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“A Glimpse of Winter” by Hannah Parker, 13 Published in Stone Soup December 2019 A note from William If you had ever wondered what it would be like to be part of an event that will be in the history books for hundreds of years—well, now we know. Not much fun. We are starting 2021 the way we ended 2020: in our houses, being careful. Because of the vaccines, we are also entering 2021 with a sense there is “a light at the end of the tunnel.” This tunnel expression is one that most of us know and use. It was an experience on a train a few years ago that gave me a visceral understanding of what this expression means. I would like to share that with you today. A few years ago, I took a tourist in my community from downtown Santa Cruz, California, where I live, into the town of Felton in the mountains a few miles away. As the train leaves the downtown, it goes through a tunnel. The tunnel is reasonably long, and the train goes slowly. There are a couple cars with seats—old train cars from the 1930s—but most passengers ride in open cars to see the view as the train goes into the mountains. There are no lights on the train. There are no lights in the tunnel. It is dark. It was the darkest dark I had ever experienced. It is a darkness that is the absolute absence of light. I can’t explain it, but it is darker than any darkness I have experienced before or since. It is a darkness that is so absolutely dark that it envelopes you in an embrace of nothingness. It is unpleasant. It soon becomes frightening. When will we get out of this darkness? When? And then, way way way in the distance, a speck of light. It is still dark, but one immediately feels better: the journey will soon give way to a brilliant day. The dawn of 2021 breaks with a speck of light in the distance. Like the train in the tunnel, the path is sure. We are going to make it to back to the light. And then. Then what? We party! January issue: Because of COVID-19, our printer was late printing the January issue of Stone Soup. It shipped a few days ago from our mailing house in Bellingham, Washington. They normally ship the issues the middle of the month prior to publication. If the mail system is cleared of holiday mail, you should expect your January issue within a couple weeks. Those of us on the West Coast will get them first. Our apologies, but this was something outside of our control. Writing Workshop: The Saturday Writing Workshop will resume on Saturday, January 23. Registration will go out soon. We are limiting the class to 45 students; existing class members will be given the opportunity to re-enroll, and then we will open it up to everyone else. Saturday Writing Project: Please look at the photograph A Glimpse of Winter by Hannah Parker. Firstly, notice that there are really only two planes—a foreground and a background. If you were to think of this image set up on a stage, then you have a bird feeder up near the audience and then at the back of the stage a backdrop painting of falling snow. You would also have a front curtain with an oval opening so that you only see the bird feeder and the snowy curtain behind it, and nothing else, not even the stage floor. Hannah framed her bird feeder in an oval. In photography, this is called a vignette. Portraits, for instance, are often framed as vignettes. The next time you go to a store that sells frames, you are likely to find some that have mats that are cut as an oval. Photographic vignettes focus our eyes onto the single most important image—in Hannah’s photograph, the bird feeder, but usually a person’s face and upper body. While I want to use this photograph as a prompt for this Saturday’s writing project, as a bonus project you can also use it as inspiration for a photograph of your own. Take your phone or camera for a walk around your house, yard, or neighborhood looking for things to photograph that are organized in the way the bird feeder and backdrop of snow is organized: foreground, background, and nothing else. To add to the complexity of this project, you might also try to find a situation where this foreground/background image is closed in in a way that further emphasizes the foreground image. In other words, try to find a natural photographic vignette frame through which to take your photograph. For the writing project, I want you to think of the bird feeder as a character, the falling snow the backdrop. This holiday, I have been watching lots of anime with my daughter. In one of the shows, they often show the face of a character in the foreground, like where the bird feeder is, and then behind that character, where the snow is, there is an image of, for example, bursting stars. The background of bursting stars conveys the character’s inner state: Wow! Surprise! Many of you will have read a book in which a character is feeling very emotional while at the same time there is a storm outside. It is a common literary device to link a character’s inner state, the way the character is feeing, with the external world: A happy person, a happy day. A tumultuous event, a thunderstorm. I would like you to write a short short story. For today, let’s say under 125 words—so like half a typed page. This gives you space to create a character whose inner state is either reflected in what is happening outside—happy person, sunny day—or the opposite—the sun is shining, but her heart is breaking! Lastly, “Cafe Terrace at Night”: This is a great, great story. I hope all of you will click through to read the entirety of what Aoife O’Connell has written. For an extra project to close out this holiday break, please focus on the first paragraph:

“Bowl of Joy” by Ethan Hu, 8 (San Diego, CA) Published in Stone Soup December 2019 A note from Sarah Happy holidays from all of us here at Stone Soup. Just a note that if you are still looking for a gift for a young creative person, Stone Soup is a great option! Subscriptions and eBooks don’t require stressing about last-minute shipping and provide inspiration and joy for young readers. On the subject of gifts, I’m sure a lot of us are partial to giving (and receiving) books as gifts. I’d like to point you also to the treasure trove that is the Book Review section of our blog. There you can find young readers reviewing all kinds of books, from classics like Oliver Twist to recent releases like Ways to Make Sunshine by Renée Watson (you can scroll down to the end of this email to read Samantha’s eloquent review of the book). If you haven’t spent any time perusing the Book Review section of the blog, I highly recommend that you do so. Not only can you get ideas of books to add to your to-read pile, you can also learn something from the many approaches taken about how to tackle a review. What goes into a book review? Surely some context is needed for the reader of the review, but it can be difficult to know how much plot summary is too much—you don’t want to accidentally give away any spoilers! The most important part of reviews is going further than just summarizing the plot, and articulating what stuck out to you about the book. In her review of Ways to Make Sunshine, Samantha writes, “Ryan’s story is also full of fun and laughter. I love her spirit and personality. Ryan’s experiences always make me smile and a lot of them make me laugh.” This is a nice detail that tells us about the tone of the book, and what Samantha found especially appealing. As an added bonus, Samantha also includes a note in her review about how she personally connected to the book: “Sometimes, as a girl and a person of color, I feel a little looked down upon. Although Watson doesn’t specifically mention it in the book, I wonder if Ryan has had to deal with this as well. I also wonder if that’s why her parents gave her such a strong name. She doesn’t give up, she doesn’t settle, and she believes in herself. That’s one thing I admire about Ryan: she stays strong and kind and herself. She inspires me to always do that too.” Of course, an emotional connection isn’t needed to write a review for a book, but it sometimes makes the writing process easier! As a weekend project, I suggest that you try writing a review. It may be of a book that you love, or even a book that you hate. It could be a movie or TV show. What was special about it? How did it make you feel? If you like your review, please consider submitting it. Happy holidays, Congratulations to our December Flash Contest Winners! Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Our December Flash Contest was based on our weekly creativity prompt #130, a wonderful creative challenge issued by our Stone Soup intern, Anya Geist, asking you to make a piece of art inspired by a family tradition. Needless to say, given the time of year, we received lots of entries based on holidays, including Christmas, Chinese New Year, and Navratri, plus some regular family traditions that go on all the year round. As well as encountering a diverse range of traditions, we also received works of art in many, many styles and media: collage, drawing, oil on canvas, knitting, models made in paper and clay, paper cut outs and digital art. It was really exciting to see the range of materials and cultures represented in these stories from your families. Well done to everyone who entered, and thank you for bringing us so much holiday cheer! And thank you Anya, for a great seasonal prompt! Congratulations to our Winners and Honorable Mentions, listed below. You can see and enjoy the winning entries for this contest (and previous ones) on the Winners’ Roll page at the Stone Soup website. Winners Rangoli by Prisha Aswal, 8, Portland, OR Family of Pirates by Paris Andreou Hadjipavlou, 7,  Nicosia, Cyprus Knitting up Memories by Audrey Hou, 11, Portland, OR Chinese New Year Windmill by Sophia Li, 9, Redwood City, CA A Paper Chinese New Year by Serena Lin, 10, Scarsdale, NY Honorable Mentions Chinese New Year by Yuxuan Jiang, 11, Portland, OR Secret Santa with my Sisters by Lucinda Mancini, 8, Glenside, PA Soaring in the Sky by Jessie Zhang, 9, Portland, OR Christmas Chaos by Joycelyn Zhang, 10, San Diego, CA Paper Art by Alexis Zou, 13, Lake Oswego, OR Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Sita, 11, reviews Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller. Read the review to find out why Sita thinks it’s both entertaining and educational. “Christmas Carols,” a poem by Ashvant, combines a creepy, mysterious tone with typical Christmas scenes. For our COVID-19 blog, Natalie, 8, wrote an optimistic poem called “Attack of the Invading Virus.” She writes, “I just know there / will / be a day, / When everyone is outside, / Playing in a field, / Or whooshing down a slide.” You’ve probably read one of Vivaan’s travelogues for our blog before. Well, since travel has not been possible lately, Vivaan grapples with a lack of inspiration about what to write. Read his reflection, titled “Ideas,” on the blog. “If you like books that entertain and inspire you at the same time, you should definitely check out Ways to Make Sunshine.” Samantha, 11, reviews the book by Renée Watson on the blog. Check out this Stone Soup first—a discussion guide! Sofie, 10, came up with questions for each chapter of The Chosen by Chaim Potok.

“Flower” by Grace Williams, 13 Published in the December 2020 issue of Stone Soup A note from William Well! December is truly underway. And an odd December it certainly is! The previous two years I spent Christmas and New Year’s in Egypt. This year, my daughter and I are devoting ourselves to house, garden, and being creative. As it does seem that life will be back to at least near normal next year, this is an opportunity to use the enforced quiet to create something special that you would not normally feel you have the time to do. At the beginning of the pandemic last March, we noted that Isaac Newton (1643–1727) did some of his best work in a year that he was hiding from a pandemic. Lets all of us take this holiday in lockdown as an opportunity to be creative. You are invited to a reading! A week from today, December 18, you are all invited to our first Stone Soup reading. This first event is by students in the Saturday writing workshop. Please register for the reading through EventBrite. It starts at 9 a.m. PST. Good news from China! Longtime newsletter readers may remember what we had told you that the Stone Soup anthologies would be published in China in the spring of 2020. That did not happen. We have just heard from our publisher that everything is now back on track. The books will be published in the first half of 2021. This is super super good news. Our Chinese publisher is a trend setter. We anticipate many good things will come from the association. Holiday orders: I encourage you to keep Stone Soup in mind for holiday gifts. Subscriptions, of course, both print and digital. The Stone Soup anthologies make good gifts to any young person you know who likes to read. And, the Stone Soup Annual—so large this year we recommend the digital edition as being most practical—is the gift of gifts for all avid Stone Soup readers. Order Stone Soup subscriptions here and order books at our Stone Soup Store. This weekend’s project: I’d like you to look to the evocative pairing of a photograph of buds with water droplets (dew, heavy mist, rain), and a poem about dew from the current issue of Stone Soup, as inspiration for pairing a photograph and text. Grace Williams’s deeply colored photograph definitely reminds me of early morning walks when I used to take my daughter to day care. In the spring, foliage was often laden with dew drops glistening in the morning sun. For publication in Stone Soup, Editor Emma Wood paired this photograph with Esther Hay’s poetic portrait of a walk on a dewy morning. What I’d like you to do is to take a photograph to pair with something you write. I’d like your photograph to capture something evanescent—something that is present but fleeting, like dew, or steam on a bathroom mirror, or steam rising from a pot on a stove, or a wisp of smoke from a fire. Write something short—it can be very short—a short poem or a paragraph-length piece of prose—that ties into the photograph. It could be a description. But no people, no action. It could be a reverie—a thought or dream triggered by the image. Grace’s photograph has strong colors. Let the photograph you take inspire you to choose visual language in your piece. As always, if you are happy with what you create, please submit it to Stone Soup so Emma can consider it for publication. Until next week, Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Read an update from our latest book club meeting, where author Kelly Barnhill joined us to talk about The Girl Who Drank the Moon! We published an illustration by Paris, 7, that he created in response to our Creativity Prompt #119: Draw a Bicycle—From Memory. Some more great art: Aaron, a new blogger, created some wonderful digital art pieces that we published on the blog. Check them out! News from the Stone Soup Open House and Annual Drive Have you booked your free place at our Writing Workshop’s public reading next weekend? On Saturday December 19, the last session of 2020 for this year’s phenomenally talented Stone Soup Writing Workshop, we are going public: you are all invited to join us on Zoom and hear readings from our young writers of work they have produced during this year’s classes. Don’t miss this chance to hear these creative voices of the future–live and (almost) in person!It’s free, but you do need to book a place – just visit Eventbrite for full details and to sign up here.   From Stone Soup December 2020 The Dew Drop   By Esther Hay, 8 (Ancaster, Canada) Illustrated by Grace Williams, 13 (Katonah, NY) I wake up, I walk out the door. The dew smells like flowers. As I walk, I feel the morning mist brush against my tired face. I see the daisies so bright and blue. As I touch them the dew falls off and onto my foot, chilling me to the bone. As I walk through the forest the dew falls off the trees and keeps me cold. As I walk home the trees shake in the breeze, all the dew falls onto my face. Now I am as cold as winter, as cold as a polar bear.   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. Stone Soup’s Advisors: Abby Austin, Mike Axelrod, Annabelle Baird, Jem Burch, Evelyn Chen, Juliet Fraser, Zoe Hall, Montanna Harling, Alicia & Joe Havilland, Lara Katz, Rebecca Kilroy, Christine Leishman, Julie Minnis, Jessica Opolko, Tara Prakash, Denise Prata, Logan Roberts, Emily Tarco, Rebecca Ramos Velasquez, Susan Wilky.