of Delaware’

By Juliet R.O.

M.T. Anderson’s books are “Metafiction at its most weirdly satisfying …”, according to Kirkus Reviews. What a laugh! Anderson’s humor will have “Readers…rolling in the aisles” as Booklist says about Whales on Stilts!

 This book is part of the Pals in Peril series, which starts with Whales on Stilts! This first book is about an average twelve-year-old girl named Lily Gefelty, who has two best friends that happen to be just the opposite of average. They are Jasper Dash, boy techonaut and inventor of very strange gadgets, and Katie Mulligan, who fights demons and were-goats in Horror Hollow, a suburb of Pelt, where the trio lives. Both have their own imaginary series of books about themselves. Lily discovers that her dad is working for a genius who uses his smarts to do evil things. He has plans to release an army of whales upon the earth. They have laser-beams for eyes and walk on tall stilts. And when her friends can’t come up with a plan, it’s all up to Lily.

But this article is not about Whales on Stilts, is it? (That book is great, too.) It is about Jasper Dash and the Flame pits of Delaware.

In the beginning of the book, the inhabitants of Pelt wake up to beetles everywhere. And when animals get restless – in this case the bugs – there is evil brewing. Katie and Lily do not know that evil is in a white van ordering breakfast at O’Dermott’s. They do not know that they will meet this evil in a few short minutes. The two arrive at Lily’s school and meet Jasper for the Big Game. The Big Game refers to the Stare-Eyes contest, in which players stare into each others’ eyes for as long as they can. The first person to smile or blink loses. Jasper Dash is the best player of the Pelt high school varsity team (even though he already has his college degrees), which is playing Delaware. The Pelt team is unbeatable. But they are in for a surprise when the Delaware Team wins. On Jasper’s turn, there is someone calling his name. The Delaware player hypnotizes Jasper and he is forced to blink. Therefore they decide to go to Delaware, to the monastery at Vbngoom, the Platter of Heaven. That is where Jasper thinks the Delaware team has obtained their powers, from the flame-pits at the monastery. They meet Lisa Buldene in Dover, who is looking for Vbngoom herself, and has a secret that they will accidentally uncover. In Dover, they contact an extremely dim-witted guide to Vbngoom. They will also encounter cannibals, a many-eyed and many-mouthed mountain squid, and are followed by a mysterious stalker who may not be the person they expected. And that isn’t all – there just could be a traitor among them, too.

Seventh Grade Volleyball, Ready Position

By Colleen M.

Volleyball is a fun game for all ages and at St. John School is available for fifth to eighth grade. But in the fourth grade you can join in at practices, but there are no games, so you would be playing for fun! Now to focus on seventh grade volleyball, here at St. John we are lucky enough to have just the right amount of people to have a junior varsity and varsity team. This is a huge privilege because we get more playing time and special help on things that we need to work on. One drawback about the volleyball this year is that there are not enough boys to play on a team, so those who want to play have moved up and are playing with the eight grade boys.

So far this year both teams are playing very well. Our varsity team lost by just two points in their first game to St. Catherine’s. The junior varsity team or JV team also lost their first game. However, they are improving fast and had to do multiple push-ups at their last practice to improve their upper body strength. The JV team has been blessed with Ms. Lovejoy and Ms. Schifferman who are two teachers at St. John School but are also experienced athletes! Good luck to both seventh grade volleyball teams this year! Bump, set, spike it, that’s the way we like it… go AJ.

The New Library

The new St. John library has been a greatly anticipated development of the school this year.  Now it’s in its final stages, with only a few more additions to be made.

The library was not there when the school was first built.  The space was originally used as a balcony, overlooking the space, which is now the preschool.  It was an observation deck for the plays that were performed down below in the area, which is now storage space.  The area was walled up, and then used as a preschool room.  It was only converted into a library about 11 years ago, and last year plans were made to upgrade the library.

The whole area was switched around.  All of the books were moved out of the whiteboard room, and the desks were rearranged to make it easier to teach in that room.  An interactive whiteboard was also added, taking the place of the window at the end of the room, which used to look out of the school, but was bricked over when the third floor was added.  Six new computers were added, five of which are open for student use, and dirty, flat beanbags were removed.  Only a few more additions need to be made.

The school has ordered a new sliding door to divide the room into two sections so that the tutoring sessions that go on in the Library wont be interrupted by goings-on in the main library section, and it is coming soon.  Other that that, only a few more books need to be added and the library will be fully complete.  So far, the changes have been very appreciated by the school community.  Mrs. Grandorf, the school librarian says, “It’s so much brighter in here now, with the new paint, and the whole thing is just great.”

By George Kent

Remembering Father Crispin’s Sister, Imelda

By Davis P. and Emma  W.

As you may know, an article was written about Father Crispin’s sister Imelda.  It is our sad duty to inform you that Imelda passed away at the beginning of February.  Imelda had been ill for three months, and her death was caused by the sickness AIDS. As the previous article also stated, Father’s mother is ill, too.  Imelda was in need of medicine, and the 5^th graders at St. John School stepped in. On January 27, 2012 they raised over $650 dollars from their bake sale for the cause.

Father Crispin had been to visit Imelda the week before January 27^th, and reported that her health was improving but slowly.  Imelda and her children had been living in Bar-Kowino, Kenya, Imelda’s hometown.  Imelda has three daughters, aged 16, 14, and 6. The eldest daughter is looking into colleges and the younger sisters will most likely attend boarding school.  As of Imelda’s death, the children have been moved to an orphanage nearby.  The orphanage is run by one of Father Crispin’s sisters.

Imelda was a great sister to Father and they were very close, but had some arguments like all siblings. He described her as hardworking, religious, and overall very loving, kind, and nice. Imelda was also actively involved in the Episcopalian church. When Father visited her in Bar-Kowino they had a very nice time together.

Imelda was around 45 years old when she passed away.  She had been living in Nango, Kenya, when her husband died, an event that occurred five years ago. Mango was her husband’s hometown, which she moved to when she married him. When she became ill, she returned to Bar-Kowino, Kenya, her hometown. The move gained her the support of other family like her mother, who also lives there. Kind and caring, Imelda will always be remembered by her family and our community.