“‘Josh, there’s a big fire going off a little ways from here!’ said Eric in a panicking voice.” By José Chardiet, 13 (New Haven, CT), published in Stone Soup July/August 2007 Illustrating When the World Becomes a Flame by Connor Pickens, 13 (Shakopee, MI) A note from William Dear Friends, I cannot see the fires approaching Santa Cruz from my house, but for days the sky has been filled with smoke and a light rain of ashes has been falling. At this point we are all fine. I am going to keep the newsletter short today. Stone Soup news: In early September, the heretofore Friday Writing Workshop is shifting to 9 a.m. PDT on Saturdays. The Wednesday Book Club meets one more time this week and then will meet once per month thereafter, also on a Saturday. Time and registration information will be provided in next week’s newsletter. As school starts up again, we are also changing the schedule for the Flash Contests and the Creativity Prompts. The Flash Contest will now be monthly. Starting in September, the Flash Contest will be announced the first week of the month. The creativity prompts will shift from daily to weekly. I’d like to give a special thanks to Jane Levi, who took on the burden of the Stone Soup COVID-19 response. Jane has published 108 creativity prompts and managed twenty flash contests. Thank you, Jane. Thanks also to Sarah, to the several students who helped write prompts, and to Anya Geist, also a student, who is interning with Stone Soup this summer and is also helping process the many blog posts you have been sending in. Please read the poem and listen to the music composed and performed by Fern Hadley, one of the winners of the Flash Contest #20. The music and poem are posted in the Flash Contest section below. Until next week, Winners from Weekly Flash Contest #20 Weekly Flash Contest #20: Write a poem inspired by a song The week commencing August 10 (Daily Creativity Prompt #101) was our twentieth week of Flash Contests. The prompt asked our entrants to write a poem inspired by a song they’ve been listening to a lot. The entries we received included poetry set to the tune of a certain song; poetry inspired by a theme of a song; and poetry inspired by classical music, contemporary music, musicals, and even our entrants’ own musical compositions. We greatly enjoyed reading the many entries we received. Well done to everyone who submitted to this prompt. Congratulations to our winners and honorable mentions, listed below. You can read the winning entries for this week (and previous weeks) at the Stone Soup website. Winners “Satisfied” by Savannah Black, 9 (Yuba City, CA) “First Flight” by Fern Hadley, 12 (Cary, NC) “Requiem” by Joyce Hong, 10 (Oakville, ON) “Mendelssohn’s Voices” by Eric Liang, 13 (Sherborn, MA) “Last Night” by Daniel Wei, 13 (Weddington, NC) Honorable Mentions “The Lovely Birds” by Nova Macknik-Conde, 8 (Brooklyn, NY) “Christmas Carols” by Ashvant Daniel, 11 (Portland, OR) “Mad World 2020” by Emma Hoff, 8 (Bronx, NY) “The King of the Snow” by Kyler Min, 9 (Vienna, VA) “Dance Monkey” by Sophie Yu, 12 (Houston, TX) Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Lyla, 10, writes a short, heartbreaking poem entitled “Gone.” Check out the update from our Writing Workshop from last Friday, where we focused on character sketches. Remember, for the last two weeks of August we are taking a break from the workshop, but we will resume in September. In “The Dust Cloud,” Arshia, 10, writes about her feelings about online school and her fears about the virus. Prisha, 7, asks in the first line of her poem, “What if there was a healing virus?” Read the rest of her lyrical poem on the blog. Have you thought about where you want to vacation when the pandemic is over? Chloe, 12, imagines trips to Spain and Japan in her blog post. Hazel writes a powerful poem related to Black Lives Matter called “Hundreds at Least.” Take a minute to read it and take it in. With her poem, Alisa, 12, appeals to the coronavirus itself in a plea to stop attacking us. Fern, 12, wrote a beautiful song called “First Flight.” We’ve published a video of Fern performing it, plus the sheet music and lyrics if you’d like to cover it yourself. From the Stone Soup blog November 2018 My Soccer Game Went Up in Smoke by Lukas Cooke As many people know, the state of California has burned with some 7,600 fires this year [2018]. Many of these were large and leveled entire towns, leaving thousands of people homeless. California’s recent largest-recorded fire ever was the Mendocino Fire. The fires have cost about 2.975 billion dollars in rebuilding and fire-suppression costs. I live in California. Yesterday morning, I woke up to a blanket of smoke covering the landscape outside my window. Later, when I went outside, I could hardly breathe through the fumes, which made my throat burn. I was supposed to have a soccer game at noon. It was canceled due to the air quality. My school was scheduled to have a volleyball game against a school in Paradise, a town razed by flames just a week ago. That was canceled. I began to wonder why there were so many fires. I didn’t have to look far for the answer. Climate change, or global warming, has become a growing concern for the world these past couple of decades. Severe weather patterns, large fires, flooding, erosion, and droughts are only some of the disasters that are becoming more and more common . . . /More Georgia Marshall, 11Marblehead, MA From the Stone Soup blog May 2020 We are Strong by Georgia Marshall, 11 (Marblehead, MA) Fires burning across the globe Porcelain crashing True loves forced to see each other, only through windows. And when the sky is falling Through a cracked glass mirror, We have only a ray of hope Shining through the storm. We can find a way
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Saturday Newsletter: August 15, 2020
“Strawberry” by Lulu De Mallie, 11 (Naples, NY) Published in Stone Soup April 2020 A note from Sarah This week, I wanted to draw your attention to something from the Stone Soup blog that, in my opinion, doesn’t get enough attention: recipes! If you scroll down to the bottom of the newsletter, you’ll see a recipe for fruit crumble posted by our former blogger Sarah Cymrot a few years ago. I’ve tried it myself recently, so I can confirm that it’s a great recipe. I made it with cherries and nectarines, but part of the reason that it appeals to me is that it’s so versatile—you can use whatever summer fruit you’ve got on hand. If you’re also inspired to try out Sarah’s recipe, please leave a comment on her post to let us know how it turned out. We’ve also published issues of the magazine that were food-themed. If you’re looking for recipes for dairy-free apple pie, cream of tomato soup, or matcha crepe cake—look no further! We featured those recipes and more in the December 2018 issue. But on to more recently published work. Did you read the blog post “Cucumbers” by Trevor Shum? Trevor does a great job of describing the characteristics of cucumbers and relating them to his own personality traits. Do you have a fruit or vegetable that you feel you’re most like? Think it over and try to write your own short piece like Trevor’s. And if you happen to be more in the mood for an art project, take a look at Lulu’s photograph of a strawberry above. What strikes me most about the photo is the interesting perspective that Lulu takes. A strawberry plant might be something that you see every day in your yard, but how can you capture it in an interesting way? I like to think of this image as taking the point of view of a bug in the garden. Can you think of any other interesting perspective to take? Till next week, P.S. Don’t forget that poetry submissions for the rest of August are free! Please spread the word and encourage the young poets you know to submit their work. Winners from Weekly Flash Contest #19 Weekly Flash Contest #19: Write a story backwards The week commencing August 3 (Daily Creativity Prompt #96) was our 19th week of flash contests, with a prompt that asked our entrants to write a story that goes backwards. The entries we received covered a broad range of topics, from family to animals to weather to space travel to time travel to friendship, and much more, even including a few poems. We greatly enjoyed reading all of the entries we received, and loved how the plots of the stories were slowly revealed as they traveled backwards. Well done to all of our entrants for taking on the difficult task of telling a story backwards, and particular congratulations to our winners and honorable mentions, listed below. Winners “The Project” by Katie Bergsieker, 12 (Denver, CO) “Surprise” by Scarlet He, 9 (Scarsdale, NY) “Once and For All” by Joyce Hong, 10 (Oakville, ON) “This Day Has Come Too Soon” by Ella Pierce, 12 (Hudson, WI) “Sea of Souls” by Daniel Wei, 13 (Weddington, NC) Honorable Mentions “Jewish Friend, Backwards End” by Becca Jacobson, 11 (Montclair, NJ) “Falling” by Vaishnavi Kumbala, 12 (Metairie, LA) “The Irrefusable Offer” by Kyler Min, 9 (Vienna, VA) “On Top of the World” by Mihika Sakharpe, 11 (Frisco, TX) “Last Thoughts“ by Ismini Vasiloglou, 11 (Atlanta, GA/Athens, Greece) Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Speaking of perspective, Ziva, 9, writes about schools re-opening from the point-of-view of a soccer ball. Ismini, 11, answers one of our Daily Prompts from last week, but situates the story in the present. She writes about her family has been stuck in Greece throughout the pandemic. In “The Silent Threat,” Rex, 11, writes a historical fiction piece about what it might have been like to live during the Spanish Flu. Check out some photographs by Alana-Jain that document Black Lives Matter murals in her town. Devanshi, 13, writes a poem called “Covid Superheroes” about the heroic sacrifices people are making during these scary times. “No Time to Go on Walks” by Sophi, 12, tells of a girl’s busy schedule before the pandemic, and what her time in quarantine has taught her to value. Finished crumble! From the Stone Soup blog July 2018 Zoe’s Fruit Crumble by Sarah Cymrot (Inspired by Martha Stewart’s Peach Crumble) Yield: 12 small servings Time: 30 minutes Ingredients: Filling 7 cups of any fruit (I just made mine with blueberries and sour cherries—you can use frozen or fresh fruit) 6 teaspoons cornstarch or 4 tablespoons flour A scant 1/2 cup sugar (or as little as 1/4 cup, depending on how sweet your fruit is) A splash of lemon juice (it is okay if you don’t have this—I often leave it out) Heaping 1/2 teaspoon of salt Topping 5 tablespoons unsalted butter Scant 1/4 cup brown sugar or 1/4 cup granulated sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon molasses 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt Directions Preheat the oven to 375 degrees For the filling: In a bowl, gently (so that you don’t mash the fruit) mix all the ingredients for the filling, flour/cornstarch, sugar, fruit, lemon juice, and salt. Pour fruit mixture into a 12″ by 8″ baking dish. For the topping: Cream the butter and brown sugar in an electric mixer for about two minutes at medium to high speed. Add salt and flour in a few batches. Mix until the dough starts to form a ball. Crumble the topping into little pieces over the fruit mixture. Bake for 40–50 minutes—if it looks like it is browning too quickly on top, cover with aluminum foil. It’s done when the fruit is bubbling and the topping has some color. Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered
Saturday Newsletter: August 8, 2020
“Canadian Beach” by Tessa Papastergiou, 11 (Kitchener, Ontario, Canada) Published in Stone Soup, February 2019 A note from Jane First things first: this is the final weekend for everyone working on a book for our 2020 Book Contest to make their final edits, take a deep breath, and submit their manuscripts via Submittable. The contest closes on Monday! Emma, our editor, is back from maternity leave and can’t wait to starting reading through the contest entries. After the strange year we have had, you might think you have all earned a rest this summer—whether you have submitted your art, music, or writing; completed a book for our contest attended our writing workshop; responded to our Daily Creativity prompts; and/or entered our weekly Flash Contests. But no—we have a new challenge for you through the rest of August! Poetry submissions will be free of charge for the rest of the month. Polish up some poems, write some new ones, and send them in for Emma to consider. Now is the time! Seize the day, keep on writing, and send us your poetry soon. This week we are highlighting another poetry collection that placed second in last year’s Book Contest, and which makes up half of our the Stone Soup summer issue: Searching for Bow and Arrows by Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer. It is also available in our online store and on Amazon as an individual ebook. These are poems about family and collective memory, reflecting deeply on experiences past, present, and future. The poem we are sharing in this weekend’s newsletter has evocative imagery, and (for me at least) is filled with melancholy: People toss wet seaweed, as if it’s a joke To lose one’s memories. We have talked before about how different individuals can experience apparently the same things completely differently, and what rich matter that is for creative work—whether it’s how we see a color, experience a flavor, feel about an event, or interpret a person’s character. This poem represents the possibilities of these differing perspectives in such a subtle, beautiful way. One person’s carefree beach game is another’s painful experience of loss, or at least a pause for thought. While we sincerely hope you are all having many, many carefree moments this summer, we also hope that you will take the time to write or make art in your more reflective moments, and that you will be bold and share your work with us when you do! Until next week, Winners from Weekly Flash Contest #18 Weekly Flash Contest #18: Choose one of three opening lines from classic novels, and use it as the starting point for your own short story. The week commencing July 27 (Daily Creativity Prompt #91) was our eighteenth week of flash contests, and produced a lot of entries. Our entrants took the opening words of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, or I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, in all sorts of creative directions. The pieces we received ranged from stories about extreme weather to family and family history—and to some introspective narratives. We immensely enjoyed reading all of the writing we received; well done to everyone for your work on this challenge. Congratulations to our winners and honorable mentions, listed below. You can read the winning entries for this week (and previous weeks) at the Stone Soup website. Winners “Wash the World Away” by Fern Hadley, 11 (Cary, NC) “Streaks” by Rachel Feldman, 10 (Narberth, PA) “My Manderley” by Anna Haakenson, 12 (Beach Park, IL) “A Letter” by Shuyin Liu, 8 (Kirkland, WA) “Pour Your Heart Into the Sink” by Alice Xie, 12 (West Windsor, NJ) Honorable Mentions “No Possibility” by Katherine Bergsieker, 12 (Denver, CO) “The Light Will Come Through Again” by Sneha Jiju, 12 (Chandler, AZ) “Dream and Dream More . . .” by Prisha Aswal, 7 (Portland, OR) “In the Kitchen Sink” by Allie Dollar, 11 (Monticello, FL) “Deadly Heat Wave” by Nishil KC, 10 (Chantilly, VA) Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! In her poem “Gas Mask,” Madi captures a scary scene in just a few words. Samson, 13, writes a similarly frightening poem, perfectly describing the feeling of “Overwhelming Panic.” Grace, 11, reviews the book The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart. Read her post to learn why it’s one of the few books that has “truly spoken” to Grace. Check out Aaron’s digital artwork—a portrait of him as an island. Plus, read his paragraph that explains the work, including how it relates to the pandemic. Read Jackson’s short, humorous piece called “Quarantine Robbery.” We posted an update from our writing workshop #18, where the topic was writing about food. So many creative pieces written during the workshop! Have you ever been to Norway? Vivaan writes his latest travelogue on his time in the Scandinavian country, with beautiful pictures of the fjords and some recommendations for where to visit. Julia, 13, wrote a story called “My Starduster Friends,” which tells the tale of one girl’s time in quarantine and the book series she picks up and can’t seem to put down. In “The Invention,” Mckenna, 8, dreams of a world where a young girl creates a machine to make life during coronavirus much easier. From the July/August 2020 issue of Stone Soup Memories Caught in Seaweed by Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, 13 (Brookline, MA) From Searching for Bow and Arrows, awarded Second Place in our 2019 Book Contest! >Wet feet on the sand Touching the seaweed. Memories dissolve in the tide, People toss wet seaweed, as if it’s a joke To lose one’s memories. Yet when the seaweed dries in the sand, It forms a grid And returns to life . . . Memory restored. To read more of the collection, go to your copy of the Summer issue of Stone Soup, or purchase the ebook version of Searching for Bow and Arrows in our online store or at Amazon. 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:
