Author Archive - Stone Soup

View:

Being a Human Writer

Post Published January 25, 2026 by William Rubel

There are two kinds of writers. There are human writers, and there are computer writers. Think of it another way. Let's say that it was possible to hire a robot that is specialized in racing.
Read More →

The Stone Soup Philosophy — The Power of Peer-to-Peer Learning

Post Published January 24, 2026 by William Rubel

PROLOGUE The Stone Soup Philosophy — The Power of Peer-to-Peer Learning It was 1973. I was a student. It was with this group of students—Gerry Mandel, Ziggy Render, and Richard Hoff—that I...
Read More →

Thank you for signing up to the Stone Soup Covid-19 Writing Prompts Newsletter

Post Published March 25, 2020 by William Rubel

Thank you for adding your name to our Covid-19 Daily Creativity mailing list. We will be sending you a prompt for a writing or art project every Monday, along with reminders about our other creative...
Read More →

Writing Activity: Using Framing to Add Depth and Power

Post Published October 18, 2019 by William Rubel

Emma McKinny's story "Windsong," is about going to a performance of Dr. Atomic, an opera by John Adams with libretto by Peter Sellers. Her father is the lead singer.
Read More →

Writing Activity: challenging prejudice and developing empathy through storytelling

Post Published August 23, 2019 by William Rubel

The story by 11-year-old Nate Sheehan, "Conrad and Fate" is about prejudice based on a student's ethnicity. This story, set in the late 1950s is about prejudice against Japanese people, something that...
Read More →

A young author talks about getting published: Tara Prakash, 11

Post Published August 26, 2018 by William Rubel

After we featured her self-published book, The Hunting Season, in our Saturday Newsletter, we asked its young author Tara Prakash to write something for us about the process she went though.
Read More →

World Peace, Piano Music by Rik Bhattacharyya, 12

Post Published November 4, 2017 by William Rubel

Rik Bhattacharyya, who is twelve, in 2017 wrote this piano piece in response to some of the turmoil taking place in the world today. This is his thinking behind the piece: Currently our world is going...
Read More →

Let this be the World, a song without words by Kathleen Werth, 8

Post Published October 27, 2017 by William Rubel

This lovely song by Kathleen Werth, 8, is beautiful musical moment. There are big formal pieces of music but there are also in all of our lives the songs we hum to ourselves.
Read More →

Resources for Teachers of Writing

Post Published September 7, 2017 by William Rubel

Here are just a few websites and programs that can be helpful for teaching creative writing for students. From lesson plans to book suggestions, these websites have a lot to offer for anyone who wants...
Read More →

Writing Activity: Stories about trust, truth and lying

Post Published August 5, 2017 by William Rubel

This writing activity is based on two stories published in the May/June 1994 issue of Stone Soup: "The Mother's Day Gift" by Mathew Thompson, 11, and "The Clay Pot" by Naomi Wendland, 12.
Read More →

Where are they now? We hear from Rachel Stanley, Stone Soup contributor in the early 2000s

Post Published July 18, 2017 by William Rubel

We are often asked--and we often wonder--what careers our young authors and illustrators went on to as they grew up, so we were thrilled to hear from Rachel Stanley, one of our published illustrators ...
Read More →

Writing Activity: plot a story on a graph with the brilliant, funny “Shapes of Stories” talk by Kurt Vonnegut

Post Published July 1, 2017 by William Rubel

This writing activity is based on a very funny Kurt Vonnegut lecture on the shape of stories. In this project, students learn to develop compelling narratives by graphing the plots.
Read More →

“March” by Frederick Ouseley, 6, composed in 1833.

Post Published March 23, 2017 by William Rubel

This March was composed by Frederick Ouseley (1825-1889) when he was six years old. Frederick grew up to become a composer of church music. He started composing at the age of three -- an older sister...
Read More →

Thief in the Night

Post Published February 18, 2017 by William Rubel

This lovely piano piece is written by Julius Ugo, age 11. Julius lives in Toronto, Canada.
Read More →

Advanced piano players! Hard music by young composers.

Post Published February 10, 2017 by William Rubel

Frederick Ouseley (1825-1889) was a British musician and composer. He specialized in church music. He started writing music when he was three -- his sister transcribed those first pieces.
Read More →

Sunny Morning, Piano Music by Julius Ugo, age 10

Post Published February 3, 2017 by William Rubel

This lovely piano piece is written by Julius Ugo, age 10. Julius lives in Toronto, Canada. This is what he says about the piece, "My video is about waking up on a freezing, sunny day and looking out t...
Read More →

Young Composer Nathan Grabow, age 12

Post Published January 15, 2017 by William Rubel

Nathan Grabow, a young American composer and pianist performs his original composition entitled Concertino in G Minor for Piano and Strings. He wrote the piece when he was twelve years old and is thir...
Read More →

Writing Activity: developing character and perspective with character sketches

Post Published November 18, 2016 by William Rubel

This writing activity is built around 11-year-old Ella Staats' story, "My Mother's Little Girl'" published in Stone Soup in September/October 2012. Read the story and then work on your project, which ...
Read More →

A brief history of the Vietnam War

Post Published November 3, 2016 by William Rubel

A Brief History of the Vietnam War Note: This is background history for people reading the story My Country and the Way to America written by a child who escaped Vietnam on a boat and was finally set...
Read More →

Selfie Contest Winners, Fall 2016

Post Published October 28, 2016 by William Rubel

Self Portraits These are the winners of our first Selfie Contest. Never in history have so many people taken so many photographs of themselves as we are doing now.
Read More →

Subscribe to Our Newsletter