Lady in Red by Alexa Zhang, 9 (Los Altos, CA) illustrating “Windsong” by Emma McKinny, 13 (Old Fort, NC) Published in Stone Soup October 2019 A note from William Rubel I had written my letter to you for the week in the lobby of a Tokyo hotel where Jane Levi (you know her as one of our Newsletter writers) and I were finishing breakfast and waiting to leave to take our flight back to San Francisco. I had wanted to share something of our adventures in Japan, but then, on the train to the airport I re-read the current issue, October 2019. The last story in the issue, “Windsong,” by Emma McKinny, along with its illustration, “Lady in Red,” by Alexa Zhang left me speechless. Both story and illustration are just incredible. I can’t write about both the illustration and the story as the Newsletter would be so long most of you would give up, so I will concentrate on the story. But, please, spend time with painting as well. The story, “Windsong”, is a masterful piece of prose that shakes me to the core. The prose style is varied, the protagonist’s viewpoint as a child insider at the opera is unique, and the author’s command of language is unusually strong. She expresses very complex and meaningful ideas and feelings with grace and ease. It is a powerful personal narrative, and we say more about personal narratives in the details of our new contest, in partnership with Young Inklings, which is discussed below. It also makes great use of framing which is the subject of this week’s activity. “Windsong” is about going to a performance of Dr. Atomic, an opera by John Adams with libretto by Peter Sellers. Her father is the lead singer. You can use your research skills to get information on the actual performance and its reviews online, but I want to focus on one element of the story — the way in which Emma frames her narrative. Framing is, then, also going to be this week’s writing project. The basic history you need to know is that the United States invented and tested the first atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico during World War II. The bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were developed in Los Alamos. These bombs ended the war with Japan. Japan surrendered after they were dropped. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of civilizations were killed by these weapons, whole sections of the two cities that were the victims of these bombs were obliterated. These bombs gave humans god-like powers which J. Robert Openhiemer, director of the lab, and the Dr. in the opera’s title, Dr. Atomic, understood. He quickly became concerned about the consequences of his invention. You also need to know that Los Alamos is visible from Santa Fe and this is especially true at night when its lights glow from the mountain ridge where it is located. Back to framing! The story takes place in the Santa Fe Opera House, a fabulous outdoor theater that sits under the distant gaze of Los Alamos, the place where the bomb-making that is the center of the opera’s story took place. With this in mind, please read the first paragraph. Now, please read the story. And, now, please focus on the last three paragraphs. Emma has gone through a huge emotional experience during the Opera. Those of you who attend operas, ballet, and traditional theater may have experienced these deep emotional moments. My daughter has leaned over to me during ballet performances to whisper, “Dada, don’t cry until the curtain goes down.” And then there is the clapping. And the lights go back up. And then you have to get up from your seat and drive home behaving normally with this deeply emotional experience still inside you, “turmoil boiling in the pit of” ones stomach, as Emma puts it. Then, she does something brilliant. She gives feeling and emotion to the wind which blows through the Santa Fe Opera house — it is an open air theater — and picks up her feelings. She whispers to the wind the same phrase she had called out to her father in the beginning, thus transferring the art of the opera to nature. Let the wind howl, like a wolf, adding its voice to the power of theater. You can read and follow this week’s activity here. Please take a look, try framing, and send us what you produce. Until next week, Contests, Partnership & Project News We are very excited to announce that Stone Soup is partnering with Society of Young Inklings in our very first nonfiction contest. You have until December 15, 2019 to write and perfect your personal narratives with the help and support of Society of Young Inklings, which has created instructional games and activities to help you write and perfect your pieces! Finally, the first 150 submitters will receive personalized feedback letters from the writers at Young Inklings. We can’t wait to read your work! Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! We posted another piece in blogger Marco Lu’s series on science fiction. Check out “Steam and Gleam: A Look at Steampunk” to learn more about the well known sub-genre within science fiction. Our Spring fundraiser, to widen Stone Soup’s access to marginalised communities, is still open for donations! This campaign is to help support us in providing a new benefit for Public Libraries: free submissions for all of their patrons. We want to enable children across the country who cannot have their own subscription not only to read Stone Soup, but also submit their work for free. When you purchase one of the last remaining copies of our archival “Special Navajo Issue” from March/April 1989, all proceeds will be put toward helping Stone Soup reach marginalized communities. You can donate to this campaign via the link below, or visit our store to purchase a copy of our 1989 Special Navajo Issue. From Stone Soup, October 2019
Newsletter
Saturday Newsletter: October 12, 2019
Snowflake Hiding in Blues by Hannah Parker, 13 (South Burlington, VT) illustrating “Northern Night” by Poppy Lowenthal Walsh, 12 (Minneapolis, MN) A note from Sarah Ainsworth I recently subscribed to a poem-a-day newsletter, and it has changed my mornings for the better. I like how the poem delivered to my inbox each a.m. gives me a moment every day to slow down, think about something in a new way, and carve out time for reading for the sake of enjoyment. For a long time, I’ve felt like I’ve been stuck in a poetry rut—reading only the poets I know and like. This newsletter has provided me with a new poet every day, some from poets I’ve heard of, but many that I hadn’t. I don’t always like the poems, but it exposes me to writing I wouldn’t have otherwise found, and it can be helpful to take the time to discover what you do and don’t like. Would you be interested in a similar newsletter from Stone Soup dedicated to poetry? Let us know! I encourage you to take the time today to scroll down and read Poppy’s poem “Northern Night,” which is published in full down below, with a striking accompanying photo from Hannah Parker. Concentrating your energies fully on a poem, even just for a minute, feels like a nice change of pace from what sometimes feels like an increasingly frantic world. Happy weekend, Contest, Partnership, & Project News We’ll soon be announcing an exciting contest in partnership with another writing organization—stay tuned! Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Former Contributor Abby Sewell On Monday we published another Former Contributor Interview, this time with Abby Sewell. Abby wrote the story “On the Headland,” from our March/April 1996 issue, which is also featured in our Friendship Stories anthology. Abby now works as a journalist in Beirut, Lebanon, and she reflects on how she has shifted her focus from when she got her start in Stone Soup. Young Blogger Lucinda Chu What are your methods for studying for a test? Our young blogger Lucinda Chu gives you some suggestions in a blog post from this week. Lucinda emphasizes the need to practice moderation in studying—or in other words, space out your study sessions into smaller portions. Also, don’t forget the importance of sleep! From Stone Soup, October 2019 Snowflake Hiding in Blues Northern Night By Poppy Lowenthal Walsh, 12 (Minneapolis, MN) Illustrated by Hannah Parker, 13 (South Burlington, VT) Flashlight light draws two silhouettes walking side by side. As the canvas of this heavy darkness turns to this silent night tonight I gaze into the sky’s sweet face sprinkled with freckles of stars. The crickets sing and spread their wings. Whose song, they ask, is most true? It’s true when the day fades there’s a special way that the sky is the brightest blue. Our Fall Fundraiser, 2019: The Refugee Project We are raising funds to support the production and publication of creative work by children in refugee camps around the world. We have almost reached our preliminary target of $5,000 to support a special issue of Stone Soup and associated projects—and we want to keep going! You have already helped us fund workshops in the Za’atari camp, Lebanon, and put us in touch with other organizations we can work with to expand our efforts. Please help us raise the money to continue this work. You can read more about this initiative at our website and help us by sharing the link with others. Thank you. 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.
Saturday Newsletter: October 5, 2019
Magic Flowers by Analise Braddock, 8 (Katonah, NY) illustrating “In a Jar” by Hudson Benites, 11 (Excelsior, MN) Published in Stone Soup September 2019 A note from William Rubel Firstly, before getting into today’s feature story and art, I’d like to thank everyone who responded so quickly to our Refugee Project appeal. You almost completely met our $5,000 goal in less than a week! Wow! Thank you all! There are several exciting things happening with the project that just came up this week, but I will wait to report on them until details are more fleshed out. I was 20 years old in 1972 when I thought of the idea of publishing a magazine of writing and art by children. The first issue of Stone Soup was published the following year. I am now older than most of the parents of Stone Soup writers and artists. And yet, despite the huge amount of creative work I have seen by young people, I continue to be amazed by the artistic power of the works that many of you in primary and middle school produce. In the October issue, Editor Emma Wood paired the drawing Magic Flowers by Analise Braddock with the short story “The Jar” by Hudson Benites. Both are powerful works of imagination, and they share a theme: the passage of time. Hudson’s story of climate change and magic is well paired with Analise’s Magic Flowers. I haven’t written at length about a drawing for a while, so that is why I am going to focus on that today. Emma chose these two works to go together, so please look at the art and read the story. You will think about the world differently. Magic Flowers is an extraordinary work of art. It speaks to me. I could look at this drawing every day and not get tired of it. When my colleague Jane Levi selected this image for today’s newsletter, she told me, “It reminds me of your work.” Indeed, if you knew my work, you would see there is something Williamesque about it—but Analise’s drawing is more well-observed, more delicate, and has a greater dynamic range than my work. There is so much that could be said about this drawing. It obviously falls within the great tradition of the still life in Western art. If you know your flowers, you can identify each of them in the drawing: poppy-seed pods, bachelor’s buttons, peonies, and more. This work is not just a still life, not just a drawing of a vase of flowers. Emma selected it to illustrate Hudson’s story because it falls within another tradition of Western art: the memento mori. In the context of Hudson’s story, she could not have made a better selection. Memento mori is Latin. It means, “Remember you must die.” For hundreds of years, European artists made paintings and drawings that were intended to help the viewer think about the passage of time. We all get very caught up in the day-to-day. Analise’s still life, with its actively dropping leaves and poppy-seed casings, reminds us that life is dynamic. Even the beautiful flower dies. Life is about catching the moment, but you cannot hold on. Analise is the master of pencil. I want you to pay attention to the dynamic range she brings to the work. Wispy grey lines and heavy black ones. There are multiple layers of images to catch the eye. If you focus on line—the stems—then there is a dynamic crossing and recrossing of stem and leaves that almost makes the work vibrate with motion. If you look down at the two knobs on the table, then let your eye flow up to the first peonies, you find there are many directions to go. Analise forces us to follow shapes up and to the left, but it is easy to break away and move around the image, as one could a real vase of flowers. That this is a drawing about ideas—about the passage of time—is made clear by the actively falling leaves and the poppy-seed pod. The poppy petals are long gone. The seed pod will dry out, and the seeds will then be fertile. If spread onto soil, they will make new life. So there is something here that speaks to birth, death, and regeneration, which is also a theme in Hudson’s story. For this week’s project—and I am intending this for all of you newsletter readers, regardless of age—I want you to either write about this drawing or to make a still life of your own. If you write about the drawing, use it as a starting point for your thoughts. You may go in the direction that I have—into thinking about how life changes, shifts, goes through stages, and comes to and end that may actually suggest a new beginning. But this is me talking. What are your thoughts? If you decide to make a still life of your own, then pick yourself a flower arrangement and depict it in whatever media you like, including photography. As always, if you are age 13 or under, send your finished work to Stone Soup for Emma to review it for publication. I think in this case we’d be on the lookout for web-publication material. Until next week, Our Fall Fundraiser, 2019: The Refugee Project We are raising funds to support the production and publication of creative work by children in refugee camps around the world. We have almost reached our preliminary target of $5,000 to support a special issue of Stone Soup and associated projects—and we want to keep going! You have already helped us fund workshops in the Za’atari camp, Lebanon, and put us in touch with other organizations we can work with to expand our efforts. Please help us raise the money to continue this work. You can read more about this initiative at our website and help us by sharing the link with others. Thank you. Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! We’ll be publishing a series of essays by Marco Lu, 13, on our blog on the subject of science fiction. Wednesday, we published Marco’s first post, which includes a short introduction and a discussion
