Stone Soup Magazine

Poetry·Enni Harlan, age 13 — A father and daughter discover a dead bird at dusk and create an impromptu funeral with autumn leaves, watching as wind carries both leaves and spirit away.

Story·Ananya Nigam, age 13 — A leaf contemplates the community rule that all leaves must eventually fall, resisting until witnessing a tree being cut down transforms fear into understanding.

Artwork·Claire Lu

Artwork·Emma Tian

Poetry·Nova Macknik-Conde, age 8 — A bilingual poem imagines a song the world needs — one that sounds like hope, teaches strength, and moves like water.

Story·Allison Sargent, age 11 — A Black girl struggles with accepting her natural hair as beautiful while navigating classmates who treat it as exotic and touchable.

Artwork·Alexa Zhang

Elk

Poetry·Cecilia Appel, age 13 — An elk wades through winter snow and calls to the sky, promising that spring will return to transform the frozen landscape.

Story·Zahra Batteh, age 10 — A spoiled rich man loses everything when his parents die, struggles to find work, and eventually creates a program to help homeless people become rideshare drivers.

Artwork·Rohan Jayakrishnan