Ismini Vasiloglou, 12 (Atlanta, GA) Reflecting on a Fault Ismini Vasiloglou, 12 It is always so very effortless to start. Ideas jumble around my head in whirlwinds, forming a cacophony of inspiration and infectious excitement. They fill my mind with a buzzing need I cannot ignore. To pick up a pencil is to breathe, to eat. It is an instinctual, primitive impulse, an irresistible temptation which I dare not resist. To pick up a pencil is to live. Yet things are not quite so simple. I paint an image of perfection, harmonious cooperation between pen and mind that does not last. As sentences form in my head, they struggle to ink into existence. My fingers feel weighty as my mind races past my poor, struggling fingers that can only type so fast. It is the tortoise and the hare, but in this story, the hare never sleeps; he only moves faster and faster until he stops and swerves in another direction. Half-finished stories sigh in silence, abandoned for new ideas. They sit lazily in their Untitled documents, waiting for fragments of a lost dream to return to me. They wait to be shaped and molded and typed on a page into a story worthy of the name. Only I am too afraid to steal the reins from the procrastinating beast which has conquered my world. I watch my characters silently sleep in their half-filled pages, weeping at their unresolved conflicts. I watch my settings sink into despair as they are overrun with my neglectful weeds. This is my fault. I know. Despite my teachers’ and parents’ beliefs, I do understand; my mind is a realm entirely within my reach. I can, technically, finish a story, but I can’t seem to fight my own laziness. This beast, this nemesis, was spawned from my very soul, and it is almost impossible to defeat oneself. Procrastination is a far more powerful enemy than any superhuman storybook villain. I know, I know, there are no excuses; there are no rightful reasons for my actions. Words have given me a chance at wings, but I have taken them too quickly without helping them to fully form. Now all I have is an extra weight on my shoulders as I fall asleep each night. It is not right to say there is a beast or a tortoise and a hare. There is only me. We all have our own self-imposed struggles and this is mine: an inability to finish, to see through long-term projects. And my failures affect others, too: the princess who has yet to escape her ivory tower, the citizens whose dictator’s cruel regime still reigns unchallenged, the captain lost at sea, doomed to never again set foot on land, and all of the other tales I have deserted so quickly that not a word of them was written, not a paragraph or a single page. However, I have come to a simple, comforting conclusion; my progress will not be instantaneous, for I cannot change overnight. I can, however, start small. I can start by finishing this reflection, just one letter, one word, one sentence at a time. This is me. Imperfect, flawed me. But I can grow. I can change—I am still malleable. I can take these wings words have lent me, mend them from their broken, unfinished state, take flight and soar.
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Chasing Vermeer, Reviewed by Aviva, 13
If you like puzzles, coincidences, and art, Chasing Vermeer is the book for you, as it’s full of all three. I’ve always liked secret codes and puzzles, so I was hooked from the very beginning, which is a good sign with books. The book starts out when the same anonymous letter is delivered to three different people. The deliveries all happen on the same night, in the same neighborhood, and the letter asks each person to help solve a crime that “has wronged one of the world’s greatest painters.” The painter referred to is Johannes Vermeer, a famous artist from the sixteen hundreds, and the writer of the letter believes that many paintings attributed to him were actually painted by different people. I’ve only read one other book that mentioned art scandals, but the topic intrigued me, and I knew I was going to like this book. Things get stranger when one of the main characters, Petra, finds a book called Lo!, which is full of strange happenings and coincidences. She shares it with the other main character, Calder. Soon the two eleven-year-olds are finding coincidences and unexplainable happenings everywhere, especially things related to Lo! and Johannes Vermeer. So, when a priceless Vermeer painting disappears, they know only they will be able to recover it. This book has challenged the way I think about things. One example of this is its portrayal of coincidences and their relation to the story. The characters treat coincidences with about as much relevance as facts, and I found this surprising, because I don’t believe in coincidences. Nor do I believe that everything that happens is supposed to happen. I like to think that what I do is what I do because of my choices, not fate’s, so I had a hard time understanding why they would think that way. But I like thinking in new ways, and this book is full of new ways to see things. What’s interesting is that Blue Balliett, the author, seems to be suggesting that the coincidences in the book are meant to be, but they aren’t necessarily important to the storyline. So you might notice themes that repeat themselves, and you might think they’re important, but nothing comes of them. It’s sort of like some of the clues don’t matter—still, they’re there, and that’s what matters. Not many books work that way, where some things are just there because, and that’s what I love most about it! Just like some things seem to be clues but aren’t, other things that don’t seem important are often vital to the storyline. I sometimes had to reread certain parts to make sure I understood what was going on, because it’s a very complex story, even if it has fairly simple language. While this story is unpredictable, it is not unbelievable. When a book is so unbelievable it could never happen, I find it hard to identify with the characters. Petra and Calder are realistically rendered, and I could easily understand them and their ways of thinking. Petra loves to write, like me, and Calder likes puzzles and codes, and he daydreams a lot, which I have to admit I do frequently! Both are intrigued by the patterns of coincidence, as many people are. Altogether, this is a very believable yet complicated story, and I’m not sure I’ll ever read anything quite like it again. Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett. Scholastic Corporation, 2004. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
Weekly Creativity #161: Come Up with an Annoying Habit and Write about a World where this Is a Good Thing
Come up with an annoying habit and write about a world where this is a good thing! Maybe you don’t like it when people pick their noses. Why not write about a world where all the cool kids pick their noses!
