As I walk in the doors of Kung Fu Tea, located in Brookline, Massachusetts, the scent of my favorite drink, bubble tea, floats into my nose. I step up to the counter, where a nice cashier greets me and asks me for my order. I crave Kung Fu milk tea with boba and mango popping bubbles. Cashiers at this location usually make it in under a minute and a half, and I usually don’t have to wait very long to get my delicious drink. The cashier gives it to me and says “Have a nice day.” Then I sit down on one of the fluffy chairs, and enjoy my boba tea. The milk tea is a perfect mixture of milk and tea, and delights my taste buds. The boba is soft and gooey on the outside and firm on the inside–just the way I like it. The mango popping boba’s thin gelatin exterior comes off, and the mango juice inside explodes in my mouth. So many images appear in my head when I think of bubble tea. But what is it? First, the milk tea normally consists of milk, black tea, and sometimes fruit. The bubbles are made by mixing tapioca starch and flavoring together, rolling the dough into small balls, and simmering in a pot of boiling water. The mango popping boba is mango juice with a thin and easy to break gelatin exterior. Aside from all that, bubble tea is also the most amazing and sweet drink ever created. People in Taiwan, the place of origin for bubble tea, certainly know how to make a delicious drink. As I’m sitting in the shop, I research how Kung Fu Tea began. Kung Fu Tea’s website describes its values as patience and expertise. Kung Fu Tea explains, “With the Kung Fu spirit (and the principles that it involves), you can achieve mastery in your careers, hobbies, personal lives, and more. Keep this in mind: without the struggles, there wouldn’t be any progress.” This means that to achieve great things, people have to face their challenges. Kung Fu Tea’s quote also means that people should persist throughout hard times. Kung Fu Tea is not only an amazing destination for bubble tea, it also tries to instill important lessons about taking risks and doing your best. Their motto shows me that even if I don’t succeed, it’s trying my best that matters.
Young Bloggers
The Fort, Reviewed by Sydney Kesselheim, 11
The Fort, by Gordon Korman, is a novel about four 6th grade boys who all share a clubhouse in the woods. Their special place has remained secret until a new kid, Ricky, follows them into the woods. Together, the group discovers a hidden bomb shelter complete with food, a sink, a stove, a TV and a couch. These kids, working to keep their find from everybody, must also strive to accept Ricky as a new member of their group. All the while, each boy is facing serious life challenges. It’s inspiring to watch how the fort helps all the characters with their own individual problems but still helps each of them bond together as friends who confide in each other. One special feature of the novel is that each character encounters an individual problem that makes all of them need the fort in different ways. One example is CJ who uses the fort because his parents are divorced, and he does not like his new stepfather, Marcus. The fort helps CJ escape from his stepfather who gives CJ many presents but is abusive. When Marcus gets mad, he hits his family members, and then after that goes back to being his happy self again. CJ is frustrated with his mother and her texts, “12:02 AM from Mom. Why are you doing this?” CJ explains, “ It bothers me because my mother knows the answer to that question. I’m doing this because my scrapes and bumps and bruised ribs have nothing to do with the bike jumps or skateboard stunts, or death-defiers. They come from the man who became my stepfather when she married him.” The readers learn that not only is Marcus hurting CJ, he is also hurting CJ’s mother. He uses death-defiers as a way of making purposeful injuries in order to cover up the real ones and, as a safe place, CJ needs to hide out in the fort. The second reason I like this book is because the characters know how to deal with bullies. The bullies in this book are Jager and Luke, who are older and carry a knife, and their whole mission is to find out what these five kids are doing in the woods alone after school. The fort kids come up with ways to mislead Jager and Luke, like making a decoy fort and creating a lookout tree. They find victory in other great ways as well. Third, through the character of Mitchell, this book helps readers understand the struggles of kids with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). For example, Mitchell needs to make sure the couch in the fort is positioned perfectly before he sits down. For him, this is just a normal thing he does, and he does it with anything he sits, stands, or lays on. Mitchell’s need to control his environment in this way creates special challenges for him because he gets judged for these behaviors. On the contrary, Mitchell thinks these actions are as natural as breathing or walking. Meeting Mitchell helps the readers expand their empathy for kids with OCD. In conclusion, The Fort by Gordon Korman is a great read for rising sixth graders. I recommend this book because its characters exhibit courage, independence and friendship. It is a wonderful story about how trust binds us together. Similar themes are emphasized in Gordon Korman’s other books like Mixed Up and Restart which are also stories about challenges teens might face. The Fort by Gordon Korman. Scholastic Press, 2022. Buy the book here and help support Stone Soup in the process!
Taking to the Sky: Aerial Yoga by Priscilla Chow, 10
As part of the circus, aerial yoga, or “aerial dance,” is a unique way to the sky. It allows students to be free with their moves by tangling in the hanging cloth. As widely suggested, a good age to start aerial yoga is 7 to 8 years old. Teachers of aerial yoga say it is almost never too late to do aerial dance. Some risks for doing aerial yoga are falling from up high or getting tangled in the silks. In terms of its benefits, aerial yoga is almost a full body exercise of fingers, arms, core, and legs. Besides building muscles, it can also help with flexibility. Aerial yoga can be accommodated for people in wheelchairs too. I learned aerial hammock at 10 years old, a type of aerial yoga because my mom went to this fitness studio next to my grandparents’ apartment in China to do Pilates. One time I went with my mom and found out about aerial hammock. I took one class and was already in love with it. So, I continued with aerial hammock for the rest of my summer vacation there. I did not fall or get tangled. Even though my fingers were sore at the end of each class, I felt my full body become stronger. After the sessions, I could do handstands which I had never been able to do. Moving back to Miami, Florida. I explored online about aerial yoga because I hoped to continue the training. Luckily, I found that Florida even has aerial silk championships. Some locations of learning aerial yoga in Miami are at Aerial Fitness Miami or Miami Circus Arts Center. For aerial yoga you can just wear a yoga outfit – yoga pants and yoga top. My tip is to wear a long-sleeved yoga top and long yoga pants. A fun fact about aerial silks is they are not actually made of silk, because silk has no stretch and would hurt. Instead, they are made of nylon, a stretchy and silky material. Nylon is also called artificial silk because it is made of longer threads. Now that I have provided many details about aerial yoga, I have a question for you: Do you want to try aerial yoga?
