An update from our sixty-eighth Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday, May 27 In the last workshop of our spring season, Conner outlines six ways a scene can fail. Number one: it starts too early. It’s better to start late, to skip greetings, and to start when the events actually become important to the reader. Number two: it ends too late. It’s better to end the scene before there is a conclusion and to end on an emotional note. Number three: it has “a predictable present story.” In other words, the scene has a setting that has often been used before and has a character that fits into the setting rather than stands out in it. An example Conner gave was “a soldier on a battlefield.” Number four: it employs “narcissistic central intelligence.” This is when a writer humiliates or belittles a character to make some kind of statement. Characters should be treated as human beings, not props. Number five: it doesn’t have an arc. The scene should have some kind of structure. Number six: its ending is an answer. It is better to ask another question rather than offer the answer to a previous one. The Challenge: Write a scene. The Participants: Emma, Seva, Anushka, Yueling, Stella, Samarina, Liesl, Philip, Aaron
Saturday Newsletter: June 3, 2023
Peaceful Pond (oil) by Christopher Zhang, 13; published in the May/June 2023 issue of Stone Soup A note from Tayleigh Greene Hello, Although it’s not yet officially summer, it certainly seems it here in Houston. Many of our schools are already out on vacation. And it’s hot. Really hot. For that reason, Christopher Zhang’s Peaceful Pond, featured above, beckons me to sit beside the cool water with a good book. Speaking of which, Sarah Hunt’s Foxtale and Sabrina Guo’s Catalogue of Ripening have been announced as finalists in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards Young Authors Category. If you haven’t read them yet—and even if you have—you will want to add them to your summer reading list. If you’re looking to sharpen your writing skills this summer, look no further than our virtual studio camps, which we’re offering collaboration with fellow literary nonprofit Society of Young Inklings. Next week, Stone Soup Book Club Facilitator Maya Mahony will be teaching Middle Grade Fiction Writing. Later this month, Stone Soup Production Coordinator Carmela Furio will be teaching Intro to Publishing, and Stone Soup Editor in Chief Emma Wood will be teaching An Introduction to Poetry: The Image and the Line. For more details and our full summer course schedule, please see below. One great way to escape the heat is to visit your local, air-conditioned library and read the latest issue of Stone Soup! On behalf of the entire Stone Soup team, I’d like to thank all of the generous donors who contributed to our library campaign. Last month, we donated over 1000 issues of Stone Soup to libraries and schools across the United States and Canada. I’d also like to thank everyone who attended our 50th Anniversary Open House and Giveaway. It was so fun to celebrate with you all, to learn more about what Stone Soup means to each of you, and to hear some of our truly brilliant contributors read their work. It’s hard to believe that Stone Soup has been in print since 1973. It’s a testament to the hard work of our dedicated staff, and also to the importance of an organization that takes children and their work seriously. As part of our fiftieth anniversary celebration, we’ve been interviewing past contributors in a project we’ve titled Fifty Years of Excellence: From the Archives, published exclusively on our Instagram and Facebook profiles. One sentiment we’ve heard again and again from our former contributors is that there really was (and is) nothing like Stone Soup. Rather than seeing children’s writings and illustrations as transitional works to be passed over, we see them as finished statements in themselves, having an intrinsic value that can be appreciated by adults as well as children. As Emma Catherine Hoff, winner of our 2022 Annual Book Contest, said, “Stone Soup doesn’t ask that I ‘grow up’ before becoming a writer. It encourages and respects me, as a writer, today.” Cheers to 50 years, Explore our summer camp offerings Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered in the United States of America, EIN: 23-7317498.
Daughter of the Deep, Reviewed by Jeremy Lim, 10
When I saw a copy of Daughter of the Deep, it was love at first sight. The cover art stood out with the colors of the ocean and a giant squid in the background. But the selling point for me were the fancy letters on the top of the cover. They read: By Rick Riordan. You see, I am an avid fan of just about every adventure, sci-fi or realistic fiction chapter book there is. Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, 39 Clues, you name it! Riordan is especially great because he adds pop culture and a fast-paced plot with a myth or story. So I snatched the library book off the shelf to give it a go. It did not disappoint me. The narrator and main character Ana Dakkar just wants to have a normal life. It is close to her birthday when her world starts unraveling. She is going on a field trip for her final exam. Then her school goes up in flames as she and her classmates are catapulted into a new world. They are now at war with Land Institute. The Nautilus, Captain Nemo, and the events of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea were real. She is now forced to lead her crew of high schoolers after her professor reveals a secret she never knew. She is a direct descendant of Captain Nemo. And she is the key to his technology. What the book mainly shows, however, is that secrets are a double-edged sword. From the action packed beginning to the climatic end, the plot is based on a series of secrets being revealed, with most of them being one blow after another at Ana. Her friend is granted information that she should’ve known too. She doesn’t know her family well. She doesn’t know what happened to her parents. And even though her ignorance protected her for some time, they had to reveal the secrets to make her truly safe in the end. What makes this book stand out from other science fiction thrillers, however, is that while you can never see what technology is coming next, you also can’t see what twist is coming next. You see the warring sides clearly throughout the book, yet some things still don’t feel quite right. You can even doubt the technology at times. So, it sends the sense that you have to be on guard. It’s sort of like a detective story, just that you have to figure out the enemy’s move, like a chess game. However, if you can guess the “OH!” moment near the end, you must be a genius! This book is definitely for science fiction and action book fans. If you’re looking for a mythological book like Percy Jackson, this book will be ok for you, but it lacks the information and strong connections to myths. You should try it anyway though, because with a strong and fast-moving plot, this thriller will please fans of all genres. Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan. Disney Hyperion, 2021. Buy the book here and help support Stone Soup in the process!
