Our May Flash Contest was based on Creativity Prompt #151, provided by the brilliant Molly Torinus, challenging participants to come up with five “terrible” book titles and write a story based on one of them. What followed was an avalanche of submissions boasting the most creative, eye-catching titles many of us had ever seen. Of course, the exemplary work that followed the titles broke the moniker of “terrible,” and provided us with a lifetime supply of imagination as no one story followed a similar arc. We found ourselves immersed in dramas set in the far reaches of outer space, character driven vignettes set in a classroom, rich narratives told from the perspective of a dog, and much, much more. A big thank you to all who submitted this month; it was a pleasure to read all of your work. In particular, we congratulate our Winners and our Honorable Mentions, whose work you can appreciate below. Winners “The BWBM Students” by Ritobroto Roy Chowdhury, 10, (Riverside, CA) “T.L.G.E.Y.5.T.” by Darren Fisher, 9, (Portland, OR) “Connecticutians, I Ate the Grape” by Rex Huang, 11, (Lake Oswego, OR) “The Book Without a Name” by Serena Lin, 10, (Scarsdale, NY) “The Pheasant Was Delicious” by Juliet D. Simon, 11, (Santa Monica, CA) Honorable Mentions “Once Upon a Time a Friendship” by Sophia Wong, 9, (Short Hills, NJ) “Chocotalia and Hideous Dragon Monster” by Sophie Liu, 9, (Surrey, BC) “When a Chicken Says ‘SQUAWK!'” by Olivia Luan, 11, (Great Falls, VA) “Cats, Dogs, Dragons, and Other Household Pets” by Atalie Lyda, 12, (Portland, OR) “You Are NOT Reading This Book Cover” by Joycelyn Zhang, 11, (San Diego, CA) Ritobroto Roy Chowdhury, 10, (Riverside, CA) The BWBM Students Ritobroto Roy Chowdhury, 10 Hello, I am Mr. Wats. I have a class of very, very, very, very, very, very different 3rd graders. This is a review of school and their life from their perspective. John School? What school. I’m John. Do not like school. No read. Bad write. Annoying math. That school. I tough. I known as bully. John big. Known as bully. First bad write. Second annoying math. Third horrible grammar. Only lunch recess. School BAD. BAD stand for Boring, Annoying, Dumb. I bully. Recess I say to Johnny. You dumb because you love school. Get it? BAD. Last letter stand for Dumb and Johnny like school. Move on to Johnny Mr. Wats. Johnny I love school. School’s the best. I read John’s section. I can hear you. You’re saying that John’s section has horrible grammar. I agree. My section is going to have way better grammar than John’s. Here are some things you should know about me. 1. I’m Johnny 2. I love school 3. I love math 4. I love grammar 5. I love school Hopefully now you know a little more about me. There’s just 1 thing I didn’t include on the list. You may be wondering what it is. I love reading. Yep. That’s it. You know almost everything about me now. Since I have to make this a little more interesting and longer I’ll talk about other things. Did you know that the cafeteria food is the best food in the world in my opinion? The pepperoni pizza is delicious and anyone who says it’s not, they’re wrong. Well, Mr. Wats says that I can go to recess now. BYE! Rick Since I don’t want to make this long, I made a list of everything you should know about me. 1. I’m Rick Dodder 2. I’m always late to school 3. Recess is my favorite thing about school 4. I’m lazy 5. I don’t do my chores 6. I have glasses 7. I play video games 8. I watch TV 9. I don’t like Johnny or John Those are the things you should know about me. Any questions? Send me an email at… “Rick your time is up!” Oh that’s Mr. Wats. Well, I guess you’ll never get to know my email. Jorge You’ll never guess my name. What do you thing it is? Sure, it’s spelled J O R G E but how do you think you’re supposed to pronounce it? If you guessed George you’re wrong. If you guessed Hor-hay you’re right! If you took Spanish lessons or know Spanish or Portuguese then you should have had no problem. If you pronounced it wrong I suggest you take Spanish lessons. I have lots of siblings. 2 older twin brothers, 1 sister in college, a younger sister, and baby brother. My sister goes to college in Northern California. My twin older brothers both go to Martin Luther King Jr. High School. As you know, I go to 3rd grade and my younger sister is
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
My Trip to the Great Wall of China
I was born in the year of the dragon. I was always dreaming that one day I could visit the Great Wall of China, a giant dragon stretching over mountains and deserts, and walk on it. And this day had finally come. It was July 2019, and I was in Beijing, the capital of China. Standing in the front gate of Mutianyu, one of the best-preserved Great Wall sections in the Greater Beijing area, my body was full of excitement. I had been waiting so long to climb it. But getting to the Great Wall of China was not easy; I had to climb many stairs that seemed like a million steps. And since the Great Wall of China is on mountains, I had to ride a mountain cable car afterwards. And then came a bunch of other stairs. When I finally got to the Great Wall of China, I was tired and sweating from head to toe. I wanted to sit down and rest, but my excitement pushed me up and got me to start walking. Walking there was amazing! There were little holes in the brick walls that helped soldiers in those ancient times spy on their enemy and know that they were coming without being seen; the soldiers could also shoot arrows at the enemy through the holes and the enemy couldn’t shoot them successfully through those tiny holes. I saw and passed many fire towers that were once used to “message” soldiers in the next fire tower that enemy were coming, by making thick smoke during the day or lighting a fire during the night. The soldiers would see the light or the smoke and one by one, they would light every fire tower and prepare for the intrusion. I’d say that is a pretty safe and smart way of warning. When I left the Mutianyu Great Wall, I was exhausted. All I wanted then was to take a nice shower and go to bed. But I couldn’t wait for my next adventure to explore other sections of the Great Wall!
What is the Stock Market?
When you hear the words “stock market,” it sounds like a frightening mess that is impossible to make sense of. Bears, bulls, short, call options, IPO–what do all of these things mean? What is the point of the stock market? What is a stock anyway? Who is buying and who is selling? All of this may seem confusing, but in truth, the stock market is based on two fundamental principles: buy it low, sell it high, or sell it high, and buy it low. With that in mind, let’s dive in! What is Stock? Succinctly, a common stock is a share of a company (which is why stocks are also called shares). For example, if a company had one million shares, and you bought one share, you would own one millionth of a company. Another type of stock is preferred stock, which is less volatile (i.e. less likely to vary a lot in price) than common stock and has higher priority than common stock when paying dividends. Even though preferred stocks do not include voting rights, it still signifies ownership of a part of the company. So what does this ownership mean? Voting rights (only common stock): you get to decide on company matters. This is why shares are actually very important in companies; the more shares you have, the more decision-making power you have. This is why it is recommended for one person in a private company (typically the CEO) to hold at least 51% of the shares, so that decision-making can be faster and more streamlined. Dividends: There are two kinds of stocks, and each pays a different dividend (i.e. a part of the company profit). Common stock is not guaranteed a dividend–every quarter, the company can choose if they want to pay a dividend or not. Preferred stock, however, must pay a dividend every month or quarter. However, dividends are often not a reliable way to make money fast, especially with common stock. The most common use of stock is to buy it at a low price, say $10, then sell it at $30. While this kind of price increase is highly unlikely (Apple stock only increased about 130% over the course of the past year), assuming it were to happen, you would turn a profit of $20. The hard part is predicting whether the stock will rise or fall. A company first sells stock during its IPO, which is the first time the company allows the public to acquire shares. This is known as the primary market. There are multiple motives behind this: To raise money. Billions of dollars can be raised at IPOs. To allow public ownership. Going forward, the company must satisfy popular demand, and there is no easier way to do that than allowing the public to get a say in company matters. Buy or Sell? So when should you buy, and when should you sell? If you believe a stock’s price will go up, you should buy the stock as soon as possible. For example, if you believe the stock price will increase from $10 to $20, you probably want to buy it when it still costs $10, rather than wait for it to increase to $15, to maximize profit. You should sell when you think the price will go down. For example, say you bought this stock at $10, and it has now reached $20 but is predicted to drop down to $15. In order to maximize profit, you should try to sell it at the highest price ($20) rather than a lower price ($15). Of course, it is hard to predict price increase and decrease. Here’s a simple guide on how to get a relatively good idea on what the price of the stock will look like in the future: How is this company doing? If it’s suffering a lawsuit, for example, less people will be likely to give this company money or buy its products and earnings will be reduced, thus driving down the stock price. Are they going to have any new sources of revenue in the near future? I remember Intel stock dropped because they had delayed the release of their new computer chip. Many people sold their stocks on that day, driving down the price by a lot (about 17%). What is its potential for growth? Is it already a mature company that won’t grow rapidly anymore? Or is it likely to develop in the future? Do a SWOT analysis: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. Look at current stock trends (i.e. stock price over past year, global economy performance, industry performance, national economy performance). Another thing to keep in mind (this part is fully my opinion): the more money you invest, the shorter you should keep it in the stock market. Why? Imagine you invest $200 in the stock market. Over the course of half a year, the stock grows by 5%, and at the end of the year, it increases by 10%. If you had sold your stock in the middle of the year, you would have earned $10. But if you wanted to make $10 when only investing $100, you would have to wait until the end of the year. So what’s the downside of investing more? Well, if the price dipped by 10% instead at the end of the year, if you had invested $200, you would be losing $10. On the contrary, if you have invested $100, you would only be losing $5. Hence, keeping a lot of money in the stock market at once can be dangerous, and it is usually a better idea to sell stock at first gain, in my opinion. Advanced: Call Options, Margin Accounts Earlier, I said a way to make money in the stock market was to buy low and sell high. But what about selling high, then buying low? At first, this seems absurd: how can you sell stock without buying it first? It turns out, this can be accomplished with something called a margin
