Stone Soup Magazine
— Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai; HarperCollins Children’s Books: New York, 2011; $16.99 Last year, my family and I moved from Florida to West Virginia and it was...
— A girl obsessed with reading 200 books to become a novelist discovers through her younger cousin that living life provides better inspiration than hiding in stories.
— During wartime, a boy trains doves to carry messages and inadvertently saves his occupied city when the birds reach the wrong army unit, though his father never returns.
— A girl reluctant to accept a new piano teacher after her grandmother's death discovers she can honor memories while embracing new beginnings through music.
— Runners collapse together in winter snow, their bodies folding into each other like marionettes, transforming exhaustion into shared laughter and connection.
— A nervous boy attempts his first solo skydive over California's Redwood Forest, facing equipment failure when his main parachute cord breaks, saved by the automatic backup.
— The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, by Trenton Lee Stewart; Little, Brown and Company: New York, 2012; $17.99 The first thing I noticed about this book was that it is...
— A young birder enters a contest at Sunset Park, using patience and birdseed to attract thirty-seven birds while competitors rush around, winning the grand prize.
— A young musician struggling with parental expectations discovers she can play beautifully when alone under the moonlight, free from pressure and performance anxiety.
— An 11-year-old girl attends her first professional ballet performance for her grandmother's birthday and discovers her calling to become a ballerina.