An update from our twenty-second Writing Workshop! A summary of the workshop held on Saturday September 19, plus some of the output published below Dragonflies have amazing eyes that refract and can see in multiple directions all at once. The images they see are thousands of times more complex than what other creatures can see. This workshop, devised and brought to us by Jennifer Rinterknecht and Denise Donnio, both educators based in France, was designed to get us thinking about how our minds and our writing can be more like a dragonfly’s eye: can we capture simultaneously different voices, different narratives, and the extraneous thoughts that are going on while we are writing? Can those random distractions become part of the narrative, like the texts or notes we pass in class become part of the story of the class being taught or the chat in Zoom becomes part of our Workshops? They presented a few examples of this idea of layered narration, and suggested a simple way of trying to capture this as we wrote–by using two columns, one for the narrative that obeys the conventional rules (Grammar A) and one for the stray thoughts and seemingly irrelevant other thoughts that occur (Grammar B) while writing in the first column. As always, our workshop participants rose to the challenge, with some innovative and impressive work. In some, the distraction became the narrative; in others the layers were in many dimensions, from different voices, media, forms and perspectives. Congratulations everyone who read, wrote and took part, and thank you Denise and Jen for an inspiring workshop! The Writing Challenge: Write a parallel narrative–one in standard form, one in whatever form it comes. The Participants: Nova, Rithesh, Katie, Charlotte, Georgia, Peri, Anya, Simran, Scarlet, Liam, Maddie, Jonathan, Olivia, Tilly, Samantha, Janani, Helen, Madeline, Ella, Chloe, Ma’ayan, Keyang, Dana, Charlotte, Cassandra, Ava, Jayden, Maggie, Sophie, Enni, Juniper, Sierra, Elbert, Hera, Nami, Dhesh, Sophia, James, Ever, Emma, Gia, Sophia, Eden. Liam Hancock, 12Danville, CA All That They Know Liam Hancock, 12 All That They Know I heard the idiot was messing w/ u again today. 🤨 Yeah, and? Lol, idk. Just saying, I heard. Lol. Ok. Want to video chat? Idk if I have time, but I can check. If not, me and the boiz are heading to the park later. Wanna come? What ⏰??? 10:30, 11:00, something like that. 🤷♂️ If I can sneak out, sure. Ok. Ok. Hey, Little Mikey just told me he tried beating you up???🤜 The idiot? Who else would it be? Idk. Did u put up a fight??? Sure I did. And? And what? And did u win? How do u define winning? Ummm…. winning? It’s pretty self explanatory. Well then I guess I did. Are u coming to the park later? Why’d u ditch us last night? If I can sneak out I’ll come. Lol. Lol, try to see u then. 😂 All That They Need To Know I heard he was fighting w/ u again today. 🤣 Like it was a fight at all. He grins, leaning back on his bed. The phone is propped haphazardly in his hands. This kid, right? I can’t believe he honestly thinks I like him. Yeah, and? What do u mean, it wasn’t a fight? He frowns, massaging the crimson red scar painting his neck. What the heck? Lol, idk. Just saying, I heard. And I heard that he beat u into a pulp. He laughs softly to himself. Stop it. He tries shutting off his phone, but the next text comes too quickly. He can’t not read it now. Want to video chat so I see how fast I can send u running back into ur room again? His old record is just seconds No, and I won’t go to the park either. I’m done w/ u and ur stupid friends. He bashes the phone on the side of the couch and shoves his head into the pillow. Hey… sry about that the other day. Idk what got into me. A stupid grin plays across his face. Back for Round 2. I’ve had a bad day. Please. He lays listlessly on the floor of the basement, the phone tangled in blankets. The idiot fought u again? Little Mikey told me. On the other end of the video chat, the idiot feeds him lines. Little Mikey’s an idiot too. But yeah. Yeah, the idiot fought me. The box of Band-Aids lays overturned and empty on the mangy carpet in front of him. And did you win? Lol 😝 like u would Somehow, he isn’t laughing this time as the idiot does on the other line. No. And I never do. Congrats on ur victory. He gulps, watching as the other end of the text goes silent. Hello? Hello? Hello? Are you there? I’m sorry. Hello? Scarlet He, 9Scarsdale, NY Japanese Food Festival Scarlet He, 9 Grammar A: The streets were filled with people swarming to get food from the brilliant, bright and beautiful carts. Smells of onigiri, a yummy rice ball with seaweed, ikayaki, a grilled, salty octopus on a stick, and sushi, rice wrapped with seaweed and topped with seafood fill the air. I bite into a piece of pickled radish from my bento. A salty, sour taste fills my mouth with joy. I take a sip from my bottled ramune soda, a spicy type of soda that gets its spice from a ramune ball. My arms are piled with towering food bowls. The smell is so delightful that I want to take off my nose and make it grow wings to fly around and smell the food. Then, I hear a rumbling. Time seems to stop as the bowls all came crashing down. A miso soup bowl splatters on my head, leaving my hair a miso mess. My clothes are splattered with ikayaki sauce. Everyone is looking at me now. What a great day. Grammar B: The smell of asari miso soup fills my nose! I jump
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
King of Shadows, Reviewed by Olivia, 10
“Th’art a true actor, sprite.” Starring Nat Field, King of Shadows is written by Susan Cooper. Yes, maybe it is another book about acting, but look deeper. Nat’s life is a performance. Singing with joy, flipping with agility, miserable things happening in the most unexpected areas, taking off with emotion that we’ve never, ever met. Nat’s life is difficult, like many others. Not even difficult, it feels impossible. It seems as if every ten seconds something miserable occurs. Nat’s mom dies from cancer and just when we think, how can things be harder? His dad commits suicide for the great loss of Nat’s mom. Even harder. He cries every time he thinks about his dad or someone mentions something about his parents. The author had Nat go over obstacles that Nat was always clueless about, always making the obstacles at the end. Even though he has his sad life, he has one main talent, a talent that always makes him happy: acting. The Boys Company is Nat’s acting company, with many friends, kind Rachel, his voice coach, and Gil Warmun, who acts with so much emotion that even the audience feels it. Even with his friends, his life is tragic. One day, the day that changes his life forever, he has a dream of a hand pulling him away from the Earth, then pulling him close to the Earth to the next day. The next morning Nat is taken to the past, Shakespeare’s time. Nat’s adventure to 1599 Elizabethan England has begun. Nat soon meets Shakespeare, astonishingly, and joins the Chamberlain’s Men. He feels as if Shakespeare resembles a father figure. However, though he feels like he belongs, the one person he wants removed from the Chamberlain’s Men is the selfish and cruel Roper, who tries to embarrass Nat every time he has a chance. The drama magically transforms the book, while every single character has a positive impact on the story and each detail only makes it increasingly interesting. Of course, without Roper, the story wouldn’t be engaging. Without even one element, the book would fall apart. All the tiny details are the cement, and the characters, setting, and fascinating plot are the bricks, only able to fit together using the cement. The book needs every single drop of cement, to make it as exotic as it can be. Although the earlier parts of the book are pretty straight forward, some confusion appears at the end of chapter ten. Shakespeare talks about the Earl of Essex, and some parts of the book are confusing. What clues lead to the fact that Nat says, “so that Essex was about to end up, sooner or later, among those terrible pecked-up skulls stuck up over the London Bridge.” How does he know which Earl of Essex it is? How does he know so much about Elizabethan England? There exists a second Earl of Essex, and a third. Questions usually jumble through my head when I read this part of the book. Many people don’t know much about Elizabethan England, like me. From this book, I have learned quite a lot about Elizabethan England, English Plays, Shakespeare, and much more about plays in general. Despite the comments, this book is wonderful, filled with enchantment, and brimming with love. Kind-hearted Shakespeare and the curious and talented Nathan Field–it’s the combination of characters that makes the book heartwarming, action-packed, and enjoyable. Finally, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves books made with love, happiness, drama, and curiosity. This book was written very well; everyone who reads it is sure to fall in love with it. King of Shadows by Susan Cooper. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2001. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
Spread Love Not Hate
“Injustice for one is injustice for all.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dear Diary, Today I went to a protest march. I went to support people who are against racism and especially to support Black people as they are treated unfairly. I went to show Black people that I am with them and will stand up for them. It is not enough to not be a racist. You have to stand up and show up in support. I went because I believe Black Lives Matter. I went because I believe racism is wrong and people should not be judged by the color of their skin or how they look. Just because of the skin color, Black people have to face a lot of discrimination. They are not given the same opportunities to grow as others. And I don’t understand why this injustice? We all are the same inside, just like two eggs. If we crack a brown egg and a white egg, it will be the same inside, there is no difference. The world belongs to all of us. We share the same earth, water and air. When Nature doesn’t treat us differently, why should we treat each other differently? What happened to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many other Black people is so unfair. And this is what the protest is for. When our peaceful march started,It was raining, yet a lot of people came. Everyone had masks on. A lot of them were holding banners that said “Black Lives Matter.” I made one which said “Spread Love Not Hate.” I loved reading all the different slogans. One of them said “Injustice for one is injustice for all.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” We all were repeating after the person who led the March. Leader: “Black Lives Matter.” Us: Black Lives Matter Leader: what do you want? Us: Justice Leader: When do you want it? Us: Now We kept repeating more slogans for about 2 miles and reached our destination. Then two Black women talked about how it was different for them growing up than their white friends. They were followed for no reason and could not go to the coffee shop without a cop staring at them. It made me realize the difference between privileged and not-privileged. They spoke about cops and their brutality. How just because of their skin color, Black people are more likely to be stopped by police. How people around them are suspicious of them. Their speeches were powerful and I was thinking how people can be so mean. I felt sad hearing their stories. We observed 8 mins and 46 seconds silence for George Floyd by kneeling down. Doing so made me realize how difficult it must have been for him with the knee on his neck and unable to breathe. I think everyone had the same thoughts as me since the whole crowd was quiet even after the time was up. I am glad I joined the protest. I learnt a lot of things and what I can do to stop racism. We can start by not treating others badly due to their skin color or how they look. If we see someone being treated unfairly, we should speak up and tell someone about it. We can also help them by listening to them and understanding them. The most important thing that I learnt from going to this March is that “Silence is violence.” That means we should not keep quiet when something wrong is happening in front of us.
