Stone Soup Editors

Deep sympathy filled his heart for the writer of the tattered diary Illustration by Annakai Hayakawa Geshlider, 12, for her story, Journeys to the Past, published in Stone Soup, January/February 2008. A note from Sarah Ainsworth Hello, Stone Soup readers! You may know me (Sarah) from subscription help or the blog, but this week I wanted to talk to you about what I am studying: archives. If you have any idea about what an archive is, the picture that comes to mind may be of some dusty shelves full of books or artefacts that haven’t been used in years. But as an aspiring archivist, I want to dispel any notion you might have that archives are only about the past. I want to instead encourage you to think about how archives maintain their relevance when people (like you!) access them in the present. Here’s a very brief introduction to archives: In the Western tradition, archives are institutions charged with taking care of historical records. These records are organized by their creator, whether that creator is an individual (like an author) or an organization (like a university or a hospital). An important concept for archivists is “original order.” This means that when archives receive papers, they have to keep them in the order their creator intended. The archivist is in charge of arranging the collection, describing its contents, and facilitating public access to the records. There are all different kinds of archives. There are archives for countries, like the National Archives in the United Kingdom. Sometimes companies have their own archives, like Disney. And famous authors, like Mark Twain and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, frequently have their own archives. Museums and universities often have archives too. For some physical archives, you need to book an appointment in advance or email the archivist to say you are coming in. But here’s a secret—in many cases, you don’t need to! You can just walk in, talk to the archivist, and ask them for the documents you are interested in. Just be sure to check the website or contact the archive directly. But if you don’t want to leave your house, there are also tons of online archives or archives that have lots of digitized content! The Internet Archive is just one example. Stone Soup has a tradition of publishing excellent historical fiction. In 2002, we published “Kisses from Cecile,” which uses historical records as its inspiration. The author, Marie Agnello, is fascinated by letters she found written by Cécile Cosqueric, a girl in Paris, to her pen pal, Ruth, who happened to be Marie’s great-grandmother. These letters offer Marie a whole new world, a different way of understanding life in 1919. Are there any archives in your area that you can visit? If so, try to plan a trip with a parent or other adult. If not, don’t worry! Look to your attic or basement—or even your computer. What is in your own personal—or your family’s—archive? Maybe your grandparents saved old magazines or newspapers. And if you don’t have access to old documents, remember that there is so much available online. The Library of Congress is a good place to start, but some of my personal favorites are the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Public Library’s Digital Collections. Find a record that speaks to you. What does it tell you about the past? What can you learn from it that you might not learn in a textbook? How can you invent a story around it? I would love to see what you come up with! Please reply to this newsletter or email me at sarah@stonesoup.com if you have any questions or comments about this activity. My best, This week on the blog This week on the blog we have something of a first: a nature video! See the beauty of Anna’s hummingbirds and learn about them with Sierra Glassman’s fascinating commentary. Plus, a review of John Steinbeck’s The Pearl by our regular reviewer, 12-year-old Vandana Ravi. Published in Stone Soup, January/February 2008, and in The Stone Soup Book of Historical Fiction Journeys to the Past Written and illustrated by Annakai Hayakawa Geshlider, 12 The floor creaked as Simon crept through his grandparents’ attic towards a large chest in the corner of the room that had caught his eye. In the dusty attic, cobwebs hung from the shelves and bookcases and a thick layer of dust blanketed the mildew-covered furniture. As he timidly tiptoed towards the chest, Simon felt an air of complete silence in the small room, a feeling that the whole world was waiting for him to discover what lay ahead. Carefully raising the key to the large brass lock that secured the maple-wood chest, Simon slowly turned it between his fingers. The key felt smooth and cool, and it fit perfectly in the keyhole. A satisfactory “click” sounded from the chest and he lifted the lid. Inside it was filled with many magnificent treasures: loads and loads of books. His eyes feasted upon the sight and he immediately reached for one of the musty spines, caution instantly gone from his body. And it was only a few moments later when Simon realized that what lay before him were not normal books. “Tuesday, December 23, 1986,” he read aloud into the dimly lit room. Once again he could almost feel the whole room listening to him. The ancient furniture, the peeling wallpaper covering the cracked walls, and even the spiders stopped weaving their webs to listen to Simon’s eloquent voice. Simon was good at reading aloud, and he knew it, for when he read aloud, he could nearly bring the words alive. “Dear Diary” he continued to his audience. “I know you aren’t much of a book, just a few old scraps bound together, but that was all I could find, just like everything is all I could find. When we are still hungry after dinner it is because those few scraps of meat and broken crackers were all I could find, and when we are cold at night it is because the small knit blanket was all I could find.

“Teary Eyed Giraffe”, painting by Aevahaadya Arun, 6, Ontario, Canada. Published in Stone Soup, January 2018. A note from William Rubel Our best Thanksgiving greetings from all of us at Stone Soup. Whether or not you are American or Canadian (Canadian Thanksgiving was last month), the end of the year is a good time to remember others who may not be in as happy a situation as you are. Where I live, in Santa Cruz, California, smoke from the massive Camp Fire that destroyed a town of 27,000 and has killed many people has reminded all of us here how lucky we are. The Stone Soup spirit is that when each of us gives a little, something great can be accomplished. I encourage you all to give something, even $1.00, to help someone who is in need right now. I just gave money to the UNHCR, the United Nations agency that helps refugees, and to the American Red Cross to help people caught up in the Camp Fire. I don’t think you will ever regret giving to help others. When we were at the California Library Association Conference two weeks ago we were surprised by how many librarians were interested in Stone Soup as a place where their patrons could not only read great work, but also get published. That got us thinking. That got us thinking about Stone Soupas a bridge between being a consumer of literature–a reader–and being a writer. All writers are readers, but all readers are not writers. I love to write. I feel most alive when I am writing. In that sense, for me, writing is its own reward. That said, I have many things I want to say that I want to share with others. While I don’t “write for publication” in the sense that I the only reason I write is to get published, having my work read by others is at the center of all of my writing. I tend to think of everything I write as a letter to a friend. In fact, the first book I wrote, The Magic of Fire, was started as a letter to a friend. But, when the letter got to about sixty pages I realized that the letter form wasn’t going to work–five years later that letter, by then a large book, was published. I decided I would be writer after visiting a friend of mine who was already a writer. He showed me a fan letter that had recently arrived. I was blown away! The fan letter impressed me because I saw that my friend’s writing had touched this person’s heart. And I thought, there and then, nothing could be better than enriching the lives of total strangers. Writing is where you, the writer, find your inner self. I think that ideas are best developed through writing. When you put words on paper you are forced to confront deep truths–do these words mean what I want to say? What is it, exactly, that I do want to say? In my experience as a writer, the act of writing itself is where I discover my voice. The trick is that to actually be a writer you have to write! We all have busy schedules and most of us are also distracted by our digital recreations. I am struggling with this in my own house with my own daughter. When she writes she is fully engaged with the writing, but more often than not, the lure of another episode of something on Netflix has her transfixed. We are working towards one or more video game- and movie-free days simply because it is so hard to stop playing or watching once one has started. If you are also struggling with how to balance digital entertainment in your life, or have advice for me and my 7th grader daughter, let me know by replying to this Newsletter. I’ll put together some of your replies to share with you. Replies from parents are welcome! A very brief reference to holiday shopping… Holiday shopping craziness is upon us! The one way you can best help Stone Soup thrive is to subscribe to the magazine via the Stone Soup website, look for gifts in our online store, Stonesoupstore.com, and encourage your friends to do the same–you never know, you or they might get their subscription for free in our 45th birthday celebration! (see below). Thank you. This week’s art and story In this week’s newsletter we wanted to highlight a particularly beautiful painting made by one of our younger contributors that we published this year: Aevahaadya Arun’s “Teary Eyed Giraffe”. What an achievement! Do take a closer look, and read some of the comments that tell you more about her work at our website. Also, don’t miss out on reading (or re-reading) Natalie Warnke’s story below, also published in January. It’s always exciting when a genre is turned on its head, and Natalie does just that with her clever twist on a fairytale princess. Until next week, The past week on our blog It’s been a great week on our blog – three new posts from young bloggers were published. In ‘Big Family: A Memoir’, Daniel Wei tells us about his experience as an Asian-American boy visiting China for the second time in his life. Maya V talks about ‘Sad Books’, and her difficulties with reading them. I’m sure lots of us share her feelings! Have a read and leave her a comment to keep the conversation going. And last but not least, Keshav Ravi muses on the joys of a fort: for play, for contemplation, as an escape, and as a place to read. Help us reach 1,000 print subscribers by the end of the year!   Stone Soup was 45 years old this year. We want to celebrate that birthday and celebrate being back in print with an offer to our loyal readers. Can you help us meet our target of 1,000 new print subscribers by the end of the year? We are offering free subscriptions and extra prizes at various

The waiting room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop Illustration by Frances Burnett-Stuart, 13, for “Marcella’s Miracle” by Abigail Johnson, 12. Published in Stone Soup, January/February 2015. A note from William Rubel Jane and Sarah did it! The 2018 Stone Soup Annual is going to print. We will start shipping the last week of November. This year, the Annual comes in at 411 pages and weighs 1.75 pounds! People who know me know that I cry easily. So, yes, I cried when I saw the proof. We made the Annual last year because we didn’t have a print magazine to offer you, so we thought, “Well, we can make the year into a book.” As you all know, we are now back in print (since early October). But it turns out that pulling all the issues together into a single book and adding the best of our online book reviews and blog posts creates something awesome. Truly awesome. The sum is greater than the parts. This is a book to take to bed with you, to take in the car, to take on vacation. Hours of reading and re-reading. Lots of inspiration for your own creative work. In the Annual, you hold in your hands the Stone Soup soup of 2018. November issue out now! The magical, animal, and natural November issue was officially published on our website on Thursday, so those of you with digital subscriptions can go to it now. Digital subscribers will also find PDF copies of Stone Soup on our website. New print subscribers—welcome! Your issue is in the mail. We are sorry it didn’t arrive on the first of the month, but please rest assured it is winging its way to you as you read this newsletter—and December’s copy will be mailed in two weeks, so your next issue will definitely arrive on schedule. Finally, a reminder for everyone: you can buy single issues of this and back issues at our online store, Stonesoupstore.com. William’s Weekend Project For today’s project I want to talk about this evocative drawing of a waiting room. This is a project for both child and adult readers. Most of us experience waiting rooms primarily at the doctor or dentist. While this is a drawing, you could also memorialize a waiting room experience in writing. This image, like most of the art we have been featuring in the newsletter, was originally commissioned as an illustration for a Stone Soup story by our editor emerita, Gerry Mandel. We at Stone Soup, and the larger Stone Soup community, are indebted to Gerry for her fabulous accomplishments drawing such evocative work from so many artists. Look at the window blinds! To me, the single bent blind is a stroke of genius. It transforms this from “a waiting room” to “this waiting room.” In the introduction to the upcoming 2018 Annual, editor Emma Wood mentions “sense of place.” I am sure I’ve written about this idea in previous newsletters. It is the specific observed (or imagined) details that artists and writers bring to their settings that help us engage our imaginations. This drawing offers a treasure trove of observational detail: the bent blind that I’ve mentioned, the art on the wall, the layout of the room, and, of course, the many individual people sitting there, each apparently in their own world, each displaying their own body language. I’d like you to draw, or describe in writing, a place with lots of people. Artists have used photography since photography’s early days in the mid-1800s. So, if you can’t sit someplace to sketch lots of people—like in a waiting room—then consider taking a photograph to remind you of the scene as your draw or write. Note people’s clothing—their costumes, their gestures, the kinds of details that both make each person different from the others and that may convey something about character. The teenager sitting with rounded shoulders staring into a little screen, the rail-straight young woman (is she a dancer?), the man wearing a business suit, and the man in a track suit, and so on. As in this drawing, capture the time and place. Looking back at the drawing or reading what you wrote ten years from now, I hope this creative work triggers your memory: Wow! I remember that! Wow! It looks so 2018! As always, kids age 14 or under, if you think your finished work is publishable, upload it to Emma using our online submissions form. If you are an adult and want to share what you did with me, send it to me by replying to this newsletter. Until next week, Partnership news Secret Kids contest As readers of this newsletter will already know, we are running a contest in partnership with Mackenzie Press: the Secret Kids Contest. All of the details are on our website–suffice to say, that if you are under the age of 18 and working on a long-form piece of writing, you should be thinking about getting it ready to submit by the end of the year to be in with a chance of winning one of the prizes of a publishing contract. Miacademy We have an exciting partnership in place with Miacademy, the interactive learning site for K-8th grade. Writing from Stone Soup is being featured on their site, and Miacademy subscribers have the opportunity to submit their work to us. As part of this partnership, our friends at Miacademy are offering generous discounts to Stone Soup subscribers: 20 to 40 percent off, depending on which type of subscription you purchase. To find out more about Miacademy and explore the various services on offer, visit their website and read the information for parents. If you choose to join, simply enter the code STONESOUP2018 at the checkout to receive your discount. Highlights from the past week online   Read the latest content from our book reviewers and young bloggers at Stonesoup.com! We published Sabrina Guo’s inspiring piece, Taking Flight with Soman Chainani, in both our young bloggers and book review sections this week. It isn’t exactly a