Stone Soup Editors

“Strawberry” by Lulu De Mallie, 11 (Naples, NY) Published in Stone Soup April 2020 A note from Sarah This week, I wanted to draw your attention to something from the Stone Soup blog that, in my opinion, doesn’t get enough attention: recipes! If you scroll down to the bottom of the newsletter, you’ll see a recipe for fruit crumble posted by our former blogger Sarah Cymrot a few years ago. I’ve tried it myself recently, so I can confirm that it’s a great recipe. I made it with cherries and nectarines, but part of the reason that it appeals to me is that it’s so versatile—you can use whatever summer fruit you’ve got on hand. If you’re also inspired to try out Sarah’s recipe, please leave a comment on her post to let us know how it turned out. We’ve also published issues of the magazine that were food-themed. If you’re looking for recipes for dairy-free apple pie, cream of tomato soup, or matcha crepe cake—look no further! We featured those recipes and more in the December 2018 issue. But on to more recently published work. Did you read the blog post “Cucumbers” by Trevor Shum? Trevor does a great job of describing the characteristics of cucumbers and relating them to his own personality traits. Do you have a fruit or vegetable that you feel you’re most like? Think it over and try to write your own short piece like Trevor’s. And if you happen to be more in the mood for an art project, take a look at Lulu’s photograph of a strawberry above. What strikes me most about the photo is the interesting perspective that Lulu takes. A strawberry plant might be something that you see every day in your yard, but how can you capture it in an interesting way? I like to think of this image as taking the point of view of a bug in the garden. Can you think of any other interesting perspective to take? Till next week, P.S. Don’t forget that poetry submissions for the rest of August are free! Please spread the word and encourage the young poets you know to submit their work. Winners from Weekly Flash Contest #19 Weekly Flash Contest #19: Write a story backwards The week commencing August 3 (Daily Creativity Prompt #96) was our 19th week of flash contests, with a prompt that asked our entrants to write a story that goes backwards. The entries we received covered a broad range of topics, from family to animals to weather to space travel to time travel to friendship, and much more, even including a few poems. We greatly enjoyed reading all of the entries we received, and loved how the plots of the stories were slowly revealed as they traveled backwards. Well done to all of our entrants for taking on the difficult task of telling a story backwards, and particular congratulations to our winners and honorable mentions, listed below. Winners “The Project” by Katie Bergsieker, 12 (Denver, CO) “Surprise” by Scarlet He, 9 (Scarsdale, NY) “Once and For All” by Joyce Hong, 10 (Oakville, ON) “This Day Has Come Too Soon” by Ella Pierce, 12 (Hudson, WI) “Sea of Souls” by Daniel Wei, 13 (Weddington, NC) Honorable Mentions “Jewish Friend, Backwards End” by Becca Jacobson, 11 (Montclair, NJ) “Falling” by Vaishnavi Kumbala, 12 (Metairie, LA) “The Irrefusable Offer” by Kyler Min, 9 (Vienna, VA) “On Top of the World” by Mihika Sakharpe, 11 (Frisco, TX) “Last Thoughts“ by Ismini Vasiloglou, 11 (Atlanta, GA/Athens, Greece) Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Speaking of perspective, Ziva, 9, writes about schools re-opening from the point-of-view of a soccer ball. Ismini, 11, answers one of our Daily Prompts from last week, but situates the story in the present. She writes about her family has been stuck in Greece throughout the pandemic. In “The Silent Threat,” Rex, 11, writes a historical fiction piece about what it might have been like to live during the Spanish Flu. Check out some photographs by Alana-Jain that document Black Lives Matter murals in her town. Devanshi, 13, writes a poem called “Covid Superheroes” about the heroic sacrifices people are making during these scary times. “No Time to Go on Walks” by Sophi, 12, tells of a girl’s busy schedule before the pandemic, and what her time in quarantine has taught her to value. Finished crumble! From the Stone Soup blog July 2018 Zoe’s Fruit Crumble by Sarah Cymrot (Inspired by Martha Stewart’s Peach Crumble) Yield: 12 small servings Time: 30 minutes Ingredients: Filling 7 cups of any fruit (I just made mine with blueberries and sour cherries—you can use frozen or fresh fruit) 6 teaspoons cornstarch or 4 tablespoons flour A scant 1/2 cup sugar (or as little as 1/4 cup, depending on how sweet your fruit is) A splash of lemon juice (it is okay if you don’t have this—I often leave it out) Heaping 1/2 teaspoon of salt Topping 5 tablespoons unsalted butter Scant 1/4 cup brown sugar or 1/4 cup granulated sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon molasses 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt Directions Preheat the oven to 375 degrees For the filling: In a bowl, gently (so that you don’t mash the fruit) mix all the ingredients for the filling, flour/cornstarch, sugar, fruit, lemon juice, and salt. Pour fruit mixture into a 12″ by 8″ baking dish. For the topping: Cream the butter and brown sugar in an electric mixer for about two minutes at medium to high speed. Add salt and flour in a few batches. Mix until the dough starts to form a ball. Crumble the topping into little pieces over the fruit mixture. Bake for 40–50 minutes—if it looks like it is browning too quickly on top, cover with aluminum foil. It’s done when the fruit is bubbling and the topping has some color. Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered