Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists

“Parachuting in City Lights” (watercolor) by Sloka Ganne, 10, (Overland Park, KS) and published in the June 2021 Issue of Stone Soup A note from Jane A new month, a new issue! And this stunning watercolor is our cover, wrapping around the whole print version of the magazine. One of the things I love about our wraparound covers is how they make me focus on very particular parts of an image, which often leads me to see them very differently from the way I see the whole artwork in one. In the case of Sloka Ganne’s gorgeous Parachuting in City Lights, the front cover consists of the more somber right-hand side of the image, with its dark mountain topped with a flashing mast. We can see only the fading part of the sunset’s glimmer, and a lone parachutist. There’s a slightly lonely feeling to it. But when we turn to the back cover, there is a burst of light, and we see that the parachutist is not alone after all: there are two companions, a flock of birds, and a bright blue glow in the sky above the sunset over the brightly lit city. To my mind, the story changes. There is so much happening in this image, and while it tells one big beautiful story all on its own, it can also tell several very different, specific ones if we focus on one section over another. Divide the image up in your mind into quarters or eights, and think about the possible stories behind these smaller sections of the image: focus on the cityscape, the flock of birds and the clouds, the dark landscape, the vibrant sky. How does each one compare to the feelings evoked by the possible narratives of the other parts? Do the stories you imagine fit together, or are they a series of different vignettes (miniature scenes)? How do they relate to the story you sense in the whole? Try writing a series of short stories based on your perceptions of Sloka’s painting and see what you discover! I also urge you to read Steven Cavros’s story “The Sewer People,” an imaginative tour de force in which the trash under the city has a whole complex, politically messy life of its own. It is part cautionary tale, part political satire, part fable—almost a (dark) fairy tale. Let it inspire you to bring alive a hidden, apparently inanimate world, and see where your imagination takes you. As always, if you are happy with what you write or the art you create inspired by any of these ideas, do share them with us.Until next week, Book Contest 2021 For information on submitting to the Stone Soup Book Contest 2021, please click here. To submit your manuscript, please visit our submittable site. Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Florence, 12, wrote a review of Katherine Paterson’s classic novel, Bridge to Terabithia. Sofie, 10, wrote a poem centered on the healing power of nature amidst the pandemic. Happiness Neema, 11, a participant of the Stone Soup Refugee Project, wrote a personal narrative about her transition from Kigoma, Tanzani, to Chicago, IL. Aditi,12, reviewed Cathy Hirano’s translation of Nahoko Uehashi’s fantasy novel The Beast Player. Writing classes and Book Club Are you looking for classes to inspire, improve, and practice your writing with great teachers and a group of like-minded young writers and readers? Join us! We do charge fees for our clubs and workshops, but we try to keep them as low as possible, and we offer discounts to subscribers and scholarships to students who need them. Contact us at education@stonesoup.com with any questions. Writing Workshop: we have two writing groups for spring/summer that meet via Zoom every Saturday (except for William’s class, which does not meet for the last Saturday of the month). Come write with us and share your work with your peers. Find out more and register for a workshop at Eventbrite. To see some of the great work produced by current workshop members, read contributions published at Stonesoup.com, or join us at one of our free public readings! Book Club: a book club for writers that meets via Zoom on the last Saturday of every month. Find out more and register for book club at Eventbrite. Check out which books we are reading on our website. Young Author’s Studio Summer Camps: we are offering a wide range of classes through the summer jointly with the Society of Young Inklings. Each camp runs for two hours per day, Monday through Thursday. All details and bookings via Society of Young Inklings. From Stone Soup June 2021 The Sewer People By Steven Cavros, 9 (Hollywood, FL) Now once, long ago, on June 12, 2027, a stray banana peel found its way into the sewers of Orlando, Florida. It travelled through the sewers for twenty minutes, and then it at last came to the very bottom of the sewers, to a deep puddle. Like all the junk there, it joined itself to a sea of junk, and nine minutes later, a little human-like creature with frail limbs stood where eighteen or so bits of junk had come together. All the sewer people came from junk, of course. Hundreds, thousands of the sewer people there were—made from all the junk in the sewers—and no junk ever left the sewers as a banana peel or bit of ripped paper. The sewer people had no government, no economy, no friends. All ignored them, didn’t care for a moment that they existed, ignored them terribly, TERRIBLY. They were forgotten and lost. All the troubles of the world began when an important sewer person, Dirt, proposed a government to his small ring of friends, Junk and Meaningless. But they could not create a government without the support of the 18,000 little frail-limbed sewer people they shared the sewers with. They called a meeting, but in vain, as it ended in chaos. Another meeting, then another, was held until many sewer people approved a government. But as that meeting closed, a new problem arose: