Have you ever watched an animated poetry video? Check out the one Vandana wrote and created in the link below: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/250636916/#player
Vandana’s Book Collection
Photo by Rebecca Wilson via Flickr. The first book I remember buying from my own money was Finally by Wendy Mass (I recently sent a review of it to Stone Soup, inspired by the Newsletter). I felt grown up carrying the shiny paperback home by myself, and even more importantly, I’d never identified with a character so much. From that moment, Finally and I were best friends, and although the copy became worn and smudged with time, the story never grew old in my eyes. At this moment in time, a few weeks after I began seventh grade, the book that means the most to me is Emma by Jane Austen. I carried it with me in my backpack on the first day of middle school, over a year ago. My new school was giant compared to my elementary school, and I was surrounded by strangers. For the first few weeks, I felt lost and alone. But every time I opened Emma at lunch or between classes, the familiar characters and old-style language seemed to wrap their arms around me and transport me to a place which I knew like the back of my hand. I think of those days with nothing more than vague but fond memory now; but Emma continues to be my all-time favorite book. My book collection consists of books which really mean something to me. It can be something that inspires memories in me, has characters I identify with like I do with no others, or simply strikes me as a book which is second to none. When I check out something from the library which I’m unable to part with after weeks and even months, then I know it belongs in my collection and I usually buy a copy off Amazon or from the bookstore. Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the books are also by Jane Austen – upon reflection, the humor and archaic language appealed (and still does appeal) to me more than any other style. I like to keep my locker at school filled with books, so a large percentage of my collection is crammed against the walls of the locker. The rest I keep at home, because all readers know that one can’t have a room without a book collection of some sort inside it.
The Book of Boy, Reviewed by Vandana Ravi, 11
Every kid has, at some point, wished for nothing more than to fit in. This is just the case with Boy, a young hunchback boy living in 1350, the year declared as a Holy Year by the pope of Rome. Boy is used to being an outcast from society – for no more reason than the lump on his back. He is daily called a monster, a fiend, or a devil’s companion, and accepts this as part of his identity. Father Petrus, the priest who christened him “Boy”, taught him the rules of life and ways to hide his differences. The Father is an important person in Boy’s vague, mysterious past. Boy has his own private life inside the bubble of loneliness that he is set in by everyone else. He is not completely alone, however, because he has the power of talking to animals. They accept Boy, for what animal would care whether a human stands straight or crooked when judging him for a companion? One chilly March day, a cloaked pilgrim shows up near Boy’s home. Impressed with the hunchback’s climbing and jumping abilities, he recruits Boy as a servant on a strange quest. The pilgrim, named Secundus, pulls Boy into a journey across Europe to collect seven valuable relics of Saint Peter – a rib, tooth, thumb, shin, dust, skull, and tomb. The pack in which Boy carries the relics hides his hump – so for the first time, he is treated normally. With great pleasure, he tells jokes to a brown-eyed girl and shares his joy with hounds on the street. Secundus and Boy journey from one holy spot to another. Tales of cripples dancing away from the shrine, dead babies coming to life, and sudden cures of incurable diseases pervade the minds of hopeful pilgrims around them. As the pair move, Boy begins to discover astonishing things about himself and his companion. Through the fast-paced, gripping action, tiny clues have been adding up. They finally point to the idea that Boy’s hump may not be a lump of evil, but a ball of divinity waiting to unfold its wings. And as for Secundus and his motives in collecting the relics – it is possible that he is the true fiend, though his body is not disfigured in any way. Bit by bit, Boy discovers just how far the magic of his hump extends; and realizes that if he keeps a confident smile on his face, he can do what he always wished to do – help people – without being labeled as either an angel or a monster. And with this, he fulfills his wish of being treated normally while staying the same person that he always was. I think that this book, though told in a medieval setting, really applies to modern day. Everyone is different. Although most kids have been told this many times, we still tend to single out the people who are very tall, very short, who have learning problems, who look different. We look at someone and judge them, forgetting hidden under everybody’s metaphorical disfigurement, there is a mind that thinks and feels just like we do. Everyone has, at some point, felt that they don’t fit into the norm. It’s hard to realize that our differences might actually be assets. When you are singled out or made fun of, it’s difficult to put a smile on your face and show the world that you may be different, but you have your own special powers. When you do, however, you are given wings for your personality to fly free. The Book of Boy by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. Harper Collins, 2018. Buy the book here and support Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup in the process! Have you read this book? Or do you plan on reading it? If so, comment below!
