Maps are interesting little things. They make use of the stars and the sky and a quickly fraying memory to create a drawing of a world, from the crevices and geographical notches to the stories behind them. Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s debut novel, The Girl Of Ink And Stars, creates a surrealistic novel about friends, myths and tracing your own star-touched story. Set in the fictional island of Joya, our protagonist, Isabella “Isa” Riosse is a fierce and curious thirteen year-old with a knack for creating vivid drawings of the world around her. Map-making, or cartography as she likes to call it, runs in her blood, with both her parents the town’s most renowned cartographers. On the day that everything changed, Isa was on her way to school with her best friend Lupe, the governor’s daughter when word reached her that Cata Rodriguez, a girl in their class, was dead. Killed, to be exact, when Lupe had sent her to find dragon fruit for her. Spurred by the sudden news, Lupe’s guilt creates a rift between the two of them and decides to find out the reason behind Cata’s unfortunate death. Isa, conflicted, decides to follow her best friend, and travel into the forbidden territories. She’ll have to navigate her way through wild wastelands and a labyrinth of emotions to face the myths that weren’t as fictional as she initially thought them to be. The worldbuilding is rich and well thought-out, Joya and its divisions a vivid setting for the tangential action to follow. I thoroughly enjoyed the character development and characters in general, filled with traits that mirror everyday life and plot twists that undermine the character for the greater good of the story. Something that stood out to me was the intricate foreshadowing, little clues dropped in unsuspecting moments, that, if paid attention to, gave way to a very interesting climax. The first-person point of view only helped the reader to experience the story as their own, along with enthralling prose and evocative description. “But you always have to finish stories, even if they aren’t all with happy endings.” From the very beginning, I was hooked onto Isa’s adventures and this book will leave you with a lasting impression long after the final chapter. The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave. Yearling Books, 2018. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Spartan Education
Sparta’s ruthless education may have been controversial, but it made them into one of the most battle-hardened city-states to ever walk the earth. The Spartans’ notoriously tough education allowed them to become one of the largest military powers of their time, even though their population was relatively small. Although Spartan education was brutal by modern standards, the system was extremely beneficial to the country and its survival. The strengths of Spartan education did outweigh the weaknesses for three reasons: it provided physical training, training of mentality, and important life skills. The brutality of Spartan education forced young Spartan boys to become tougher, and didn’t leave room any slack. The most obvious example of this is the harsh conditions young Spartan boys were forced to put up with. These conditions forced members of the agoge to either adapt and harden themselves, or die. In addition, Spartan boys were not provided with much, and had to live through the year with only 1 garment and scarce amounts of food. Finally, girls were not exempt from physical training, because Spartans believed that strong parents produced strong offspring. All of these aspects of Spartan education kept young children extremely fit and in shape, and also helped them adapt to tough conditions. These skills would be incredibly valuable once they moved on to become adults. Although the Spartans were mainly focused on physical dominance, they were also taught to have a tough mentality. The scarce amount of resources provided to young Spartans prevented them from becoming spoiled, which would prepare them better for adult life. Discipline and obedience were also important concepts taught at the agoge. Finally, young Spartan boys were taught to show respect to those who deserved it; namely, men who were older than them. Oftentimes, people are easily hurt or influenced by words and peer pressure among many other forms of non-physical forms of influence, but the Spartans were trained to withstand the effect of these kinds of situations. Finally, Spartan education taught young Spartans many important life skills. As mentioned earlier, Spartans were almost always being trained to survive under harsh conditions, which made them more resilient and able to withstand pain in the future. Also, because they were only allowed one garment throughout the whole year, they were taught to easily adapt to any type of weather. They were also taught to read and write, but, because this was purely for practical reasons, they were effectively prevented from wasting time reading and writing non-essential text, which gave them more time to focus on more important tasks at hand. These aspects of Spartan education kept Spartans both effective and resilient, and provided great boons to their lives in the future. It is true that Spartan education had some weaknesses when it came to the harshness it exhibited on young children. However, the three reasons presented above – that Spartan education provided both physical and mental training, in addition to important life skills – show that, in the end, the strengths of Spartan education outweighed its weaknesses.
The Beatles: Talent and Courage
The Beatles showed mental, intellectual, and social courage as they created a new genre of music, brought it to places that didn’t believe in it, and performed it without fear whilst being the most popular band in the world, and in history. There were a lot of things that influenced their huge worldwide breakthrough. But it started when they formed in 1960. Then they went on to dominate the UK in 1963. This was also around the time when the name “Beatlemania” became a thing, coming from the extreme support and infatuation of fans to the Beatles. They continued to dominate the whole world in 1964 and 1965 and then appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, which was their first U.S. TV appearance. A lot of fame with the “Beatlemania,” came along with so much success for the Beatles. And allegedly, fans constantly swarmed them, which seems very overwhelming. One member who handled that well was Paul McCartney. He was said to be very good at not letting fame get to his head, and he remained humble his whole career. It seems hard to not let it “get to your head” considering the amount of stressful and even dangerous situations they would get involved in, not even intentionally. For example, when the Beatles went to perform in the Philippines. This was an incident that proved to be at one of their last scheduled performances. The incident occurred when the Beatles traveled to the Philippines as part of their 1966 tour. They said, “As soon as we got there it was bad news,” and in short terms, the Beatles were “bullied” by the staff there (as in, being ordered around and being spoken to with harsh words). This was unlike any way that you would ever speak to members of such high up and famous personalities. And that wasn’t the only mishap. Early one morning, an invitation was extended to them to perform at the palace for Ferdinand Marcos and “high ranking officials’” children. When the Beatles didn’t show up at the scheduled time, there was a large amount of chaos, as it turned out that no one had ever notified the Beatles. But eventually, they rushedly performed their two sets. These are just some of the many examples of just how popular the Beatles were. But, they weren’t just magically popular. There were many things which they did that boosted themselves and helped themselves stand out, such as creating an entire new genre of music. The Beatles influenced the new era of rock music. Most things they did were small and subtle but they revolutionized rock music forever. For example, adding feedback to their songs. Something that seems so unimportant to you would make you wonder why I am even mentioning it. Well, think about it. Listen to any rock song, and I guarantee you there is some point where they feature feedback. Feedback essentially sounds like a ringing sound getting increasingly louder. It is sort of a ricochet effect from one electric output to another, which results in an extremely loud sound as a result. Many rock bands use it, as it sounds “high tech” and rough, which is the sound that most rock bands aim for. The Beatles, however, discovered it by accident, but kept it and recorded it intentionally. It was a happy accident as one of the members learned their acoustic/electric guitar against an amp that was switched on. This made it create the signature feedback sound, which stunned the members, but in a good way. They proceeded to pluck a note at the end of a track until it produced feedback. And that simple sound has become one of the most staple things in rock music. Another thing that they did that changed rock music, was close-miking guitars, basses, and drums, and even brass instruments. “Close miking” refers to putting the microphone so close to the instrument that it is almost touching. The first time they ever did this was in “Eleanor Rigby.” In this track, they took the instruments and propped them right near the microphones so that the sound was “fuller” and less like “Mancini strings.” In the days they did it, it was like a cardinal sin to mic things that way. But these days it is a common practice. When it comes to performances, it is where the band can showcase their talent. It is a very major thing in a music career. It also takes a lot of courage. Think about it, performing your craft for a large audience is stress inducing for sure. But the Beatles were very good at performing their songs, and not only with that coveted confidence but with talent and style. Many people find that the Beatles’ energy and stage presence was what made them so great on stage! There was no “one thing” that they did on stage which made their talent shine through. It was the whole conglomeration of little things that they did such as interacting with each other, moving around on stage, interacting with fans, and much more. All in all, it was their sheer energy and excitement when performing which drove the fans crazy. Many people admire how closely the Beatles would make their performances sound like the original studio versions and even improve upon them. These are just a few ways that the Beatles used courage and innovation in their career to become the famous band that we still revere today. Sources Wikipedia. “Cultural Impact of The Beatles.” Wikipedia, Wikipedia, 16 November 2004, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_impact_of_the_Beatles#Cultural_legitimisation_of_pop_m usic. Accessed 25 February 2021. Edmonds, Kemp. “How The Beatles Changed Music.” https://techcamps.digitalmediaacademy.org, 21 Jan 2016, https://techcamps.digitalmediaacademy.org/2016/01/21/howthebeatleschangedmusic2/.
