Stone Soup Magazine
— In ancient Rome, a rebellious girl secretly learns to read from a neighbor boy who must move away, leaving her with letters that sustain their friendship and her forbidden education.
— A child builds an elaborate fairy house with writing materials for messages, abandons belief when no note appears, missing signs that fairies visited but cannot write.
— Below, by Meg McKinlay, Candlewick Press: Massachusetts, 2013; $15.99 Anyone would think that if you drowned a town with five thousand swimming pools of water, it would be done and...
— A boy stands at the edge of a cliff, gathering courage to jump into the river below, then leaps and experiences the exhilarating plunge into cool water.
— A spring walk reveals birch shadows, a fern sprout, and a plastic bag caught in a pine tree, its snap drowned by a chickadee's song.
— A spring walk reveals birch shadows, a fern sprout, and a plastic bag caught in a pine tree, its snap drowned out by a distant chickadee's song.
— A prose poem traces the precise moment when ocean and sky merge at twilight, finding that exact blue-black in the speaker's own eyes.
— A boat journey brings memories of a grandfather as dolphins appear, blending present observation with past experiences on the water.
— A second-grader's world shifts when her beloved teacher announces his retirement, sending her through grief, illness, and eventual acceptance over the course of a school year.
— A child recalls dancing in autumn leaves before moving south, where a photograph preserves what geography has taken away.