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“A Lonely Girl” by Sloka Ganne, 9 (Overland Park, KS) Published in Stone Soup October 2019 Illustrating “The Ghost of the Forest” by Carmen Flax, 10 (Liechhardt, Australia) A note from William Thanks to all of you have already started pre-ordering our new magnificent blank journals and sketch books! These make great gifts for students as well as for adults, perfect for your stock of last minute gifts. Order these, along with the Book Contest novels, poetry, and our annual anthologies from our Stone Soup Store. Thank you. I know. It is Halloween! And yet, it isn’t. Like the girl in the illustration for “The Ghost of the Forest,” we are all looking into the Great Unknown! Somehow, Halloween got swallowed by the Fates. Halloween is a time when “spooky” is in. It is the “spooky” holiday. I put “spooky” in quotes because, really, how often is one actually frightened by anything you see on Halloween? There is a house in my neighborhood where the people go to great efforts to create frightening effects — and some years they do succeed in making us jump. For example, one year they had a blow up snake jump out at us from behind a bush. But, there as no real danger and the context was fun. Horror! This last Saturday, in the Stone Soup Saturday Writing Workshop, we worked on horror.  What makes horror different from spooky?  One answer is the context. Horror is scary things happening within a context of fear. Horror is being forced to go the house with a super smart aggressive snake that is out to get you — AND YOU CANNOT GET AWAY! I’d like to share with you today some of the writing from last week’s class: Horror Stories from the Stone Soup Saturday Writing Workshop. This weekend’s writing project is to write a horror story. A ride on a roller coaster is scary. The drawing, “A Lonely Girl” suggests to me the kind of context in which horror takes place. “The Ghost of the Forest,” below, opens with this evocative sentence: The woods glowed that mildewy night in October as the transparent, lilac-colored figure hovered eerily between dense thickets of elegant dark green pine trees, whose rich aroma curled through the forest.” Give your horror story context that includes how things look, how they feel, and how they smell — all with the purpose of tightening tension so that when your character is confronted with danger we, the reader, feel fear. How to start? Read Carmen Flax’ fabulously evocative ghost story, below. And also, read through the stories posted from last Saturday’s Horror writing workshop. And then, when you have some time to write, set your scene, and go for it! Scary can be a one-off adventure. Horror chills you to your core. As always, if you like what you write, please go to the Stone Soup website and submit it to Stone Soup. Blogging for Stone Soup. Welcome to Sita, one of our newest Stone Soup Bloggers! Sita has just posted a book review of books by Kate Mitford. Sita writes about the way in which the more Mitford books you read, the more real her fictitious world becomes. A well thought out piece. Thank you, Sita. If any of you are thinking you might like to blog for Stone Soup, which can include posting book reviews, contact Sarah at sarah@stonesoup.com. 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! What would the pandemic look like to a bottle of Purell? Emily, 9, takes the perspective of the inanimate object in her story “Defeating COVID-19 Together.” Check out all the spooky, unsettling and sometimes terrifying work created at last week’s Writing Workshop, the theme of which was horror. Perfect Halloween reading material! One of our newer bloggers, Sita, writes about how much she enjoys the shared worlds of author Kate Milford’s books. Mia, 13, reviews Chirp by Kate Messner. Read about why she “thoroughly enjoyed” the story about crickets, family, and speaking up. From Stone Soup October 2019 The Ghost of the Forest By Carmen Flax, 10 (Liechhardt, Australia) Illustrated by Sloka Ganne, 9, (Overland Park, KS) The woods glowed that mildewy night in October as the transparent, lilac-colored figure hovered eerily between dense thickets of elegant dark green pine trees, whose rich aroma curled through the forest. The lady waded through roaring black-colored rivers, tearing through the determined barriers of water. She stopped, but only to lean against an ancient, knobbly tree, and let out a choked cry that rears up in your ears only to come rolling into your heart and leave it weeping the purest and most tender of tears for the lost caller. The pale being looked up at the luminous, pearly white moon and flinched, as if something so bright and hopeful had wounded her permanently and forced her to live in such darkness and be so helpless. Suddenly, the figure stood up and slunk away into the shadows where all strange things are called. …/MORE   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.

A note from Jane Do you keep a journal? When I read Talia E. Moyo’s lyrical “Where I’m From,” featured in this week’s newsletter, I wonder if she is someone who keeps a regular journal. I feel as though she has crafted some of the kinds of everyday details one might write in a diary into a beautiful form of narrative poem. She asks and answers profound questions of identity using a myriad of carefully chosen and beautifully arranged details of her life. Each paragraph paints a vivid picture of all the places and people she is “from.” I encourage all of you to read and listen to Talia’s own reading of her work via the links below, and use it as inspiration to write a poetical personal narrative. Try to use tiny details and well-chosen words to reflect on where and what you are from. Alternatively, make this the weekend you decide to start a journal, and start building up a resource to draw on for future writing (or just to enjoy reading in the future, when you have forgotten the details of a wet Tuesday in October 2020!). I am a very irregular journal writer, and for me it’s always a case of all or nothing. I’ll go at it with huge enthusiasm for a while, then just as quickly stop writing anything in it for months on end. Sometimes, writing at least three pages of stream of consciousness is the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning. Even if I think I have nothing to say, I’ll just write that down until something else comes out. Often, it’s a dream I was barely aware I’d had, a memory of the days or years before, or a hidden worry that might have spoiled my morning if I hadn’t got it out onto the page before the new day really began. Other times, I’ll write about the view from the window or the smell of my coffee or the sounds my kitten makes when she wakes me nuzzling and purring. When I look back, as long as I can read my handwriting I find that it gives a little snapshot of the seasons and time passing—as well as a sometimes surprising record of some very peculiar dreams! To encourage all of you in your journaling and note-taking, we have produced a gorgeous new range of writers’ notebooks and artists’ sketchbooks, all available for pre-order now in our online store. We are so excited to share them with you! Each one has the matte finish and soft feel of the print edition of Stone Soup, and all of them feature a different artwork or photograph by a Stone Soup artist on the cover, either on the front or as a wraparound image. There are six different A5 notebooks for writers, with ruled lines on white interior paper (cover choices right and below); two more in the same size, with plain, unlined interior paper in creme, for either writing or drawing (cover choices below); and three larger (8″ x 10″) sketchbooks for artists, with plain white paper (covers above). All of them are 160 pages long, and designed to inspire creativity at all ages! Please consider choosing your favorites and giving them as gifts this holiday season. Every one you purchase supports Stone Soup. To show our appreciation for any pre-orders, you’ll receive 10% off on all of the new designs until the end of this month. Until next time, Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! In his poem “Together,” Ethan, 10, emphasizes the ways that we have learned to remain connected during this challenging year. Sita, 11, reviewed The Blue Wings by Jef Aerts on the blog this week. She calls the book “a one-of-a-kind moving read.” Alina Ji, 13, made a breathtaking collage honoring the doctor who first alerted authorities about the virus and who died treating people. Have you heard of the book The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas? Grace, 13, writes about why she found the book about revenge so compelling. Chloe, 9, did not expect to enjoy The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder as much as she did. Read her review to learn why the book is her favorite of the Little House on the Prairie series. Talia E. Moyo, 10Hopewell, NJ From Stone Soup October 2020 Where I’m From By Talia E. Moyo, 10 (Hopewell, NJ)   I’m from the hot deserts of Africa, with Sekuru’s delectable, rich mushroom stew, and Mama’s avocado pudding, and the African adventures with waterfalls and dancing in the night with fireflies as night lights. And the red dusty villages of Cameroon, with rains that come almost once every month. And Sekuru’s little straw hut-like chapel, where stories and the Bible are read. The big continent of Europe is where I’m from, with silly, little, annoying, cute, frustrating cousins who follow me everywhere I go. And aunties, who make delicious cake pops and table grill and German sausages and treats and grow mouth-watering fruits that drip down my shirt, and cook everything possible everywhere they go. I’m from Hopewell, New Jersey, with its green luscious forests, and with Lotta, our dog, following my every single step. And seeing her perform a routine of sit, lie down, paw and guess which hand your treat is under. And the soft sandy beaches of the New Jersey shore and their warm grains of sand cushioning my feet under cool water with shells of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Click here to read more—and hear a recording of the author reading her work aloud! 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.  

“Reaching” by Jackie Cutrona, 13 (Bedford, MA) Published in Stone Soup October 2020 A note from William Honor for Abhi Sukhdial: Here is the link to an interview with Abhi, the winning novelist in our first long-form fiction contest (the 2021 contest is still being judged, with the award announcement coming soon). The interview is in a publication from the prestigious Duke University, in North Carolina. Abhi started out with Stone Soup writing for our blog. The writing advice he gives in the interview is spot on. I’d like, in particular, to highlight his advice that you do not need to work in chronological order—that if you have an inspiration for the ending, then write the ending. Ultimately, your success in writing fiction of any length is to be engaged with your work, and to stay engaged until it is finished. But you can’t finish if you don’t start! You can support Abhi’s writing ambitions by buying his book! It is available directly from us at Stone Soup and also from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Annual Drive: We will be sending out letters within a week or two initiating our Annual Drive. This year, Stone Soup substantively increased the range and scope of its programs with the writing prompts, weekly contests, writing workshops, a book club, and more. We know that these programs have been a lifeline for many of our young readers and contributors during this difficult time, and we need your help to continue them, so please respond to our Annual Drive when it is launched. Thank you. Amazon Smile: The most effortless way to support Stone Soup is to sign up for Amazon Smile. If you go to Smile.amazon.com, you can register so that your purchases will each contribute something to Children’s Art Foundation—Stone Soup Inc. If all of you were to do this going into the holiday season, each of those tiny donations would add up to something profound. The “Stone Soup” story itself is about each of us contributing something small to a community project, achieving together what we may not be able to achieve on our own. Using Amazon Smile takes a small change in behavior at first, but it is fully integrated into your normal Amazon account, so you lose nothing while helping us. What a brilliant photograph! What a strong image by Jackie Cutrona! A magnificent transformation of a sculpture into an evocative photograph. Pay attention to the play of light and dark. While we normally think of light as the way to focus on what is important—think of the spotlight in traditional theater—in this photograph it is the shadow that highlights the face. Note that little vertical slash of sunlight in the middle of the image. In pulling that into her image, I think Jackie Cutrona really strengthened her vision. William’s Weekend Project: The project of this weekend is to photograph a sculpture—or an inanimate object like a chair, table, bowl, or car. The industrially produced objects that are everywhere in our life were, at one point, designed by an artist! Use your camera to explore what you are looking at, paying attention to the way the light illuminates the object. Move your camera around. Take lots of pictures; I think you will find that small shifts in perspective may make a big difference in how your photograph works. If you are taking pictures indoors, play around with artificial light to find inspiration. As always, if you like what you make, please go to our website and submit it so Emma, our editor, can consider it for the magazine. Sabrina Guo: Today I would like to report on some of the work of Sabrina Guo, now a high school student but for many years a regular contributor to Stone Soup. As I have mentioned before, Sabrina has risen to the COVID-19 challenge. She has raised over $80,000, some of that from our Stone Soup family. She has created on ongoing nonprofit that is still involved in getting protective gear to people who need it but has also expanded to, for example, sending art and letters of thanks and encouragement to people who are in special need. I am sharing a recent video about her work below. 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! Take a virtual trip to Switzerland by reading Vivaan’s latest travelogue on the blog. Read Vivaan’s account to learn more about the country, including its tradition of yodeling. Blogger Eunice discusses all of her mixed emotions about going back to school during the pandemic. Are you back in school? Leave a comment on Eunice’s post to say how you feel about your school experience this year. Flash Contest Winners We received so many wonderful entries to this month’s Flash Contest, answering the following prompt: Write a Poem That Can Be Read Up or Down. Congratulations to our winners and honorable mentions listed below. You can read the winning entries for this contest (and previous ones) at the Stone Soup website. Winners “Home” by Arishka Jha, 12, Redwood City, CA “Perspective” by Lily Jones & Sawyer Hanley, both 10, Eugene, OR “A diary of a young musician” by Alice Ruan, 8, Beaverton, OR “Fall Fiesta” by Adele Stamenov, 11, Bethel Park, PA “War, Love, and Peace by Chloe Zhang, 9, Portland, OR Honorable Mentions “Save the Earth” by Prisha Aswal, 8, Portland, OR “Wild Fire” by Cathy Jiang, 11, Portland, OR “The Light” by Grace Mancini, 12, Glenside, PA “Fire and Water Collide” by Sophie Yu, 12, Houston, TX “My Toys” by Jessie Zhang, 8, Portland, OR Contest, partnership & project news More readers for the podcast needed! We’re still looking for a few more young readers to record stories and poems from the archives for our podcast that will be released soon. Email sarah@stonesoup.com for more information. From Stone Soup October 2020 The Book With No Words By Michaela Frey, 12 (Herndon, VA) Photographed by Jackie Cutrona, 13 (Bedford, MA)   One word today, thought Meri.   *          *          * Yesterday was three words. For Meri, speaking was like a honeybee sting. The bee has