Stone Soup Editors

Friendship, a cartoon by Natya Chandrasekar, 12

Natya Chandrasekar, 12Palo Alto, CA Friendship Natya Chandrasekar, 12 I created the friendship cartoon after I came from a walk where 2 friends were walking 6 feet apart and I realized this is going to be the way of life after the coronavirus. Natya is selling prints of all of her cartoons to raise funds for a nonprofit organization in her local area called REF (Ravenswood Education Foundation), which has established an emergency fund to provide financial relief related to the school closures due to COVID-19. Ninety percent of students in the school area qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, and the majority of their parents work hourly service jobs. REF is working closely with the school district to plan and address specific needs, including in technology and distance learning, food and food distribution, emergency childcare, and financial support. We at Stone Soup are very happy to support Natya in spreading the word, and congratulate her on her work and her fundraising efforts for her community–well done, Natya! You can look at the complete collection of cartoons and choose your favourites either in this Dropbox Folder or Google Drive folder, and write to Natya if you would like to obtain a copy of your own. You may pay for the prints either by making a direct donation to REF here, or discussing directly with Natya and her family.

Our Fate is Sealed, a poem by Otis Knoop, 12

Otis Knoop, 12Brooklyn, NY Our Fate is Sealed Otis Knoop, 12 The question that has always troubled me When the end of the world is at hand, When the human race makes their last stand; What will come to be? Will darkness and woe come to plight us? Will priests pray when God has not come to right us? Like the breath of a child blows out a light Life itself will be snuffed out tonight. When the ghostly spectres roam in the roots of our sanity Will we remember our qualms? While the fate of the world slips out from our grasp A cacophony of screams That will most certainly haunt our dreams One thing that I have always thought; The world will recover nought But although the end is near, we might be healed One thing is clear; our fate is sealed. A note from the author: Robert Frost’s poem, “Fire and Ice,” influenced my poem (related to my thoughts about the pandemic) in many ways. We both wrote about the end of the world and what it would be like. Although we didn’t write about the world ending in the same way, we both summarized that it is inevitable, and will happen one way or another. One poetic device that I was inspired by him to use was symbolism–he used fire and ice to symbolize power and hatred, and I used “ghostly spectres” to symbolize our guilt. I wanted to give the poem a dark mood, to give people a sense of what might happen.

Graduation, a cartoon by Natya Chandrasekar, 12

  Natya Chandrasekar, 12Palo Alto, CA Graduation Natya Chandrasekar, 12 With lot of seniors and family friends kids graduating and some of them are feeling very sad and upset that they cannot celebrate and party. I wanted to show that the virus has changed all our lives but we can still be very thankful and lot of the schools and teachers are trying to find ways to celebrate them. Congratulation class of 2020 !!! there is still hope for all of us. Natya is selling prints of all of her cartoons to raise funds for a nonprofit organization in her local area called REF (Ravenswood Education Foundation), which has established an emergency fund to provide financial relief related to the school closures due to COVID-19. Ninety percent of students in the school area qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, and the majority of their parents work hourly service jobs. REF is working closely with the school district to plan and address specific needs, including in technology and distance learning, food and food distribution, emergency childcare, and financial support. We at Stone Soup are very happy to support Natya in spreading the word, and congratulate her on her work and her fundraising efforts for her community–well done, Natya! You can look at the complete collection of cartoons and choose your favourites either in this Dropbox Folder or Google Drive folder, and write to Natya if you would like to obtain a copy of your own. You may pay for the prints either by making a direct donation to REF here, or discussing directly with Natya and her family.