Illustration by Abhi Love is a hard thing to explain. It’s incredible how much there is in love, that it can mean many different things. No matter where you are, or who you meet, love will always cheer you up. It’s like seeing a rainbow on a cloudy day, you know, when you see many clouds and you think the world looks gloomy when suddenly, a strike of light jumps through the clouds and you gasp so hard. This is a feeling that’s rare to experience, and this blog will talk about my thoughts about this wonderful emotion. As we all know, love truly cannot be explained well. While some people find love as a relationship between two or more, others see it differently. I personally find love to be having an awesome time with someone, and just enjoying life. Love doesn’t always last forever, and sometimes, love can only be for a few minutes or even seconds! How my mind interprets love is that love is easy to go through, but hard to find. What I mean by this is that once you start forming a bond with someone, it is really easy to start a relationship full of love, but finding that specific person you like so much is something that has been hard for me to find for over five years! I think the most common start for love is your parents. Most parents will always protect their children, and take care of them at all costs. This for me is true love. This is something that happens once in a blue moon, and any free time I have at home, I always say in my mind, “Thank you God for this world, thank you for my parents and thanks for the life you have given me.” Some people though, don’t really enjoy love as much as they should. Most people think love is a “girl loves boy” relationship. However, this is not completely true. While love can be a boy and girl having a bond, it can also just be good old memories and fun. I fear people these days are too picky about love, and they just dismiss the whole idea of love and focus on becoming popular instead. But you have to understand, love for me is simply this: Love: When One Is Experiencing Joy And Happiness This is very simple, and that’s how it should stay. Being too narrow about how you define love is that it closes you from experiences that could be awesome. If you continue to always be choosy about what love means, it makes me (and others) feel that you’re closeminded. I am by no means saying you need to come up with a very clear definition for love because love can be many things to many people. All I am saying is there are many ways to show love, and many things to love (people, animals, nature, God etc.) Love is a beautiful thing to behold, and one shouldn’t be too judgmental about it. There is a saying that expresses what I mean here. It is “The best love is the kind that awakens the soul; that makes us reach for more, that plants the fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds.” To put it simply, this quote is saying the best love is the kind that makes us happy, wanting more of it, and makes us feel peace inside our hearts. One shouldn’t be ungrateful and mean over what we have. God has given us an amazing life that is beautiful, like the gorgeous ocean and the wonders hidden deep inside it. No one man should judge or define love. Love (just like in the quote) also means peace. A person doesn’t fight to bond with someone, and I’m sure everyone knows that. The reason I am telling you this is because some people like to force someone to love them by arguing with them right in their face. I can relate to this because I have a little brother, and he thinks I am his hero, but he always tries to argue to get my attention. This isn’t how people should find happiness. I have tried it myself with one of my friends in school. I sent her a card, always hung around her, and thought she would want to be my friend. She started to like me, and really bond with me, but inside my heart, I felt guilty and ashamed of myself because I thought I had “forced” her to like me. As you already see from reading this blog, love is many things. It’s like exploring the entire Earth! You can’t possibly go through every inch of this planet, but you can still explore it. Love is quite the same. Before we talk more about love, I would like to say this to all the bullies out there. I won’t judge if you’re a bully or not, but I will tell you this. Look inside your heart, and look close and deep. See if you are doing the right thing, and ask this simple question, “Will this make me better? Will I be happy after all I have done?” I won’t criticize you, but please understand that question, and it’s way more important than you think it is. I can go on and on about love, but I don’t think I can explain everything. To put it simply, I wrote this poem: Love is a light shining in the night, love can be wonder and comets at sky. Who needs war when peace can shine free, and who needs bullies when bystanders can go and help thee. I can’t go judge and do whatever I want, but fighting through school is worse than a creepy night. Love can be here, love can be there. Love is something to explore anywhere.
BRAT and the Kids of Warriors, Reviewed by Abhi, 11
I picked up BRAT And The Kids Of Warriors, hoping it would be a thrilling military adventure. However, after reading it, I was a bit disappointed. The story is set after World War II, and three BRAT kids named Jack, Rabbit and Queenie McMasters are heading to the Cooke Barracks (a place where military families live that is located in West Germany) to reunite with their father. They take a ship called the USS Upshur in Part I and when they finally reach Cooke Barracks in Part II, they meet some friends and go on little adventures leading to one grand quest. As we read the novel, we find that the characters don’t really have a big challenge or problem they are trying to solve until one day when they find out their father is going with the 4th Armored Division (a military unit within the US Army) to do some military exercises. The McMasters children feel something isn’t quite right. They learn from their nanny Ingrid that the Communists are now the “new” enemy and are planning to take over West Germany, and that East Germany has no freedom and is controlled by the Russians. When they head to school one day, their teacher says they’re weaker than Russian kids because supposedly, those kids were able to cross the Iron Curtain (barbed wire fence that separates East and West Germany) and climb the mountain named Hohenstaufen located in Goppingen. So from then on, the BRAT team’s #1 mission is to prove they are better than the Russian kids by finding a way to get to the mountain. This challenge is not presented to the reader until Chapter 15, which is halfway through the book. This mission seemed exciting and promising to me at first. Sadly, though, this book, due to its slow pace, one-dimensional characters, and lack of intense action and surprises, never delivers on its core promise. The characters are never presented in conflict with each other (they all get along for the most part and they all like to have adventures); more importantly, they never experience any serious doubt or any setbacks in their quest. It would’ve been so cool if they got caught when spying, or they go on a zipline running from bad guys. But instead, the only tasks or mini-adventures they have require them to gather intel and spy on someone, or just deal with the antagonist in the book, a school bully named Kerrigan. I will say that Kerrigan is a great antagonist, and the scenes involving him are exciting and suspenseful. He creates a problem in the book for Jack, and Jack has to muster up all the courage he has to defeat him. Sadly though, every pro comes with a con, and Kerrigan, while an interesting character, only appears in a few chapters of the book. Now, I know I’ve been a bit negative about this book, so let me now turn to the promising elements in this novel. The middle of the book, which starts at roughly Chapter 15, and goes all the way to Chapter 25, is really amazing. The book really shines in these pages, and the author does a brilliant job describing the characters and story. This really surprised me because in Part I, the author never really described anything creatively or focused on any character development. The transition from Part I to Part II is remarkable and I’m glad the author Michael Joseph Lyons did it. Overall, I didn’t really enjoy BRAT and The Kids Of Warriors, but I’m glad I kept reading and did not abandon the story. The middle of Part II is totally worth your time. The ending was predictable for me, but may not be for others. Which is why when the next book in the BRAT series comes out, I’m going to buy it just to see what happens next. BRAT and the Kids of Warriors by Michael Joseph Lyons. Bravur Media, 2017. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process! Have you read this book? Or do you plan on reading it? Let us know in the comments below!
Congratulations to Stone Soup contributor Abhi Sukhdial, Oklahoma recipient of the Nicholas Green Distinguished Award 2019!
Abhi with his family at the award ceremony Some great news from one of our Stone Soup contributors All of us at Stone Soup were thrilled to hear that Abhi Sukhdial, Stone Soup blogger, reviewer, and artist, was the 2019 Oklahoma recipient of the Nicholas Green Distinguished Student Award. The award is given each year to one deserving 3rd-6th grade student in each of the 50 states. 5th grader Abhi (described at the ceremony as a “writer, artist, musician–and black belt!”) formally received his award at the annual OAGCT (Oklahoma Association for the Gifted, Creative and Talented) event on February 16th in Edmond, OK. When his mother shared the good news (and some pictures) with us, we were so touched by what she said in her letter: “Thanks to the whole Stone Soup team for supporting Abhi’s love for creative self-expression. We, as his parents, hope he will continue writing, and creating works of art that inspire him and others…” The team at Stone Soup certainly hopes so too! Thank you, Sukhdial family–and many, many congratulations to you, Abhi, on your great achievement! About the award The Nicholas Green Distinguished Award, a $500 award, is designed to recognize excellence in young children and is awarded to one student in each state who is in grades 3, 4, 5, or 6, and has distinguished himself or herself in academics, leadership, or the arts. Originally the award program was established through funds provided by Maggie and Reg Green in honor of their seven-year-old son Nicholas, who tragically died during a family vacation in Europe. The Greens feel it is important to recognize gifts and talents in children who are now at the age that Nicholas was when he passed away. In Oklahoma, the award is conferred by OAGCT (Oklahoma Association for the Gifted, Creative and Talented). Details can be found at www.oagct.org. Abhi’s essay “Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Already Taken.” -Oscar Wilde When I write, I feel I am most myself. I’m a very quiet kid, but when I write, my ideas explode with imagination. I love writing and thinking about my own thoughts as no one is there to bother me. I started to read when I was two years old, and began writing a few years later, first with a pencil/pen, and then later on my home computer. I have so many stories and ideas for stories that I keep going back to time and time again. I especially love to write stories about great adventures. I also love to read, and I’ve gotten so many ideas from different books I’ve read. For me, reading and writing are two related things. Because reading a book can give you great ideas for your own book. This year, for the first time, several of my stories as well as some art pieces I created were published in Stone Soup, a children’s literary magazine (written by and for children 13 years and younger). I love that Stone Soup allows you to write whatever you want in your own style, so I became a blogger and started writing and submitting video game, book and movie reviews hoping they would get selected. When my first piece (a book review of Holes) was published online and then was later chosen to be included in the 2018 Best of Stone Soup Annual (Print Edition), I was extremely astounded and it motivated me to write more. Below is a list of stories, articles, and art that were published in 2018 and/or awards I have received: Stone Soup Magazine ( https://www.stonesoup.com/) – “Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild” (video game review) – “The Breadwinner ” (movie review) – “Holes” (book review) – “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (book review) – “The Crossover” (book review) – “Holes” included in selected blog pieces in the Stone Soup Annual 2018 – “Summer in India 2018” (diary pages with drawings) – “Pink” (abstract art drawing); printed in Stone Soup magazine, June 2018 issue and included in the Stone Soup Annual 2018 KidsWorld Fun International Short Story Contest (http://www.kidsworldfun.com/) -“All about Abhi” chosen as one of the Outstanding short stories in sub-junior category (7-9 years old) Skipping Stones Magazine (http://www.skippingstones.org/) – Art piece “Sun” published in Autumn 2018 Youth Honor Awards Issue, September 2018 PTA Reflections Arts-in-Education Program (http://www.pta.org/) – “All about Abhi” selected as city wide and state winner in Literature category (2016) – “Diary of a Hindu Hero” selected as city wide winner in Literature category (2017) – “Dadaji” selected as city wide and state winner in Literature category (2018) – “The Chosen” selected as city wide winner in Literature category; advanced to state round of competition (2019) – “An Unusual Sunday,” an original film, selected as city wide winner in Film/Video Production category; advanced to state round of competition (2019) Writing has always shaped my ideas. I want to show my friends the cool stories I write so that they will be really surprised. When I grow up, I want to be a writer and have my stories published worldwide. My strong interest in reading/writing and math has helped me get straight A’s so far in elementary school, and this past December (as a 5th grader), I received for the first time a 7.4 in STAR Reading and >8th grade level score in STAR Math. I am really proud of this, and I hope I can continue working hard and doing well in school. While I really love creative writing, I also want to talk about two other interests of mine. 1) After five years of taking karate classes, I finally passed my Black Belt karate exam on December 1, 2018 and am now an official “black belt” in karate. Karate has taught me how to defend myself if someone ever bullies or attacks me. 2) I started taking both piano and violin at five years of age, and in 2018, I entered my first piano competition and earned I+ (the highest score available) in both the District and State
