Newsletter

“Fall” by Alyssa Wu, 12 (Pleasanton, CA) Published in the July/August 2020 issue A note from Sarah New Issue What a special summer issue we have this year! I highly recommend reading the lovely poetry by Analise Braddock and Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer that makes up the July/August 2020 issue and that won them both second place in last year’s book contest. You can also support them by buying e-book versions of their books. Both young writers create such eloquent, thought-provoking poems that deserve to be read over and over again. Black Lives Matter Although we might not be hearing as much about the Black Lives Matter protests in the news, I encourage everyone to continue to educate themselves and work towards being anti-racist. If you missed KidLit4BlackLives Rally, I suggest watching the video recording. The rally featured bestselling middlegrade authors like Jason Reynolds, Jacqueline Woodson, and Kwame Alexander. We’ve published some reviews of their books but are always looking for more! Consider submitting a review if you’ve read something by them before or picking up one of their books from the bookstore or library. Weekend Challenge The other day, my roommates and I had a spirited discussion about what books we enjoyed when we were young. My suggestion is that you reflect on some of your favorite books and come up with a list of your top 10 or so. Think about why you choose each book. What is it the book that appeals to you? If you favor a certain genre, why is that? Do you tend to like books with a fast-paced plot, or do you prefer a slower narrative? It’s always worthwhile to consider why it is we like what we like. If the exercise inspires you, turn your list into a more in-depth essay and submit it to the Blog category! Lastly, welcome back to our editor, Emma, who began her gradual return from maternity leave this week! Until next week, Winners from Weekly Flash Contest #13 Weekly Flash Contest #13: Some of the earliest novels were written in the form of letters between characters (“epistolary novels”). Try writing a story as a series of text messages, group chats, emails, letters, or postcards exchanged between at least two characters.The week commencing June 22 (Daily Creativity prompt #66) was our 13th week of flash contests, with a challenge taking us back to one of the earliest forms of the novel: stories told through letters, or “epistolary novels.” Our entrants had the option to bring the form up to date using today’s equivalent of the letter (text messages, group chats, etc.), or to take themselves back in time with more formal writing evocative of a past age. The form was no limitation on the imagination shown in the stories these messages between character told. We loved reading the many entries that came in, and thank you all for participating. Special congratulations to this week’s winners and honorable mentions. Your work really stood out for its creative response and playfulness! You can read this week’s winners’ work below, and the all winning entries from previous weeks on the Flash Contest Winners Roll page. Winners “Letters to the President” by Prisha Aswal, 7, Portland, OR “Child of Magic” by Amelia Pozzo, 11, Arnold, MO “Apocalypse” by Ian Xie, 12, Weston, MA “Black and White” by Ella Yamamura, 12, Cary, NC “The Excuse” by Michela Yu, 11, Lexington, MA Honorable Mention “Well that escalated quickly . . .” by Lucy Berberich, 11, Oxford, OH “Venus and Mars and the search for Pluto” by Sara Shah, 8, Portland, OR “The Banter of the Bathroom Buddies” by Mihika Sakharpe, 11, Frisco, TX “Apple & Banana” by Kevin Zhang, 10, Lexington, MA Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! With a short simulation video, Rebecca, 9, shows how quickly the coronavirus can spread if social distancing measures aren’t practiced. Hooria, 6, wrote two poems, “COVID-19” and “Appreciating My Teacher,” about her experience during the pandemic. Samson, 12, wrote an impassioned review of his favorite book, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. Read the review to find out why Samson has read it three times already. Read some of the excellent work produced at our last Friday Writing Workshop, where the theme was to write about someone reading. In Kaitlyn’s poem “Then and Now,” she imagines what she would tell her past self before the coronavirus and what her future self might tell her. Adrianna, 8, wrote a prose poem about pasta sandwiches, birthdays, and missed weddings during the pandemic. Nisha highlights three exceptional women in her blog post “We are Better Than You Think.” Katie, 11, divided her poem “Going to the Beach” into three sections: “Yesterday,” “Today,” and “Tomorrow.” The poem contrasts the natural beauty of the beach with heartbreakig thoughts about coronavirus. Kathleen, 10, reviewed The Mole, the Boy, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy. Read what Kathleen thinks of this illustrated book that features friendship as a prominent theme. Matilda, 6, hand-wrote a poem and included a small illustration to go with it. Read “Fish,” about COVID-19, fish, and school. Ella, 12, wrote a piece for the blog about her favorite painting: The Scream by Edvard Munch. Contest & Partnership News Book Contest Keep working on your manuscripts! Remember, the deadline for this year’s book contest is August 10! Reviewer wanted! We’re looking for a reviewer age 10 or younger to review a book for the blog, with the possibility of conducting an interview with the authors. If you’re interested in Indigenous stories from the Pacific Northwest, or want to learn more about them, please get in touch with Sarah (sarah@stonesoup.com) for more information! From the Stone Soup July/August 2020 The Code by Analise Braddock, 9 (Katonah, NY) The universe she is in has a code 719? Oh, she knows it The code is corrupt The trees are shaking Things are glitching They’re moving together No, the code is corrupt The universe is corrupt It is falling apart Read more poems from Analise

“Gateway to Darkness” by Grace Williams, 13 (Katonah, NY) A note from William Summer classes: The first round of Stone Soup and Society of Young Inklings classes are finishing up next week. A second round of classes—two writing classes and an illustration class—will take place in July. One class starts the 13th, another the 21st, and the last class on the 27th. The first round of classes sold out quickly. This is a fabulous program. I highly recommend it. More information and registration information is here: Stone Soup & Society of Young Inklings Summer 2020 program. Gateway to Darkness photograph: Wow! Gateway to Darkness is one of those brilliant works of art that speaks without words in a voice that speaks directly to one’s soul. You look at this photograph and you know what it saying. The knowledge is direct. An extraordinary work of art. Thank you, Grace Williams. Gateway to Darkness speaks to exactly how I feel so much of this pandemic time. Even when the sky is blue, the outdoors feel dark, my world shut down, and my daughter and I are mostly at home. The strange angle Grace used to photograph the fence, and thus frame the scene, perfectly captures my sense of these strange, disorienting times. The way the fence frames the sky is unsettling. Not symmetrical. It says to me, “Something is not right.” Leaving one’s house, we ask of everyplace we go, “Is this safe?” When I go to the grocery store to buy food, there is one employee stationed at the entrance, and one at the exit. They each have a walkee talkie. They keep track of how many people are in the store. You wait for permission to enter. You are counted in and then counted out when you leave. Inside, we all try to avoid each other. When you are ready to pay, we wait in a line inside the shop, each of us spaced out, waiting to be told that we can move forward to a register to check out. It is organized and does make us feel safe. Even so, I sometimes find myself inside the store, wearing my mask, amongst the other masked customers, crying. This photograph, and the story “Pigeon City” we are highlighting in this weekend’s newsletter, are two pieces of work that fall into the “COVID-19” category published on our blog. Jane has posted 87 pandemic-related posts at the Stone Soup website inspired by our Daily Creativity Prompts. If you haven’t already, I encourage you all to check them out. Comments are always welcome. “Pigeon City” was written in response to a prompt written by Stone Soup author Anna Rowell. Art project for this weekend: Take your phone or camera and take a picture that captures the idea of being spontaneous. I put it this way because sometimes to take a picture that looks spontaneous, you have to plan! Not always, but sometimes. Make it a photograph of happiness. Of joy. Of the opposite of being trapped and fearful. A jumping kitten. You, jumping.  A face that is laughing. A spray of water. Leaves blurred by the wind. Use your imagination to make something light and delightful. When you succeed, please send it to Stone Soup so our editor, Emma Wood, can consider it for publication. Until next week, Winners from Weekly Flash Contest #12 Last week’s contest was a fantastic challenge set by former contributor Anna Rowell, 15, who was also a judge of the contest. What would the world be like without color? What if there were a few select people who could see colors? Write about the effects of not being able to see color, or of there being no color, and how that affects people and society in a good or bad way . . .   Congratulations to our winners and honorable mentions, listed below. Your work really stood out in an extra-competitive field! You can read the winning entries for this week (and previous weeks) at the Stone Soup website. Winners “Seeing Through Gray” by Isabel Bashaw, 10, Enumclaw, WA “It’s All Ridiculous” by Lucy Berberich, 11, Oxford, OH “Flowers for Mamma” by Sophia Do, 12, Lititz, PA “The Sky is Blue” by Nora Heiskell, 12, Philadelphia, PA “Project Achromatopsia” by Alice Xie, 12, West Windsor, NJ Honorable Mention “Miya’s Gift” by Savannah Black, 9, Yuba City, CA “Colorless” by Anna Haakenson, 12, Beach Park, IL “A World Without Color” by Aditi Kumar, 10, Ashland, VA “In a World Without Color . . .” by Charlotte McAninch, 12, Chicago, IL “Color” by Michela You, Lexington, MA Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Amelia, 11, wrote about coronavirus in a creative way in her story “The Chase.” Read to find out if Alco Hol catches Cora Na Virus. Have you had a birthday during coronavirus? Check out Natya’s cartoon about the new way we have to celebrate, and leave a comment if you’ve had a similar experience. Charlotte, 12, wrote a poem called “The Virus” that captures the lonely and unsettling world that coronavirus created. Abhi reviewed the book The Extraordinary Colors of Auden Dare by Zillah Bethell. Find out why Abhi enjoyed the book’s pacing and interesting characters. At our twelfth Friday Writing Workshop, the theme was Sense of Character. Read some of the work created during the meeting. Vivaan, 11, wrote a poem about his thoughts on coronavirus and global warming. In “Joining Together at a Distance,” Catherine, 11, writes about how we all have to do our part during this pandemic. We posted Zachary’s picture journal documenting his time during coronavirus. Sejal, 8, wrote a poem called “Bad to Good” about various aspects of the pandemic. Fern Hadley, 11 Cary, NC From the Stone Soup blog June 2020 Pigeon City by Fern Hadley, 11 (Cary, NC) Amber rays of sunlight flooded through the city, casting long shadows behind the tall buildings. A glint of sun caught on dark-grey feathers as the bird glided through the darkening sky, skimming the tops of the buildings. It landed

Canon PowerShot G7X A note from William Juneteenth—Black Lives Matter. With every new police murder of an unarmed black man, and images of police attacking Americans who are exercising their constitutional right to protest government actions, it is clear that for many Americans, their city police can feel more like an occupying army than a civilian police force there to help. Every American who is in a position of power to do something can no longer hide. This includes Stone Soup. Of course, we have published work by African American students over the years. And in our internal discussions we are often saying how we would like more work from African American students, but like so many small organizations with their heart in the right place, just staying in business takes up all our focus. We are aware that a big problem is that African American students opening the pages of Stone Soup see this as another “white space.” It just won’t feel instantly welcoming. We have some ideas for how we can address this problem, but we need some outside advice. We would like to create a predominantly African American advisory board to work with us to develop long-term sustainable programs that will turn this around so that all Americans, and all students of African descent wherever they live—Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, Australia, Oceania—will see enough students who look like them in our pages to feel it is a welcoming place for their creative work. You may write to me directly if you are interested in helping us get this advisory panel off the ground. Thank you. New order form! The biggest news at Stone Soup this week is that we finally have an online order form we are proud of. This form is a long time in the making—and will give you a hint of what is in store for the entire website. The new form makes it much easier to see what you are ordering. It also tells something about Stone Soupfor people who are new to it. If you haven’t subscribed, please use our new form—and tell your friends. All of these new, free, COVID-19 programs: the daily prompts, the writing workshop, the book club, and the daily blog posts, are are funded through subscriptions. A couple of us still work without pay, so your subscription will make a difference to all of us, and what we can achieve. All subscribers get All Digital Access, and print subscribers also get a beautiful magazine delivered to their house 11 months of the year. Subscriptions start at only $4.99 per month. Thank you. Summer school: The joint Stone Soup and Society for Young Inklings summer program started two weeks ago and is going strong. New dates will be announced shortly, and right now there is space in the June class being taught by our own Stone Soup team member Laura Moran, called The Art of Creative Nonfiction: Anthropology at Home. This class is a late addition, and to be honest, it looks like people have been a little bit afraid of it. So. Here is what I can say. Laura Moran, who runs the Stone Soup Refugee Program and the Wednesday Book Club, is a PhD anthropologist. Her specialty is actually refugee children. She is teaching a one-week summer program starting in a little over a week. Students will be using their own experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic as the basis for their writing. What students learn in this class will help them with developing characters in their stories. The class explores the sometimes ambiguous line between nonfiction and fiction.  Photograph and story by Anya Geist: The Newsletter is long, already. I am out of space to give justice to the photograph and story and to say all that I would like to say. I spent a lot of time and a couple of trips to New Jersey in the late 1990s working with Nelly Toll, a woman who survived the Holocaust hiding with her mother in a city that was then called Lvov and was then in Poland. Nelly’s father and brother went into hiding someplace else but were apparently found and murdered, as they were never reunited. During the period we were in close contact she hired a police artist to make a picture of him so she would have that memory. During hiding, Nelly’s mother had Nelly make paintings and stories as one way to deal with time and the stress. Within the next few months I will go back to that archive of material I worked on with Nelly to share with all of you. Please read Anya’s story below, and also spend time with her multi-layered photograph of a menorah-like candlestick with Christmas tree in the background. I find her photograph to be unusually calming. The candlelight so present. A window of light through which we see into another world. When I was growing up in Los Angeles, one of my parents’ closest friends was one of the Jewish children who was sent from Germany to England during the war (on the so-called kindertransport), so this situation from Anya’s story feels very alive to me. One of the biggest conflicts I had with my father (he died a few years ago when he was 93) was that he was always saying that “It could happen again. It could happen here.”  The “it” being another Holocaust. This annoyed me so! But what we are seeing today, and not just in America, is that, unfortunately, he was right. People forget where intolerance can lead. So, all of you reading this newsletter today, whether you are a student or an adult, please have empathy for those who are different from you. And remember that if you do not speak up when the police come for your neighbor, that it will be too late when they come for you. This could be something that you could talk about together as a family using Anya’s story, plus the daily news, as the catalyst. Weekend project: Let me change the mood! In the Friday Writing Workshop, one of the students (thank