How cool would it be to live inside a book? Where everything is planned out for you to have a happy ending. In Kind of A Big Deal, you get to experience what living inside a fantasy really is like! Kind of a Big Deal, written by Shannon Hale, is a beautiful mess of a story about the intricacies of high school, and finding yourself through the power of stories. The protagonist, 18 year old Greek-American Josie Sergakis, had just fallen down from fame. In her words, “there’s nothing worse than peaking in high school.” An aspiring Broadway singer, her choir teacher believed in her talent so much that he sent her to audition in big, bright New York. Unfortunately, her audition failed miserably, the judges dismissing her within the blink of an eye, leaving her alone, lost and with absolutely everything left behind. She decided to move to Missoula, Montana, and grabbed the first job opportunity she could get, babysitting 5 year old preschooler Mia, a superstitious, inquisitive toddler who develops a sisterly bond with Josie throughout the story. One morning, while dropping her off to school, Mia forces Josie into a bookstore, with the superstition that it was unlucky to walk past a bookstore without stepping inside. Not the biggest fan of books, Josie reluctantly steps inside and meets Deo, the charming teenage owner who convinces her to pick up her first book in a long time, The Highwayman Came Riding. But once she turns over the first few pages, she starts to get lost into them-literally! She finds herself as one of the characters, with snippets of her friends from past and present playing supporting roles, and she slowly starts to discover the beauty of books and immerses herself in them. There is a huge variety of books that she finds herself into; romance, dystopian, horror even a graphic novel, and in each one she learns something, either about herself, or on how to grow from her situation, and even we can learn a lot from Josie’s internal adventures, as her situations and characteristics are very relatable. Of course, it all seems too good to be true, and Josie starts to have increasing difficulty with getting out of the books to get back into her real life, and the line between fantasy and reality is rapidly thinning for her. Is she to continue living out her dream life, or stick to the reality everyone is accustomed to? I enjoyed reading about all the characters, with their quirks and delicate personalities that make you remember them for a long time. For example, the contrast between younger 8 year old Josie, broken from her family issues, and the wall or persona she built around herself that seemed to make her look more mature, broke at times, and is a very intriguing sub-plot that readers will definitely want to savor. Her love for singing also shines through in a lot of humorous ways, as she breaks into a medley of “Wannabe” while destroying zombloids with her magenta-coloured powers in a post-apocalyptic zombie world. I can also relate to the protagonist in a lot of ways, specifically the love she starts to develop for reading. For me, it feels like I am doing the reading process all over again, but now along with someone else! This book has a little bit of something for all kinds of readers, romance, mystery, fantasy, action, even comedy at some parts, but I am sure you will feel as though you lived inside a lifetime of books from the second you open this one! Kind of a Big Deal by Shannon Hale. Roaring Brook Press, 2020. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
The Land of Stories, Reviewed by Nora, 12
Imagine if Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rumplestiltskin were all real. Imagine if all the fairy tale characters lived together, in another world. It’s not possible right? That’s what Alex and Conner Bailey think, that is until they are magically transported to this fictional world. What happened to Goldilocks after she left the three bears’ house? How did Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty all marry Prince Charming without marrying the same man? What really happened to the Little Mermaid at the end of her story? All these questions and more, are answered in Chris Colfer’s wonderfully spun story of the fairy tale world. Most adventure books have one character who’s out of the ordinary, who’s super powerful, right from the start. Not this series. Not only is there one, normal protagonist, there are two somewhat average co-protagonists. Twins, named Alex and Conner Bailey. Alex is a bookworm, and Conner is something of a class clown. Later in the series, they both become more powerful, but they stay characters that real people can sympathize with, and feel like aren’t some super-powerful character that’s like nobody else. The twins’ whole world turns upside down when they discover that there is another dimension: A fairy tale dimension. The twins are thrown into one adventure of a lifetime after another. From flying a ship across the clouds in hopes to stop the evil Enchantress who cursed Sleeping Beauty, to battling the Evil Queen who wanted to kill Snow White, to climbing Rapunzel’s tower, or being kidnapped by trolls and goblins. The six-book series is one that I’ve returned to time and again since I read it for the first time when I was eight. Now, at age twelve, I still enjoy it. Not only are Alex and Conner funny, intriguing characters, but it is so interesting to learn what Chris Colfer imagined had happened to your favorite fairy tale characters after their stories are over. Snow White, Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Goldilocks, Jack, and the Fairy Godmother are just a few of the characters you get to meet within the series. And there are so many other things that aren’t in the original fairy tales that make the fairy tales so much more interesting. Like why was the Evil Queen so evil? What made her turn from a lovely young woman to a terrifying monarch? And was there a reason that the Prince Charmings just happened to find Snow White or Sleeping Beauty? Were they searching for something else? Another thing that I love about The Land of Stories is that it’s easy to see yourself within the pages. Maybe you’re a bookworm, like Alex, or a class clown, like Connor. Maybe you yourself have a twin. Maybe you see yourself in Goldilocks, or one of the fairies from the Fairy Kingdom. I would recommend The Land of Stories to anyone ages nine and up. The stories do get scarier as they go on, but the first one is not that scary, and is okay for a slightly younger audience. The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2016. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process! Want more fairy tale-themed stories? Check out the stories that young writers came up with during our Saturday Writing Workshop with the theme Fairy Tales with a Twist.
Travelogue: Whittier, Alaska
Brrrrr! It’s freezing out here! There is only one extremely long tunnel to get in or out. Look! There is only one tall building in this whole place! Where are the rest? Welcome to the tall but small, wild and wonderous Whittier, Alaska. The community under one roof! Last year, my family and I went on a vacation to Alaska. We traveled there to a little town called Whittier–a very unique community. What is a community? It is a group of people who live and work together with rules and laws to help keep them safe. A community is a place they call home. It typically has essential places and services that the people need to go about their daily lives, like a school, hospital, places of worship, grocery store, police and fire station, etc. It may also have fun places to visit like parks, playgrounds, museums, aquariums etc. What makes Whittier, Alaska very unique? The tunnel in and out Whittier is located 60 miles southeast of Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska. It is to the west of Prince William Sound; a sound is a narrow sea or ocean inlet between two bodies of land. It is nestled in between majestic mountains on one end and forests on the other. The only roadway to and from Whittier is a one-way tunnel that is two and a half miles long and shared by cars and trains. It is the longest tunnel in North America and the first ever that can withstand -40 degrees Fahrenheit and winds that are 150 miles per hour! The tunnel is open only during the day and closed at night. Every half hour, the tunnel opens one way and closes the other. You can also get to the town by sea as well as a scenic ride on Alaska Railroad. The climate Whittier, Alaska is in the arctic tundra biome. It is located north of the world’s northernmost coniferous forests. This biome has long cold winters and short cool summers. It is very windy here. The average temperature in summer is 60 degrees Fahrenheit and in winter is 25 Fahrenheit. It has permafrost grounds which means that the ground is permanently covered in a thin layer of ice. The flora are adapted to grow in these condition by being pine-cone shaped and having small spiny leaves to prevent loss of water. You may think Whittier is too cold for animals but there are so many out there! There are black and brown bears, salmon, sea lions, sea otters, humpback and killer whales and bald eagle. The Begich Towers The population of Whittier is just over 200 people. All of them live in a 14 story building called Begich Towers that was built during World War II. It was originally an army barracks built for hurt or ill people in the war. It was designed in 1953 by Anton Anderson and was completed in 1957. There is a church, school, grocery store, police station, a health clinic, and a laundromat within the building. This way, when the weather gets too cold, the residents can go weeks at a time without ever having to leave! The community is very close-knit. The Chugach people form the Native American Indian community. There are also other communities that live here. Kids can just walk up to their teachers’ apartments to get help with their homework and finish it at their teacher’s kitchen table! People can knock on their police chief’s door at any time. Kids can take an underground tunnel to their indoor playground when it is very cold outside! The wonderful sights to see Whittier has breath-taking sights to see! We went on a glacier cruise in Prince William Sound where we saw massive glaciers that towered over us. The glaciers are blue because they are so densely packed with ice that they absorb all the colors in light and reflect only the blue. You can also go kayaking, boating and back- country camping here. Whittier, Alaska is an adventurous place and fun to visit! Fact Sources https://www.whittieralaska.gov/ Welcome to Whittier, Alaska; NPR, Jan 18, 2015.
