Stone Soup Magazine

Poetry·Eva Bandy, age 9 — A child stands frozen in autumn leaves, feeling deep sorrow for their death and unable to step on them.

Story·Natalie McGee, age 13 — An emperor seeking to build a palace in a birch forest must solve a riddle from the mysterious Dea, leading to his transformation from tyrant to protector of the animals.

Artwork·Hannah Parker

Poetry·Charlie McDermott, age 13 — Wind attempts to teach bare trees to dance, but they thrash awkwardly; the speaker wishes to become the wind's pupil instead.

Artwork·Avery Multer

Poetry·Georgia Marshall, age 9 — A joyful poem captures the moment of escape from city to meadow, culminating in a spontaneous marriage proposal during a 'violet break' in nature.

Story·Seven Guo, age 6 — In a rainforest, a poor girl meets a magic butterfly who grants her wish for wealth, but the family quickly spends all the gold and ends up poor again.

Story·Yanni Yohannes, age 9 — A six-year-old dreams of creating an immortality potion, achieves it as an adult through a meteor fragment, becomes wealthy, then loses everything and returns to normal life.

Artwork·Caitlin Goh

Poetry·Hannah Parker, age 12 — Day transforms to night and back again as God casts spells, fairies dance under stars, and the sun emerges like a yellow ball of fire.