“Hat Girl” (Acrylic) by Keira Callahan, 12 (San Francisco, CA) and published in the May 2021 Issue of Stone Soup A note from Sarah Have you had time to read the May issue of Stone Soup? I want to draw your attention to a story that caught my eye: “Awaiting a Letter” by Lila C. Kassouf, excerpted at the end of the newsletter. Though Lila doesn’t identify the time period in which “Awaiting a Letter” is set, there is something about the word choices and style that makes it seem like it may be a historical fiction story. Perhaps it is the beginning of the story, where the main character, Celeste, reads the newspaper at breakfast, or the fact that the story revolves around the anticipation of a letter in the mail. For this weekend’s activity, I want to challenge you to write a historical fiction story. You can make it clear in your narration or through the story’s events that the time period is not the present day, or you can make it more subtle, like Lila does, and never explicitly address it. What clues can you leave the reader to point at when the story is taking place? You may want to think about technology, like letter writing, or language, like speech styles and slang. There have been so many great Stone Soup historical fiction stories published over the years that you can use as inspiration. In addition to “Awaiting a Letter,” you can also check out the “Historical” category on the website, or get a copy of our anthology The Stone Soup Book of Historical Fiction, available in print or as an e-book. If you give the historical fiction genre a try, please submit what you’ve come up with! Can’t wait to see what you create. Until next week, 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 new writing groups for spring/summer, starting April 17, that will meet via Zoom every Saturday except 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, with a new season starting on April 24! 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. 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! Young Blogger Allison Sargent wrote an impassioned poem, “If I Could Write a Letter to the World.” Pragnya, 12, wrote a review of historical fiction novel Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan. From Stone Soup May 2021 Awaiting a Letter By Lila C. Kassouf, 12 (Towson, MD) Illustrated by Keira Callahan, 12 (San Francisco, CA) Eighteen-thousand dollars were stolen from the Bridgeham Regional Bank on Nov. 2. Eyewitnesses say the robber was a man wearing all black, carrying a gun. “He had a slight figure and he ran very quickly,” said one woman who had witnessed the event. This is the third armed robbery this week. Witness reports from each of the robberies confirm it was the same person. —Page 1 of The Bridgeham Times “Maman,” I said, looking up from the newspaper. “Did you hear about the robbery?” “What is it, the third one you’ve told me about this week?” my mother asked, washing dishes at the sink. . . . /MORE Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered in the United States of America, EIN: 23-7317498. Stone Soup’s Advisors: Abby Austin, Mike Axelrod, Annabelle Baird, Jem Burch, Evelyn Chen, Juliet Fraser, Zoe Hall, Montanna Harling, Alicia & Joe Havilland, Lara Katz, Rebecca Kilroy, Christine Leishman, Julie Minnis, Jessica Opolko, Tara Prakash, Denise Prata, Logan Roberts, Emily Tarco, Rebecca Ramos Velasquez, Susan Wilky.
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Book Club Report: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Grace Lin
An update from our twenty-sixth Book Club meeting! On April 24, in the first meeting of our new session, the Stone Soup Book Club discussed Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin. In the book, a girl named Minli embarks on an adventure filled with mythical creatures and interwoven stories to find the Old Man in the Moon and change her family’s fortune. After coming up with a few “ground rules” for our new session to make sure we all have the best time possible, we split up into breakout rooms of three and four to get to know each other. The prompt for these rooms was to talk about your favorite book, and it seems like there were a lot of similarities between people! Then, back in the main group, we quickly discussed our general impressions of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, before heading into two breakout rooms (led by myself and one of our Book Club facilitators, Lucy) to talk more in-depth. We had fascinating conversations about the characters, setting, plot, and theme of the book! One of the most distinct things about Where the Mountain Meets the Moon are the illustrations featured throughout it. We agreed that the drawings helped us picture the scenes and the characters, and that their style fit in with the writing in the book. This prompted a conversation about art in books, and how art is utilized in stories. We looked at the art in books such as The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick as examples. Our last activity was regarding the presence of Chinese mythology in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. We talked about how the mythology fit into the story, whether we like having mythology in stories, and what the best way to include mythology is: literally or interpretively. Finally, we chose our next book for Book Club, which is listed below! Our Next Book (to be discussed on May 29): Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks, by Jason Reynolds
Echo, Reviewed by Pragnya, 12
Sometimes the most unexpected things can change your life forever. New York Times Bestselling Author Pam Munoz Ryan’s Echo is a story about the power of music, family and just exactly how much the world can impact you. The story, which takes place across multiple storylines, starts with Otto Messenger, who, while in the midst of a game of hide and seek, finds himself in a forbidden forest and no sooner, tangled into a prophecy, a mysterious harmonica and three sisters placed under a spell which only could be broken by a messenger. 50 years later, the very same harmonica is placed into the lives of Friedrich, Mike and Ivy, three children living very different lives, except for the one thing they had in common-their ability to find solace in music. Friedrich, living in 1940s Germany is faced with crisis when his father is taken captive. Mike, an orphan living with his brother, Frankie’s lives are turned upside down when they are adopted by Ms. Stuebridge, a rich widow with a mansion in the countryside who has more to her personality than what meets the eye. Ivy Lopez discovers she is forced to move to Fresno, away from her old home and into a new life filled with new people whom she isn’t used to. But through the power of music and friends they make along the way, they manage to restore balance in themselves and break the three sisters’ curse. Ryan manages to weave innocence and simple pleasures into a war-ridden world, and everyday experiences through the light of three sixth graders. Easily likable characters and their internal conflict adds a lot to the story as it enables you to only step more into the shoes of the protagonists’ lives. A particular highlight of the story were the descriptions, specifically the emotions felt during the performance. The rich imagery moves you into a haven tucked away from the world, where every note wrapped you up in a story they were meant to tell. Filled with eloquent, simple yet effective prose, characters readers will thoroughly find themselves attached to, and a vivid glimpse into what the past was like, Echo will take your breath away from the first strike until the very last note. Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan. Scholastic, 2015. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
