A note from Emma
How are you all doing? I have to admit that I am burnt out. I am tired of teaching my students over Zoom, tired of staying six feet away from others, tired of doing everything alone. 2020 has worn me down! I am hopeful that the news of a vaccine is accurate and that we will be able to resume something closer to our pre-pandemic lives soon.
Lucy Hurwitz’s short poem in the November issue really captures how I have been feeling most mornings. It reads:
Wrong side
I wake up on that side of bed.
My leg’s my arm,
My arm’s my head.
I love how Lucy takes a common idiom—"I woke up on the wrong side of the bed!"—and pushes it farther. It's not just that the speaker woke up "on that side of bed" (the missing "the" is perfectly disorienting) but that she is somehow "wrong" herself: "My leg’s my arm, / My arm’s my head." At the same time as it perfectly captures this feeling of waking up "off," it’s also funny!
This weekend, I challenge you to write a short poem like Lucy’s that is inspired by an everyday idiom. Here are a few you might consider using:
- It takes two to tango
- Let’s go back to the drawing board
- That’s the last straw
- I’m pulling your leg
- I’m bent of shape
- Time is money
- Her head is in the clouds
And, since this is the last note we’ll write you before the holiday, I hope you all have a happy, delicious, safe Thanksgiving holiday!
Until next week,
Highlights from the past week online
Don't miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com!
Mahati writes a lyrical farewell to summer, with tons of sensory details.
Jessie, 8, reviews Out of My Mind by Shannon M. Draper (which we’ve published reviews of before and also was a Book Club pick!). Read about why Jessie recommends it.
Check out the update from our 28th Writing Workshop, which was all about word choice.
Pragnya, one of our new Book Reviewers, has another one for us! This time, she reviewed When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, which she says has a "perfect balance between reality and fiction."
Olivia, 10, reviewed The Doughnut King by Jessie Janowitz. She starts the review with this compelling line: "Warning: Once you open The Doughnut King, you’ll be stuck in the story for eternity."
Did you hear who won the Nobel Prizes this year? Mahati gives us a helpful roundup of the winners on the blog, plus some background on the award itself.
Newton, MA
From Stone Soup
November 2020
Wrong Side
By Lucy Hurwitz, 10 (Newton, MA)
I wake up on that side of bed.
My leg’s my arm,
My arm’s my head.
. . . /MORE from the November issue
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.
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