‘Rooms that Rock’ published next week

The Journal-World Teen Advisory Board met Monday evening to judge your smashing “Rooms that Rock”entries. Thank you to all who participated; winning entries will be featured in the Feb. 4 18 & Under page.

If you are interested in joining the two dozen area students who form our advisory board, send e-mail to teens@ljworld.com or call Steve Rottinghaus at 832-6354 or Christy Little at 832-6361. Board members are in fifth through 12th grades.

The next meeting is at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 24 at the News Center, 645 N.H.

Poems, polls and more

Thank you for your many ideas and suggestions for what you’d like to read about on the 18 & Under page. If you have items you would like to contribute, you can mail them to teens@ljworld.com or call Steve Rottinghaus at 832-6354 or Christy Little at 832-6361.

And here’s one reader submission:

‘Plight of the Onion’

So you’re an onion.

When people get inside you

they cry.

Yes, yes, we know about the layers,

we know you live

among frying pans and salad shooters.

But then again,

nobody likes you raw.

They must cook you and spice you

and change your taste to suit them

because, like wasabi,

they cannot handle you

undiluted and honest.

So you’re an onion,

they know about the layers,

they know they could cry,

but their mincing words make it obvious:

they are uncomfortable

with you in the pantry.

They want you to be like an apple.

— “Plight of the Onion” was written by Dylan McClain, a senior at Lawrence High School