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A
Room with Quite a View
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To watch the planets,
to study the stars, to dream of rocketing off into outer space
some day...these were some of the thoughts that preoccupied
the imagination of Rory David Deutsch. He was a first grader,
passionately interested in science and space books, in the library
of Indian Trail Elementary School in Highland Park.
Today, students at the school share Rory's celestial dreams
in a new reading room that has been transformed to resemble
the command station of a spaceship. This special place is called
the Rory Deutsch Reading Room, built and dedicated in his honor
in the fall of 2000.
"Students who visit the room don't feel confined by four
walls," says Judy Harrison, director of the school's learning
center.
"They are surrounded by spaceship equipment and murals
of windows that look out onto the sun, moon, nebulas, galaxies
and planets, including Rory's favorite planet, Jupiter."
Gabrielle Rousso, who has a daughter enrolled at the school,
designed the room. She reviewed the outer space books of Seymour
Simon, one of Rory's favorite authors, when planning the design.
The room's painted walls are enhanced by knobs, doorbells, fuses
and other hardware store purchases that are creatively arranged
to resemble the NASA-like gadgetry of a space station.
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The reading room, indeed, is not a typical classroom. Students
visiting the room can stretch out on the floor, lie on pillows
and contemplate the spectacular universe surrounding them.
A copy of Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon, a favorite book
of Rory's and many other children, is permanently on display
there. Children can always enjoy its magical world of the mouse.
There are no limits to the imagination.in this room. Rory's
spirit is alive in the many dreams it inspires. |
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