Two years ago I saw my friends reading a book and asked them about it. They said that it was called Dawn and the Impossible Three. It was the fifth book in an eight-part series. I soon bought it and started reading. This graphic novel is based on the story by Ann M.Martin, written and illustrated by Gale Galligan. The fifth book is about a girl named Dawn, who just moved to Stonybrook, Connecticut, with her mother and brother just after her parents divorced. Despite struggling to fit in, she finds a friend, Mary Anne. Mary Anne invites Dawn to the “Baby-sitters Club.” That’s where middle schoolers meet up and get paid for babysitting. Dawn thinks that, when she joins the Club, her struggles will be over. She was wrong. She is being closely watched by a member of the “Baby-sitters Club,” Kristy, who is certain that Dawn isn’t responsible enough to be in the Club. Dawn is determined to prove Kristy wrong by Babysitting three impossible kids. (Marnie, Suzie and Buddy), who have been all but abandoned by their mother. Mrs. Barret seems to be constantly busy. Her carelessness is always putting her children in harm’s way. The three kids become a priority for Dawn. As tough as it is with her friends, soon Dawn finds out that her mom and Mary Anne’s dad used to date! Even tougher, Dawn has to accept that they are going to start dating again. Given that Dawn’s parents are divorced, she has an ability to empathize with Marnie Suzie and Buddy whose parents are also divorced. As she tries to understand the Barretts, she finds out more about Marnie, Suzie and Buddy’s mothers divorce. Little does she know what’s happening behind the scenes. What follows is a series of unexpected events. In this story, Dawn has to hold everything together to let everything go. I recommend this book to people who like graphic novels and books about trusting your instinct. While we learn the importance of trusting your gut, we get caught up in this journey with Dawn as she juggles babysitting three kids with the challenges of friendships and family. At the end of the book Dawn discovers her inner courage and confidence. Dawn and the Impossible Three by Ann M. Martin, illustrated by Gale Galligan. Graphix, 2017. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Untitled
Artist’s description of the piece (translated from Arabic): There is something hiding behind the painting. There is a ghost behind it. It is the ghost of someone. (Who?) (No answer to that.) It is not me (says the artist); it is another girl who is afraid. The ghost frightens people, but it does not hurt them. (What does the girl in the picture say?) The girl (in the picture) says the ghost came to her. (What does the girl say to you about the ghost?) She told me so we can help her. This artwork was published in the June 2021 issue of Stone Soup Magazine.
How do people predict the weather?
It all started on a chilly Wednesday night when my mom and I were looking at the weather app because we wanted to check if it would rain the next day. My mom and I noticed that there was a warning saying it might snow the next day. I was uninterested but had some hope. On Thursday, it snowed! I then felt an urge of curiosity. How do meteorologists predict the weather? I thought. I decided right then to start researching right away! It all starts with the satellites. Satellites orbit around the earth and use their cameras to see the weather up above. Several satellites are up there, each covering a piece of land. Satellites pictures can help meteorologists, people who study the weather. There are three types of satellites so meteorologists can get a better understanding of future weather. The first type of satellites is polar-orbiting satellites. They orbit closely to the earth and take approximately 7 detailed shots a day. Geostationary satellites stay at the same location and take the same picture around every half a minute. Lastly, there are deep-space satellites. They stay close to the sun to monitor space weather or solar storms. NOAA also may use information from other satellites owned by other companies. For a review in temperature, airspeed, wind direction, and wind speed, they use something called weather balloons. Weather balloons have special devices attached to them to measure. They are made of latex and synthetic rubber and inflated with either hydrogen or helium. Most people know what weather balloons are, but don’t know much about what they do. Parachutes are often attached to help retrieve it once it falls. Radars are used to measure participation, which means the chance of it going to rain. They can also be used to see if there are any thunderstorms or tornadoes. To be more specific, the radar used to measure participation are called doppler radars. They detect radio waves, which show wind speed and even direction. They use the Doppler effect to predict the chances of rain from a far distance. The doppler effect is when the frequency from a sound wave changes as the observer moves away or closer. Lastly, the information from these devices is gathered and sent to the meteorologists’ computers. They use a system called AWIPS (NOAA’s Advanced Weather Information Processing System), which is a computer system that combines all the data received from the following devices and turns it into a graph. They use that for predicting the actual weather and then display it onto a map. Humans there also predict the weather. To predict storms or blizzards, humans can use the forecasts from previous years. For example, if there was a blizzard every year for the past 6 years, chances are there will be a blizzard the current year. Also, if the clouds might be grey, chances are it might start raining! At 10:33 a.m, when my mom and I looked at the weather, that question popped in my head, making me feel very inquisitive. Weather is an unpredictable part of mother nature and most people have many questions about it. But using modern technology thanks to humans, we can precut weather using radars, balloons, satellites, and even our brains! Sources: Warrilo, Chrissy. “Students Ask: How Do Meteorologists Predict The Weather?” GPB Blogs, 5 Feb. 2012. Web. 29 Feb. 2021. “6 tools our meteorologists use to forecast the weather”. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 14 Aug. 2017. Web. 29 Feb. 2021.
