Introduction to this Stone Soup Writing Activity “A Ride With Fate” is an emotionally powerful story about a boy who makes a couple of wrong decisions. The mistakes he makes lead to an accident in which he and someone he cares about are physically hurt, and an elderly man, a friend of Billy’s, is made very sad. Project 1: Write a Sequel I care about Billy, and I care about Mr. Reed. One reason I care about Billy is that he is not a “bad” boy. The mistakes he makes are errors of judgment and I think he will learn from his mistakes. And I like Mr. Reed because he is a kind man who understands that growing is a long, hard process. I think he is a wise, patient man, and a very good friend for Billy to have. I have spent some time wondering what Billy, his father, and Mr. Reed did and talked about in the days following the accident. You might also think about this and even write a sequel to the story. Project 2: Contrast the Beginning With the Ending One reason the concluding scene in “A Ride With Fate” is so effective is that the beginning of the story contrasts with the ending. Beginning with the second paragraph, notice that the world is like paradise—the land is beautiful, Mr. Reed is strong and healthy, Billy is happy, and the horse is handsome and powerful. After this initial paradise is established, most major scenes in the story hint (like Billy’s bad grade in school) that the good, perfect times are coming to an end. Slowly but surely the tone of the story changes. The perfection of the beginning gives way to the dramatic conclusion. Use this technique of contrast between beginning and ending in something you write. You will have to think of the ending to your story before you start writing. If your story will have a happy ending, make the beginning unhappy and troubled. Slowly ease the tension until you get to the happy ending. And if your story will end with strong, difficult emotions and consequences, make your beginning a time of calm happiness and carefully move your story toward the dramatic conclusion. A Ride with Fate By Robert Katzman, 12, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Illustrated by Heidi Hanson, 11, Florida, New York From the May/June 1985 issue of Stone Soup Billy woke up in a cold sweat. His pillow was wet. He got out of bed and hobbled to the window. His leg was still hurting him from the accident. Billy looked out the window and remembered. He remembered it well. Twelve-year-old Billy McCall lives down the road from Mr. David Reed. Mr. Reed is seventy-one; old, but healthy and strong. The ninety-nine acres that Mr. Reed owns was once a dairy farm but is now where he boards horses for their owners. Mr. Reed takes care of thirteen horses. His horse, Buck, is the strongest, and is the leader of them all. No wonder; Buck is a Tennessee Walker thoroughbred. Mr. Reed enjoys riding Buck. In the summer Mr. Reed would ride Buck almost every day. In winter when the grass is usually covered with a couple feet of snow, Mr. Reed would give the horses hay, but Buck would get hay and oats. Every week Buck was groomed, and once a month his hooves were cleaned. Billy was walking up to Mr. Reed’s farm to ask him if he could ride Buck. If he could, this would be the twelfth time. Billy could only go on weekends, so he had to finish all his homework before he went. Billy didn’t like to walk on the road. He didn’t like the paved roads, the cars, the electric fences or the TV antennas on every roof. Billy didn’t like any of these things. You could do without them, he thought. So instead, Billy walked through the field that joined Mr. Reed’s property with his. It was two o’clock Saturday afternoon, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Billy saw Mr. Reed as he was finishing painting the fence that led from the barnyard to the pasture. “Hi, Mr. Reed. Are you enjoying this summer weather we’re having?” “Yeah, I am, Billy. By six o’clock tonight this paint will be as dry as a horse’s throat without water. I guess you want to take Buck out, right, Billy?” “Yeah, I do. It’s a nice day, and I’ve got all my homework done, too.” “O.K. He’s in the first stable. I’m going to wash this brush and go inside. When you come back give Buck some corn. You know where it is.” “Don’t worry, Mr. Reed, I will.” Billy got Buck out of the first stable and tied him to the part of the fence that was already dry. Before Billy went to the saddle shed which was next to the first stable outside the barnyard, he stopped and looked at Buck. He saw his brown hair gleaming in the summer sun. He saw Buck’s broad chest, his strong muscular thighs, and his mane blowing free with the wind. Billy got the saddle and put it on him. The other horses in the barnyard talked to each other, probably about what they will do, and where they will go when Buck is ridden away, Billy thought. Billy fastened the girth under Buck’s stomach, adjusted the stirrups, and got on. He rode Buck down the lane and onto the road. Billy was always careful with Buck while riding along the narrow country highway, because he knew Buck was one of a kind. Billy rode Buck along the road for about a half hour and then decided to turn off of it. He rode through a field that was once a thriving dairy farm in the late eighteen hundreds. The land was rich and fertile. No one owned it now, but somebody was supposed to buy it in October. Billy led Buck down to the
Homeschooling
Writing Activity: defining character with non-standard English, with “My Country and the Way to America”, by Huong Nguyen, 11 (a harrowing tale)
Map of Vietnam This is one of the most extraordinary stories Stone Soup has published in its long history. This activity focuses on how to effectively use non-standard English to define your character. “My Country and the Way to America” is a difficult story to read. It describes awful situations in which people die. The story is best read with an adult. If you are not familiar with the Vietnam War and the so-called “Boat People” who fled the country in the years following it, then please also read this introduction to that war before reading the story. Project: Using non-standard English to define your character. Huong had something to say. Despite the fact that she didn’t know English well at the time she wrote this story, she said what was burning in her heart with the words and grammatical skills in her possession. Huang’s story is written in what we call non-standard English. In other words, it is full of grammatical “errors.” But, in this case, the grammatical errors contribute to the effectiveness of the story. The language in which the story is written lacks many of the small connector words that we usually use when we speak or write English. The verb tenses are also not always correct. But, in this story, these “errors” focus our attention on the actions that are most important, giving the prose an incredible sense of rawness and urgency. “After three days or four days out the ocean, the boat have a hole and the water coming,” conveys the isolation and fear that overwhelms this boatload of people stuck in a sinking boat in the South China Sea more effectively than a perfectly written sentence would have. In the case of Huong’s story, her unusual way of writing English makes her story all the more memorable and, as a work of literature, all the more effective. This story was written in 1985. In 2017, as I write this, children and families are once again fleeing in small boats from wars and mistreatment. This time, these frightening, and often fatal, voyages are taking place in the Mediterranean Sea as people flee the wars of Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan and trouble in other countries, such as Eritrea. Huong’s story brings the reality of the boat trip alive to us in a way that news articles do not. How can you use this idea of non-standard English? For most writers, it is in writing dialogue that non-standard English is most useful as a literary tool. I suggest two projects. In one, create a character whose English is almost normal, but has a few small quirks that makes it unique. Once you have mastered a character with a few eccentric turns of phrase, write a story in which the whole story is told through a character whose language, like that Huong, is different from normal. If you choose a very young child as your character, then that story might explore the difference between what the child can say and what the child can see and understand. To prepare for these projects, listen carefully to how people talk. Listen to people talking the way you listen to music. For teachers, you might refer to William Faulkner’s “Sound and the Fury ” for a sense of how an adult writer uses non-standard English for expressive intent.
Art Activity: Making pictures of your community, with ‘Local Houses’, by Khaled Abdulaziz Ateeg, 12
Introduction to this Stone Soup Art Activity This city in Yemen, Saana, is similar in architecture with the painting, below, of a town in Saudi Arabia. This photograph is of Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. The buildings are made of brick or mud brick with white decorations made of white paint. This architecture is similar to that depicted in the painting of Al Aflaj, Saudi Arabia made by Khaled Abdulaziz Ateeg, 12. Khaled’s painting was made in the 1970s. Judging by images that I find online I think that this is not what the Al Aflaj looks like today. In the painting, the town is still a city of traditional buildings. They will have been smaller than the ones you see in the photograph of Sanaa. And they will have been of adobe–of mud bricks. What is remarkable about Khaled’s painting is that the architectural style is clear–and at the same time he has had the courage of an artist to present the town as richly colored. Realistic. But also imaginative. Project: Make pictures of the part of town where you live, and pictures of the part of town where you shop. Include in each drawing the important details that make your community recognizably unique. Some of these details are the different shapes of the buildings, the spaces between the buildings, and the patterns the windows make. Also important might be the type and placement of trees and gardens, telephone poles, street signs, advertisements, traffic lights, street lamps and parked cars. Notice in the drawing of Al Aflaj the distinct shape of the minaret tower. If your town has a church or other distinctively shaped building or landmark you might want to include it in your drawing. You don’t have to finish your work in one day. In fact, you probably can’t. So take your time to make a picture you can be very proud of. Like Khaled, allow yourself to be free of the constraints of your community’s real colors. Saudi Arabia is a very hot place. If Aflaj had painted the buildings their authentic brown color the image would have looked drab. What the color achieves is giving the place a sense of brightness–and a desert town is bright even if it is brown. The colors also make the town look welcoming which a brown town might not have seemed. In other words, Khaled used color that wasn’t really there to convey impressions and feelings that he felt looking at his town. As you think of your own town, think of how you might change how it actually looks to get at a deeper feeling about how it looks or feels to you, that is then conveyed to the people looking at your picture. From the January/February 1985 issue of Stone Soup Local Houses, by Khaled Abdulaziz Ateeg, 12, Saudi Arabia
