What are five things you take for granted? I could start by assuming that you take your senses for granted. The ability to see, hear, touch, smell, and taste are so normal that they are often not appreciated until they are lost. If you have never lived in darkness, or silence, or in a world without touch, smell, or taste, you might not realize what a gift these abilities are. In 100 Days of Sunlight by Abbie Emmons, the main character, Tessa Dickonson, learns to appreciate all five of her senses after a fateful car accident. Due to an injury from the accident, Tessa must endure 12 to 14 weeks of blindness before her vision returns—but there’s also a possibility that her vision will never return. Tessa is doomed to 100 days of darkness, if not more. Tessa is a blogger and poet, and after she loses her sight her grandparents place an ad in the newspaper looking for someone to type her poetry and blog posts for her. But none of them expect Weston Ludovico to show up in response to the ad. Weston has his own backstory: three years before 100 Days of Sunlight, he lost most of his legs, and now has to wear prosthetic limbs. He knows what Tessa is going through—the feeling that your whole world has been turned upside down and things will never be the same again, because now you have a problem, a handicap. At first, Tessa hates Weston and his “obnoxious optimism.” She is rude to him and does her best to scare him off. But Weston is just as stubborn as she is, and he insists on showing her the beauty that can be found through hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting. The book is split up into five parts, each titled after one of the senses. As the story progresses, Weston shows Tessa how to overcome her fears of the darkness and how to see the positive side of things, while Tessa and Weston become better and better friends. Weston loves to be with Tessa for another reason: she treats him like a normal person. Ever since he got his prosthetic legs, everyone treated him as broken, or fragile. But Tessa can’t see his legs and he doesn’t tell her about them. He’s excited for the chance for someone to treat him like a real person, rather than an invalid. 100 Days of Sunlight is not the type of book I would normally reach for, but I had been listening to a podcast with the author, Abbie Emmons, and I decided to try it out. Abbie Emmons’ writing is captivating and delightful, right from the first page to the last. Tessa’s and Weston’s characters are empathetic and deep, rather than shallow. There are also good secondary characters, such as Tessa’s grandparents, Weston’s three younger brothers who think of Weston as a superhero, and Weston’s friend, Rudy. 100 Days of Sunlight is technically a Young Adult book, and it does have some cursing and elements of romance in it, but overall it was a fast, interesting read that I would highly recommend. 100 Days of Summer by Abbie Emmons. Abbie Emmons, 2019. Buy the book here and help support Stone Soup in the process!
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Red and Blue
Red and Blue are the colors we built a country from, Red like the blood we spilled for freedom Blue like the clear skies we keep reaching for but also Red like the wounds of those we forced to plow our fields Blue like the tears we spilled watering our fields then Stars strewn across like the ones in our eyes as we looked past our mistakes to the sky-scraper silver heavens never down at the oppressed always up, always higher we are a country built on Red and Blue colors that unite and divide us all at once Democrat, Republican Liberal, Conservative focused on complicated policy and power politics that end in meaningless conflict Red and Blue colors which once linked us have become chain-links heavy, too heavy weighing us down that hill we need to climb we haven’t climbed it we can, but we won’t, not while our backs are weighed by prejudice by intolerance by hate still the colors we built from brim and burst with potential Red and Blue like an early-morning sky filled with scarlet clouds and splashes of azure beauty birthed from new beginnings now is the time to honor those we exploited heal those wounds we left open break the chains that hold us and start anew waving high a united flag of Red and Blue.
Weekly Creativity #192: Take a Photo of a Wild Animal in Motion
Take a photo of a wild animal in motion.
