Sometimes teachers are right. From the moment I set my eyes on the first word of The City of Ember, I was intrigued. Yes. Leads are indeed effective. As I read through the rich storytelling and the writing style in The City of Ember, I fell in love with. The adventure that Lina and Doon went on together was a sight for sore eyes. When I realized that there was a sequel to this book, I instantly went to my school library and checked the second one out. Some people say that sequels are not as quite good as the first book. That might be the case of most movie franchises or successful book series’, but in that case, The City of Ember series is extraordinary. The reason The People of Sparks stood up just like the first book was because of questions that the characters had throughout the story. It is explained in the series that a gigantic disaster—consisting of the Four Wars caused by humans, which were followed by the Three Plagues—wiped out most of humanity. Because of this the Builders—who are like the gods in this series—created Ember, which was a refuge. However, after the events of the first book the People of Ember escape their underground refuge and meet the People of Sparks who lived in their village. The characters from both sides constantly asked each other different questions after the leader of Sparks declared that they would help the People of Ember for 6 months. Why don’t these cavemen know how to farm? Why do these villagers live backwards and not have electricity? Additionally, the characters ask themselves what the ancient people were like. They ask questions about our society today, and as an audience that is part of that society, it was really entertaining and interesting. Overall, these questions kept me hooked. Over time, this book also expressed an important theme to the audience. As the People of Sparks and Ember began living together in different ways, confusion later became exhaustion and anger when the People of Sparks started to get tired of helping Ember all the time. Later, an all-out war began, and the author carefully put a message to not let hatred and anger fuel you and try to work together with different people. Overall, this book was incredible for me as it untangled the aftermath of humanity and important lessons. The author did an outstanding job establishing this world and the characters of Lina and Doon, who represented Ember as well as the People of Sparks. I recommend this to all young audiences. This book unleashed my imagination and I strongly urge you to try out the series. The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau. Yearling Books, 2005. Buy the book here and help support Stone Soup in the process!
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Weekly Creativity #172 | Flash Contest #36: Write about Someone Writing a Story
Write about someone writing a story. To submit to this month’s Flash Contest, click here.
How Stories Work—Writing Workshop #14: Translation
An update from our fourteenth Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday September 25, plus some of the output published below For this workshop on translation, we decided to switch things up a bit. Rather than teach the class towards one prompt and thus one finished piece of writing, the workshop was geared towards teaching three separate mini prompts, leaving the students with three finished works. To begin, we looked at two paintings depicting translation by way of angels moving from one place to another: The Translation of the Holy House of Loreto by Saturnino Gatti and The Miraculous Translation of the Body of Saint Catherine Alexandria to Sinai by Karl von Blaas. Next, we read four different translations—Clive James, Robert Pinsky, Mary Jo Bang, & John Ciardi—of the first nine lines from Dante’s Inferno in order to show how stylistically different translations can be, especially noting that of Mary Jo Bang. We then looked at two different translations—Jane Hirshfield & Robert Haas—of Basho’s haiku “Kyoto,” noting how the word “even” in Haas’ translation dramatizes the situation of the poem. Lastly, we looked at an english to english translation of Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy and compared it to the original, noting how the original was definitively more beautiful. All of these examples were intended to formulate an answer to the question, “What matters most in translation?” Before writing, we considered that what is most important may be transferring literally one word into another language, conveying emotional accuracy, or capturing the tone, mood, or psychology of a piece. The Participants: Emma, Clara, Sinan, Lina, Ellie, Josh, Simran, Alice, Svitra, Ethan, Shilla, Olivia, Nova The Challenge: A challenge in three parts: Homolinguistic translation: In 10-12 minutes translate the poem “Ships” by Tomaz Salamun “english to english” by substituting word for word, phrase for phrase, line for line, or as a “free” translation as response to each phrase or sentence. Or translate the poem into another literary style or a different diction. Homophonic translation: In 10-12 minutes, take a poem that you can pronounce but not necessarily understand—in this case “70” by Catullus, written in Latin—and translate the sounds of the poem into english. Nonlinguistic translation: In 10-12 minutes, listen to several sounds (click below) and translate them into words. https://stonesoup.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sound-file-from-How-Stories-Work—Writing-Workshop-14-Translation_09252021.mp4 Svitra Rajkumar, 13(Fremont, CA) Bubbling Brook Svitra Rajkumar, 13 The warbling brook bubbled loud and clear In rhythm with the other whimsical sounds Alluring noises attract squirrels Dancing through the air Inaudible voices swirl Whispering into your ears and clouding your brain Manipulating your mind Until nothing lies but the intoxicating calls Of the bubbling brook Two Poems: Freeway & Frog Land Ethan Zhang, 9 Freeway Cars jostled by, Creating and messing with wind, Creating and messing with sounds. A crescendo, A diminuendo. My hair wavers in the wind, As if lemongrass dancing to a rhythm. Frog Land Frogs jump about, Enlarging their mouths, And croaking. A strange language, In a strange land, Of frogs, Of nature, Of sounds.
