SNOW GLOBE I wish Snowglobe was Real That light and fluffy Snow was real The Music went forever The Magic was Real And Santa was Real Shaking it Makes it even more Prettier. I Wish The World was A Snow Globe
The Hundred Dresses, Reviewed by Prisha, 8
I recently read the idiom, “Do not judge a book by it’s cover,” and I guess that’s exactly true for the book I am reviewing. The name of the book is The Hundred Dresses and it is written by Eleanor Estes, and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin. The cover also has a silver round medal, meaning that it is a Newbery honor book. So, when I saw this book in the bookstore, I was immediately drawn to it. The cover was pretty and colorful and it had beautiful and colorful illustrations inside. I quickly skimmed through the back of the book and soon bought it. I started reading the book. In the car itself. At first, I thought the book was going to be about a hundred dresses, but the real story had a very different meaning. Even though it is about a hundred dresses but, in a very different way, something that a reader wouldn’t have imagined. By reading the note from the author’s daughter in the first four pages, you can figure out that the book is about bullying. I was surprised to read that the author is one of the mean girls in the story and she wrote this book because she felt awful about how she helped a bully. She couldn’t ask for forgiveness at that time so this was her way of doing that. So basically what makes this book even more interesting is that it is written from the view of the person who is the bully’s friend and kind of bully herself. The story is about three main characters, Wanda, Peggy, and Maddie. Wanda Petronski is a Polish girl who is new to the school and in the same grade as Peggy and Maddie. She wears the same faded blue dress to school every day–yet she says she has a hundred pretty dresses, all lined up in her closet. The other girls, Peggy and Maddie, make fun of her uncommon last name and her dress and what she says about her hundred dresses. But when Wanda leaves the city and moves to another city, Maddie, one of the bullies, starts feeling bad for the way she didn’t stand up for Wanda when she was being bullied by her closest friend, Peggy, and the other girls. What I loved about this story is how at the end the mean girls realized their mistake. The story is also about friendship and realizing mistakes and forgiving and teaches you to be kind, and not bully other people, even if they have a funny name or something. And if you see a person being bullied, stand up for them. A way to remember this is, “Silence is violence,” which means you are also committing crime if you do not stand up against the bullies. Though The Hundred Dresses was written a long time ago, the message it gives, can be used today, since being kind is a message that will always be important and needed in the world. I highly recommend The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes to everyone. The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes. Houghton Mifflin, 2004. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
Spread Love Not Hate
“Injustice for one is injustice for all.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dear Diary, Today I went to a protest march. I went to support people who are against racism and especially to support Black people as they are treated unfairly. I went to show Black people that I am with them and will stand up for them. It is not enough to not be a racist. You have to stand up and show up in support. I went because I believe Black Lives Matter. I went because I believe racism is wrong and people should not be judged by the color of their skin or how they look. Just because of the skin color, Black people have to face a lot of discrimination. They are not given the same opportunities to grow as others. And I don’t understand why this injustice? We all are the same inside, just like two eggs. If we crack a brown egg and a white egg, it will be the same inside, there is no difference. The world belongs to all of us. We share the same earth, water and air. When Nature doesn’t treat us differently, why should we treat each other differently? What happened to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many other Black people is so unfair. And this is what the protest is for. When our peaceful march started,It was raining, yet a lot of people came. Everyone had masks on. A lot of them were holding banners that said “Black Lives Matter.” I made one which said “Spread Love Not Hate.” I loved reading all the different slogans. One of them said “Injustice for one is injustice for all.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” We all were repeating after the person who led the March. Leader: “Black Lives Matter.” Us: Black Lives Matter Leader: what do you want? Us: Justice Leader: When do you want it? Us: Now We kept repeating more slogans for about 2 miles and reached our destination. Then two Black women talked about how it was different for them growing up than their white friends. They were followed for no reason and could not go to the coffee shop without a cop staring at them. It made me realize the difference between privileged and not-privileged. They spoke about cops and their brutality. How just because of their skin color, Black people are more likely to be stopped by police. How people around them are suspicious of them. Their speeches were powerful and I was thinking how people can be so mean. I felt sad hearing their stories. We observed 8 mins and 46 seconds silence for George Floyd by kneeling down. Doing so made me realize how difficult it must have been for him with the knee on his neck and unable to breathe. I think everyone had the same thoughts as me since the whole crowd was quiet even after the time was up. I am glad I joined the protest. I learnt a lot of things and what I can do to stop racism. We can start by not treating others badly due to their skin color or how they look. If we see someone being treated unfairly, we should speak up and tell someone about it. We can also help them by listening to them and understanding them. The most important thing that I learnt from going to this March is that “Silence is violence.” That means we should not keep quiet when something wrong is happening in front of us.
