The Unexpected Journey By Abhi Sukhdial, 12 I was having fun Completely relaxing And as happy as can be. Talking to friends and laughing And eating lots of chocolate When suddenly Lightning struck out of nowhere Silent, but deadly And soon I see the school close For the rest of the year What? I say. So quick? After everyone teased about it? Coronavirus struck And we forgot to care. Sure, I like no school But I miss my friends And now I have to stay at my house Six feet apart from everyone Abhi Sukhdial, 12 Stillwater, OK
COVID-19
This Invisible Wall, a poem by Ishan Kelkar, 10
This Invisible Wall By Ishan Kelkar, 10 This invisible wall Makes people sick Traps people in their homes only leaving for essentials This invisible wall strips toilet paper from shelves People stock their pantries with fear Because of this invisible wall My puppy keeps us company Because this invisible wall keeps me and my friends at home We zoom but we don’t play tag The super highway is crowded but there are no cars on the road When we see my mom come home from work at the hospital She can’t hug us at the door There’s an invisible wall in between us We can break down this wall brick by brick together By being apart Ishan Kelkar, 10 Needham, MA
Book Club Report: The End of the Wild, by Nicole Helget
An Update from our Second Stone Soup Book Club meeting! The Stone Soup Book Club is open to all Stone Soup contributors and subscribers, age 9-13, during the COVID-19-related school closures and shelter-in-place arrangements. We meet every Wednesday for one hour via Zoom to discuss our chosen book. On Wednesday, April 22nd, we began discussing our first book, The End of the Wild, by Nicole Helget. We talked generally about how people felt about the book so far–whether they were hooked right away, how they felt about the writing style, etc.–before breaking into smaller groups for more in-depth discussions on setting and character development. We had a productive discussion where many interesting points were raised and some different opinions about characters emerged! The group decided to devote 2 weeks to each book we read. Next week will be our last session with The End of the Wild. We will delve into plot development and the book’s many themes, as well as revisit ideas about setting and characters. The following week we will begin discussing our 2nd book, The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or the Three Magical Children and their Holy Dog, by Adam Gidwitz. Finally, we are very lucky to have Anya Geist (13), a Stone Soup contributor, act as a co-facilitator of our book club! 1st Book The End of the Wild, by Nicole Helget 2nd Book (beginning May 6th) The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or the Three Magical Children and their Holy Dog, by Adam Gidwitz The Participants: Enni (13), Abhi (12), Anya (13), Lucy (12), Georgia (11), Lena (11), Mehr (12), Simar (6), Ever (10), Djin (10), Chloe (10), Joanna (10), Penelope (12), Allegra (10), Arianna (9) Next meeting: Wednesday April 29, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. PST, via Zoom. To receive full meeting details and reminders, please sign up for the COVID-19 mailing list here. Note that the Book Club is still open to new members if anyone couldn’t make it this time, but wants to join and read with us. Join us!
