Introduction to this Stone Soup Writing Activity This story by Vivek Maru is a moral tale. It is about personal integrity and the “right” way to live. “Homemade Crop Duster” may be a “true life” story or it may be “made up.” Most probably, like many good stories, it is a mixture of both. Stories that have a moral often read more like lectures than works of fiction. “Homemade Crop Duster” works well as a story because Vivek doesn’t lecture. Vivek lets his characters show us how to act. We are not given a lecture about right and wrong. Project: Personal Integrity and Family History Vivek tells us that this is a story about Grandpa Maru, his father’s father. He says that sometimes, when he finds it difficult to follow his religion, he thinks of this story and it gives him strength. Talk to members of your family. Find out about a time when someone in your family (a brother or sister or parent or grandparent or even a great-grandparent) made a sacrifice for an important principle. I would proceed with this project this way: first, record the facts as if you were a reporter, getting down the who, what, when, where, and why of the story. Be sure to write down the principle that a family member was upholding. Second, take this reporter’s notebook entry and make it into the best story you can. The goal is to make your story feel like it is the truth and not read like a dry statement of facts like you might find in the newspaper. To transform your notes into an exciting story, you will have to let your imagination roam. Feel free to enlarge upon the facts, make up characters that didn’t exist, and add details and dialogue you weren’t told about to help make the story come alive. Homemade Crop Duster By Vivek Maru, 10, Huckleberry Hill Elementary, Brookfield, Connecticut Illustrated by Kerry Hanlon, 13, Brookfield, Connecticut From the November/December 1985 issue of Stone Soup In a country far away called India, long ago, there lived my father Hans, then eight years old. My father’s father, Grandpa Maru, was a farmer, and a good one. Grandpa was a very religious man, and that’s why my father is too. One of his many beliefs was nonviolence, and to be strict about it. This meant no fish, eggs, or meat to eat, and most of all, to never hurt or kill any human, animal, or even insect. So in the farm Grandpa never used bug spray or any other insect killer to preserve the crops. He only used natural ways. Since his family had a very small farm of only two acres, and three children to feed, Grandpa had the oldest son, my father, work on the farm also. They lived in a village, but the farm was on the outskirts of the village, about a twenty-minute walk. In India it was a tradition to have your farm a distance away from your home. My father would have to go early in the morning, accompanied by Grandpa, to work on the farm. Most of the time my father had very merry times at the farm, watching and learning about farming. He acted older than his age. I truly think he was dedicated to agriculture. His father was also very surprised and happy about the way his son could “do it right.” Life was going very well for my dad when he was eight. But one day just before the harvest time, a faint yell caught Grandpa’s ear. It said, “Grasshoppers! Grasshoppers! Lots of them coming this way!” At first Grandpa took it calmly, thinking it was just a youngster joking. But then his own son came running home from school saying, “Daddy, Daddy, come on! We have to save our crops! There’s a cloud of grasshoppers—you won’t believe it—and they’re heading straight for our farm!” Then Grandpa started worrying. “Oh, my gosh! Run to the farm! Wait! We shall not use bug spray. Get as many ropes as you can and start tying them together,” he told my father. “Yes, Daddy,” my father replied, unsure of the purpose of the ropes. By the time my father had started tying, Grandpa was off to the farm. It was a red hot afternoon and my dad didn’t have shoes! He finished tying and Grandpa spread the two-hundred-foot rope he had made across the field. Grandpa told my dad to take one end of the rope as he took the other. “O.K., I shall do as you say,” my father said, still not knowing the purpose of the rope. “All right, now run as fast as you can,” Grandpa told him. “I’ll beat you across the field,” quipped my father, now getting the idea. The rope dragged along the crops, swooping up the grasshoppers and shooing them away. At first my father sprinted and was ahead of Grandpa, but after many times, he got tired. He slowed his run to a fast jog. “I thought you said you could beat me,” challenged Grandpa. This stole my father’s honor so he speeded up to a pace that was fast, but that he could keep for a long while. For if he couldn’t move the rope fast enough it would not go under the grasshoppers and would not budge them. But after about forty-five minutes, like any boy his age would, my father got tired. Again he slowed down. This time Grandpa was desperate. “Come on, boy, run! We’ll never get those grasshoppers out,” scolded Grandpa. “I’m trying, Daddy, but I’m very tired,” replied my father. “Well, try harder!” Unfortunately this carried on for quite a while, but fortunately my father’s aunt had come to visit. This aunt was my father’s favorite. “What are you doing here, Bahen?” Grandpa asked her. In India, brother calls sister “Bahen” and sister calls brother “Bah.” “I was told I could find you here,” replied Dad’s aunt. “I’ve brought a
Art Activity: Making pictures of your community, with ‘Local Houses’, by Khaled Abdulaziz Ateeg, 12
Introduction to this Stone Soup Art Activity This city in Yemen, Saana, is similar in architecture with the painting, below, of a town in Saudi Arabia. This photograph is of Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. The buildings are made of brick or mud brick with white decorations made of white paint. This architecture is similar to that depicted in the painting of Al Aflaj, Saudi Arabia made by Khaled Abdulaziz Ateeg, 12. Khaled’s painting was made in the 1970s. Judging by images that I find online I think that this is not what the Al Aflaj looks like today. In the painting, the town is still a city of traditional buildings. They will have been smaller than the ones you see in the photograph of Sanaa. And they will have been of adobe–of mud bricks. What is remarkable about Khaled’s painting is that the architectural style is clear–and at the same time he has had the courage of an artist to present the town as richly colored. Realistic. But also imaginative. Project: Make pictures of the part of town where you live, and pictures of the part of town where you shop. Include in each drawing the important details that make your community recognizably unique. Some of these details are the different shapes of the buildings, the spaces between the buildings, and the patterns the windows make. Also important might be the type and placement of trees and gardens, telephone poles, street signs, advertisements, traffic lights, street lamps and parked cars. Notice in the drawing of Al Aflaj the distinct shape of the minaret tower. If your town has a church or other distinctively shaped building or landmark you might want to include it in your drawing. You don’t have to finish your work in one day. In fact, you probably can’t. So take your time to make a picture you can be very proud of. Like Khaled, allow yourself to be free of the constraints of your community’s real colors. Saudi Arabia is a very hot place. If Aflaj had painted the buildings their authentic brown color the image would have looked drab. What the color achieves is giving the place a sense of brightness–and a desert town is bright even if it is brown. The colors also make the town look welcoming which a brown town might not have seemed. In other words, Khaled used color that wasn’t really there to convey impressions and feelings that he felt looking at his town. As you think of your own town, think of how you might change how it actually looks to get at a deeper feeling about how it looks or feels to you, that is then conveyed to the people looking at your picture. From the January/February 1985 issue of Stone Soup Local Houses, by Khaled Abdulaziz Ateeg, 12, Saudi Arabia
Writing Activity: 4 projects to bring your (animal) characters to life
Introduction to this Stone Soup Writing Activity These writing activities are built around the story “Lone Wolf,” published in the January/February 1985 issue of Stone Soup. What is exceptional about this story of a lost wolf cub is that the characters seem so real. Julie Frazier, the 14-year-old author of “Lone Wolf,” takes us far beyond a simple listing of events—Mike did this and Julie did that and then Lone Wolf did something else—into the inner thoughts, perceptions, and reactions of the characters. Mike, Julie, and Lone Wolf are real enough to become our friends. Read the story and then work on one or all of the projects. Project 1: Points of View At important moments in “Lone Wolf,” when the characters do not share the same perceptions about what is happening, such as when Mike and Julie first find the wolf pup, the author explains to us the different perceptions by showing us the identical scene from different viewpoints. In real life we say there are “two sides to every story.” Another way of saying this is that there are always two stories. As an author you can make situations seem very real (and show how individuals relate to each other) by telling the “same” story twice. Think about a situation in which your side of the story was very different from another person’s. Turn this situation into a short story, giving it a beginning, middle, and end. Explain the characters’ differing points of view by telling the important moments of the story twice, once through your eyes and a second time through the eyes of the other person. Project 2: Internal Dialogue In fiction, as in real life, there is nothing more boring than cardboard characters who reveal nothing about their inner life. One reason the characters in “Lone Wolf seem so real is that we are shown something about their personality. We learn what makes each character a unique and very special individual. For instance, while Julie is walking, holding Lone Wolf, we learn about her dreams, about her past, quite a lot about her relation to her husband, and something about why Lone Wolf comes to mean so much to her. While on the “outside” Julie isn’t doing much, just walking along a forest path, “inside” she is alive with thoughts and feelings. Make a list of times when you appeared to be doing nothing but were in fact thinking hard about something. Expand one of the times on your list into a story. Remember to describe where you were, what you appeared to be doing, and what was actually going on in your head. Project 3: Emotional Responses Another way the author of “Lone Wolf” brings her characters to life is by telling us how they respond to what they see. In “Lone Wolf we learn what Mike sees when he encounters the wolf mother for the first time. But the author, Julie Frazier, shows us more than just what Mike sees, she shows us how what Mike sees makes him feel. When writing stories remember that a camera can see but only living things can feel. Think of a time you went someplace and responded very strongly to what you saw — responded, for example, with happiness or sadness or confusion or curiosity. Describe this time in the form of a short story. Describe where you were, what you saw, and how what you saw made you feel. Project 4: Broader Applications Go back through stories you have already written and think of ways you can make your characters seem more like real people. When writing your next story at school or at home, keep in mind the goal of giving your characters the feelings and emotions of you and your friends.
