An update from our twentieth Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday November 6, plus some of the output published below After receiving feedback about what students would like to focus on, this week we held workshop on the anatomy of a poem, asking ourselves “What exactly is a poem?”. To begin, Conner reinforced the importance of exciting the senses over making sense, defining a poem as something that prioritizes the mode of writing over the written content, that is more concerned with how it sounds than what it says, and whose language is sonic and aesthetic, not narrative. Over the course of the workshop, we read works such as “Pope John” by Bernadette Mayer, “The Snowman” by Wallace Stevens, “My hat” by Henry Parland, “Poem” by Ron Padgett, and, of course, “Mown Lawn” by Lydia Davis. We also briefly discussed Starry Night as a visual representation of the logic of poetry. The Challenge: Try and imitate the poem “Mown Lawn” by Lydia Davis. That is, take a phrase, any coupling of words, and do to it what Lydia Davis did to the phrase “mown lawn,” turning these words into new words via sound. The Participants: Emma, Penelope, Josh, Clara, Simran, Olivia, Shilla, Sinan, Alice, Audrey, Ellie, Ethan, Svitra, Lina, Nova Svitra Rajkumar, 13(Fremont, CA) The Earl Bear Svitra Rajkumar, 14 Just big enough to sit in your palm The Earl Bear whimpers It is warm, so warm that it is cold Pale and gray Or was it a rich amber? A shade that you know you’ve seen before But can’t seem to remember It smells of cedar and earl gray tea A mellow scent that races through the quarries Quarries that hold crippled carp Gorgeous fish full of imperfections Sparkling tails and glistening scales Prey to the Earl Bear and Predators to the Poppy Kelp Scarlet as fresh blood, the Poppy Kelp sways Under the current of the quarry. Ethan Zhang, 9 (Mclean, VA) The Armpit Monkey Ethan Zhang, 9 I owned an armpit monkey, For some reason I hated it. Maybe because it sounded like Harm-wit donkey. Everyone knows I hate harm. Harm-wit donkey sounds ominous, Even though harm-wit has no meaning. Also, an armpit monkey sounds like A chicken, literally. It shrieks mad, Shrieking the word yeet, Which sounds like yeast, Something that I also hate. Yeet also means throwing things, Something related to harm. I hate life. The armpit monkey ruined it.
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Curse of the Night Witch, Reviewed by April, 13
With over 12.6 billion views online, #BookTok has taken the world by storm—an ever-growing community of readers that shares reviews, anecdotes, mood boards, and more about the books they have read. Ever since the hashtag went viral, certain books, even those that had already been published for several years, soared back up to the top of the New York Times bestselling list. In author Alex Aster’s case, just one online video under the BookTok hashtag catapulted her to online fame! The video has amassed over one million views to date and garnered widespread attention over her already-published middle-grade duology, Emblem Island. The first book in the series, Curse of the Night Witch, follows three teenagers on a quest to save themselves from imminent death. In the magical realm of Emblem Island, people are born with emblems on their hands that prophecy their talents. But young Tor Luna, born with a leadership emblem, detests his mark. His plan is to submit a wish to the gods on his village’s New Year’s Eve celebration and hope for a new emblem the next day. Sure enough, Tor wakes up to a new emblem on his arm—the black, blinking eye of a curse! And when his best friend Engle and enemy Melda accidentally touch the curse, a duplicate of the eye travels up their arms, too. To their horror, the trio realizes that if they do not figure out a way to get rid of the curse in a week, it will be there forever—until they die. Now Tor, Engle, and Melda must travel across the colorful but dangerous island to beg the assistance of the Night Witch, all while the ticking time bombs on their arms track every breath that they take. This was a spellbinding fantasy book about friendship, bravery, and everything in between! Emblem Island was a rich tapestry of bright colors, tropical waters, and mouthwatering food, and the Latin influences gave the world a familiar feel while still retaining a unique form. One way in which Curse of the Night Witch was so unique was the book-inside-a-book idea. This novel included excerpts from a fairy tale book of sorts called The Book of Cuentos, which would be told every other chapter. These excerpts always aligned perfectly with the actual story. For example, when The Book of Cuentos talked about a perpetually snowy town, Tor, Engle, and Melda actually visited the town in the story. It was a fun and fascinating way to provide context to the story, rather than dumping information on readers, and the execution was seamless. The thing that bothered me the most was how similar this book was to its successful predecessors. It especially drew similarities to the Harry Potter series—both books involve chosen-one main characters, a funny, food-loving best friend, and the teacher’s-pet character who turns out to be all right in the end. It almost felt unoriginal in that sense, like I was reading something I already had before. However, the mythology retelling has been done so much, especially recently, in the book industry, that it is understandable if comparisons can be drawn between this book and others. Overall, Curse of the Night Witch is a wonderful ride full of the splash of tropical seawater and the cold bite of endless ice. I’m usually not one to say you should jump on the bandwagon, but in this case, you absolutely should—hundreds of thousands of readers online have already enjoyed this lovely book, and there’s no reason why you can’t be the next! Curse of the Night Witch by Alex Aster. Sourcebooks Young Readers, 2020. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
Book Club Report: When Stars Are Scattered, Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed
An update from our thirty-first Book Club meeting! On October 30th, the Stone Soup Book Club discussed When Stars Are Scattered, by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed. When Stars Are Scattered is based on Omar’s life in Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya and his journey to resettlement in the United States. The story is told in the form of a graphic novel. When Stars Are Scattered was an immensely popular read among our twelve book club participants, as was evident in our lively and dynamic Book Club discussion. Many participants remarked on how moving they found the book and how it compelled them to dig deeper and learn more about the plight of refugees. As a group we found it equally compelling how vividly the more mundane, everyday experience of life in a refugee camp was portrayed. We learned that Dadaab is such a big camp that it almost feels like a city-with makeshift restaurants and even internet cafes-but it is a city in limbo with no permanent structures. This sense of limbo was captured in the rhythm of Omar’s daily life-the monotony of chores and the weight of responsibility for his brother’s care, the angst over first whether to start school and later how to remain there, and the ebb and flow of friendships all helped to capture Dadaab as a place in flux. We spent time reflecting on what questions we would want to ask about life in a refugee camp and what we found most surprising, interesting, and confronting about Omar’s life. Following this discussion, we listened to an interview of a boy named Muzamill, about his daily life in Dadaab. The questions posed about Muzammil’s life were posed by young people in the United States. The interview was informative, eye opening, and funny! In parallel to our discussions about life as a refugee, we also spent time thinking about the graphic novel format and the various ways in which it enhanced Jamieson’s portrayal of Omar’s life story. Even those who’d never read a graphic novel before are now converts to the genre! We tried our hand at telling an aspect of our own daily routine in graphic novel format and shared these with the group. Remember: if you attended book club and liked what you wrote for this activity, submit it through the Writing Workshop Submission Form and we will post it along with other stories on the Stone Soup website! At the conclusion of our meeting, we had the chance to explore some of the creative works by young refugees through the Stone Soup Refugee Project. If you have not yet done so, check it out yourself, here. Finally, we are so excited to share that on, December 11th, our final Book Club meeting of this session, we will be joined by author and historian, Lucy Worsley, to discuss her book The Austen Girls! Please join us and come prepared with questions for Ms. Worsley!
