Write a business plan. This could be for the business you want to start when you’re older, or even a completely made-up business!
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Saturday Newsletter: March 26, 2022
Untitled By Sage Millen, 13 (Vancouver, Canada) A note from William What a gorgeous spring day it is here in Santa Cruz, California! I hope that as March gives way to April that all of your gardens are at least beginning their spring re-birth. And, with the coming of spring, I’d like to announce that our spring session classes—beginning April 23—are up and ready on Eventbrite! Once again, we are offering two writing classes—mine, Saturdays at 9 AM Pacific, and Conner Bassett’s, Saturdays at 11 AM Pacific—as well as Book Club with Maya Mahony Saturday April 30 and Saturday May 28 at 9 AM Pacific. We’re sorry not to offer a short form filmmaking class with Isidore Bethel this go-round, but hope to once again offer it in the future. In the meantime, please watch some of the amazing short films our students made in the fall session of 2020. In terms of the behind-the-scenes activity at Stone Soup, these last few weeks find us in a lull. Projects are in process. Our website revisions are coming along. Sophia Opitz, our fabulous administrator, and I had a very good meeting on Friday with our web developers. We will start seeing website changes go live next week. Mostly, Sophia and I have been working on the educator pages getting the new curriculum material in shape preparatory to the launch of our site license beta testing program in a couple weeks. I’d like to talk about Sage’s fabulous photograph showing two kids reading Stone Soup under a blanket. As part of our website revision we are making sure that all photographs on the site are by kids. And, I will say, what a difference that is making! Our Stone Soup photographers have a creative flair that sets their work apart. If you are a photographer age 13 or younger and would like to be part of our pool of web photographers, please write to sophia@stonesoup.com. Weekend project: I want you to look at this double portrait. It is a photograph in which we, the observers, share a private moment with these two girls. Unlike most portraits in which the subject is looking directly at the camera, the girls in this photograph are focused on the issue Stone Soup they are reading—December 2021, to be exact! There is clearly lots I could say about how this photograph is framed and lit—the black background and gentle foreground lighting frame the girls to perfection—but in the interest of keeping things simple, I want you to focus on their eyes, on the direction of their gaze. I am not asking you today to compose a picture with careful lighting, as we see here, but what I am asking you to do is take a portrait of someone in the midst of an action—someone doing something alone or with someone else. What I want you to capture is that look where the person is focused on something else. Practicing, reading, cooking, drawing, typing. Doing something on their phone. What I want you to do is focus on the eyes. I want you to take a photograph in which the eyes of the person you are photographing are focused on what they are doing, not on you. There is one kind of intensity when the person you are photographing is looking directly into your camera—so that when we look at the picture they are looking at us. There is another kind of intensity when you capture the look on someone’s face who is absorbed in what they are doing, and that is the intensity I want you to go after this weekend with your phone or camera. As always, if you feel especially good about your photograph, please submit to us via Submittable. Until next time, From the Stone Soup Blog March 2022 Spring By Grace Zhuang, 6 (Vienna, VA) Winds are running around Telling everyone the good news, “Spring is coming!” “Spring is coming!” The little delphinium Looking around Looking for spring. She did not know that She herself is the spring. To read more from the March Issue, click here! 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.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Reviewed by Vivaan, 13
Ever felt like an outcast? Have you ever been shunned by everyone in your society? Have you ever felt as if you don’t belong anywhere? Ricky Baker, in Hunt For The Wilderpeople, has. Directed by Taika Waititi and released in 2016, this movie addresses relationships, and how vital it is to have a sense of belonging. Taika Waititi presents relationships in this film by illustrating how Ricky Baker develops with the multitude of relationships he has, both useful and not useful. He conveys that to be able to feel as if you belong is just as crucial, arguably more, as many materialistic things, such as money, and further emphasises that not all relationships are enjoyable. Ricky and Hec – Ricky’s adoptive father – have been together most of the time. In fact, Hec has almost a parallel role to the protagonist in this story. At first, they keep on bickering, but as time goes on, they begin to realise how well they can collaborate, and how much they need each other – the latter was felt especially (spoiler alert) after Aunty Bella’s death. The two gained a lot from each other’s company, particularly as they were traversing the bush. During this time, they really got to understand each other because of their proximity to each other. Ricky and Hec learn a lot from each other during this period of time, such as the fact that Hec is illiterate. Ricky tries to teach Hec haiku, and by the end, Hec recites a very meaningful Haiku to Ricky. When Hec fractures his foot, Ricky does his best to assist him, getting their food and doing most of the necessary jobs. But it wasn’t only Hec who gains from this long lasting relationship – Hec teaches Ricky how to survive in the wild and harsh bush – an action that saves Ricky’s life. Bella is Hec’s wife. When Ricky first arrives at his new home, Bella is the first person who had ever been hospitable towards him, and Ricky is overcome by Bella’s friendliness as he had been used to being shunted around his whole life. Ricky and Bella share some very symbolic moments with each other, such as when she puts a hot water bottle into his bed, or when she gives him the best birthday ever, showing her love for him. Bella is in Ricky’s life for a depressingly short amount of time, but she manages to make a big impact on Ricky’s life. She helps him open up and socialise by treating him as her very own son. For the first time in his life, he had someone to talk to, he had someone who didn’t treat him like an outcast – he had someone to love. After her unexpected death, Ricky carries her ashes around with him as he traverses the bush – which shows that Aunty Bella had earned herself a massive place in Ricky’s heart. Ricky gains many social skills because of Bella and, most importantly, he realises what it is like to fit in. The movie displays relationships by demonstrating how Ricky changes under the influence of his many relationships. Hec and Bella together manage to change and even save Ricky’s life. The movie shows us how much Ricky learnt from them – how crucial they were in his life. He indicates that before Ricky makes any relationships with anyone, he is a very despondent, disagreeable and unsociable character. But, as he arrives with Uncle Hec and Aunty Bella, he begins to understand how much he had been missing out on. This transforms his life forever, as he then begins to see so much more meaning in life. Instead of being the silent, morose, fat Maori boy that he was before, he suddenly becomes a friendly, helpful and fat Maori boy – a drastic change from the past. These two relationships were possibly the two most vital in his life, and they were without a doubt the two from whom he gained the most from. To conclude, strong relationships are vital for leading a contented, happy life, whether you have friends, family, or something more.
