Gas Mask Madi Frank, 11 One last breath Take it in One last moment Life flashes by Never going to see the light Break the silence Shrieks for their life Put it down Never going back I can’t breathe Smoke fills the air You can’t see the light Will it ever end? Face full of fog Can’t see anything Dizzy Light headed One Two Three Gone Madison Frank, 11Valley Glen, CA
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Saturday Newsletter: August 1, 2020
“Among the Asparagus” by Ula Pomian, 13 (Ontario, Canada) Published in the July/August 2017 issue of Stone Soup A note from Jane This year’s double summer issue is a special poetry issue, composed of the two wonderful poetry collections by our 2019 book contest second-placed authors, Analise Braddock (The Golden Elephant) and Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer (Searching for Bow and Arrows). Last summer, our special issue was a collection of reviews: book reviews, poetry reviews, and a movie review. In that issue, there were two reviews of the same book, A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which is a book I too loved from the first time I read it when I was a girl. You might not expect to read two reviews of the same thing in Stone Soup, but it’s actually incredibly interesting to see two different reviewers’ thoughts side by side. Both loved the book, and both wrote beautifully-crafted reviews of it—each in their own way. Ava Horton’s review is personal. We meet her as her younger self reading the book for the first time, and she gives us insights into the book by powerfully communicating the impact it had on her. Vandana Ravi’s review opens with two dramatic questions that get to the heart of the book and its messages, then moves on to highlight elegantly the interweaving of the book’s themes. Both of these reviews are below—and I‘m sure they will make you want to read the book for yourself, if you haven’t already! Reading these reviews and thinking about my own love of the book made me wish I had written something about it when I first read it. I can (and will!) re-read it now, but I’d love to know what my younger self thought of it at the time. We all read so many books, watch so many movies and TV series, see so many works of art. So, this weekend, why not start a new review journal: every time you read a book, watch a TV series or a movie or a theater performance, see an exhibit or a work of art, write a short review of it (and the date) in that journal. You’ll be building up a valuable collection of your experiences of other people’s creative work and your responses to it. Start today with a review of the most recent thing you’ve read or sen, and then write a review every time you have an experience with a piece of creative work—whether you liked or enjoyed it or not. It might be just a few lines, or it might be a whole page of ideas it gave you. It’s your journal: you decide! This is your chance to reflect and think about why you feel as you do about works of art, and as your journal builds, you will see how your feelings change over time, and start to make connections among the different creative works you experience. And, you’ll have the future fun of seeing what you thought of something the first time you experienced it! I want to close today, as William did last week, by sending you all to the Stone Soup website, Stonesoup.com. Follow the links to the fabulous work that has been posted this week. If you are not a subscriber, please, please subscribe—and tell your friends and colleagues to do so as well. Subscription dollars are what make our work possible. The work our print magazine features is magnificent—worth re-reading—and the magazine itself is a pleasure to hold in your hands. Until next week, Winners from Weekly Flash Contest #17 Weekly Flash Contest #17: Write about a character waiting for something, but don’t reveal what they’re waiting for until the end. The week commencing July 20 (Daily Creativity prompt #86) was our seventeenth week of flash contests, with all the prompts for the week set by former contributor Anna Rowell. Thanks, Anna, for setting some great challenges and helping us judge our massive pile of entries! Congratulations to our winners and honorable mentions, listed below. You can read the winning entries for this week (and previous weeks) on the Flash Contest Winners’ Roll page at the Stone Soup website. Winners “From the Other Side of the Road” by Amruta Krishnan Srinivasan, 9 “Waiting for a Comet” by Madeline Sornson, 13 “Stalling” by Sophia Do, 12 “Wait for It…” by Ian Xie, 12 “Rain” by Kyler Min, 9 Honorable Mentions “Something Worth Waiting For” by Mila Zhao, 6 “The Waiting Game” by Elsa N. Ahern, 10 “The Woman” by April Yu, 12 “The Waiting Hill” by Liam Hancock, 12 “Cats of War and Peace” by Sneha Jiju, 12 Also, look out on our COVID-19 blog next week for “The Goal” by Ziva Ye, 9, which both responds to the contest prompt and tells a great story related to the current pandemic–from a very unexpected perspective! Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Eleanor’s poem “Anxiety” conveys the uneasy feeling of living during the pandemic, though she ends on a positive note. Read the update from last week’s Writing Workshop, which was led by Anya. Participants were encouraged to think about music in their writing. Aviva, 9, writes about this year’s unusual preparations for back-to-school in “Six Feet Away From Our Teacher, Six Thousand Away From Normal.” In “Fighter,” Olivia, 10, composes a poem that tells of the fight waged by healthcare workers against coronavirus. If you were a fruit or vegetable, what do you think you would be? Trevor, 11, thinks he would be a cucumber. Read his blog post to learn why, and leave a comment! In “The End of the World,” Lucas wrestles with a difficult topic that you may be thinking about more often lately. From the July/August 2019 issue of Stone Soup A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett Two Reviews Ava Horton, 13 Review by Ava Horton, 13 (Gresham, OR) I consider myself privileged. I have a wonderful family, live in a big house in the suburbs, and I go
Flash Contest #17: Write about a character waiting for something. Our Winners and their Work!
Flash contest #16: Write about a character waiting for something, but don’t reveal what they’re waiting for until the end. The week commencing July 20th (Daily Creativity prompt #86) was our seventeenth week of flash contests, with a challenge set by former contributor Ana Rowell, 15, who also helped us judge this week’s contest. Thank you, Anna! This prompt produced lots of entries, all of them filled with suspense. You obviously all had fun structuring your stories to keep us guessing about what we were waiting for, and even who or what it was that was waiting (animal, vegetable or mineral)! Our favourites kept us waiting until the end to find out what was really going on; and made us go back to the beginning to pick up the subtle hints we might not have piked up first time. Well done everyone for your work on this challenge, and especially to our winners and honorable mentions, listed below. Read on after the list of winners to enjoy the winners’ work for yourselves. Winners “Stalling” by Sophia Do, 12 (Lititz, PA) “Rain” by Kyler Min, 9 (Vienna, VA) “Waiting for a Comet” by Madeline Sornson, 13 (La Jolla, CA) “From the Other Side of the Road” by Amruta Krishnan Srinivasan, 9 (San Jose, CA) “Wait for it . . .” by Ian Xie, 12 (Weston, MA) Honorable Mention “The Waiting Game” by Elsa N. Ahern, 10 (Winnetka, IL) “The Waiting Hill” by Liam Hancock, 12 (Danville, CA) “Cats of War and Peace” by Sneha Jiju, 12 (Chandler, AZ) “The Woman” by April Yu, 12 (East Brunswick, NJ) “Something Worth Waiting For” by Mila Zhao, 6 (Blue Ash, OH) Also, look out on our COVID-19 blog next week for “The Goal” by Ziva Ye, 9 (Overland Park, KS), which both responds to the contest prompt and tells a great story related to the current pandemic–from a very unexpected perspective! Sophia Do, 12Lititz, PA Stalling Sophia Do, 12 Ella paced the floor. Come on, come on! she thought and started to jump and down. Hurry, hurry! People passed by and looked at her funny. Ella stopped jumping and stood up straight. Just act normal, she told herself. You can’t look suspicious. You never know who your enemies are. “Hi,” a woman with a short pixie cut hair said. “Is this the women’s?” “Yes,” Ella said and crossed her legs. The woman walked to the back of the line that went out of the door. Ugh, why are the lines always so long? The Council really needed to rethink this. “Hey, Ella!” A girl with blonde hair and blue tips bounced up to her, hands still damp from washing. “I thought you couldn’t come to the mall today?” “Oh, hi Mary Anne ” Ella said, and silently cursed the Council. Why did they have to send her to the mall? “I thought I had to, um, visit my grandma.” “I thought you said your grandma lived in California?” Mary Anne asked. “My other grandma,” Ella fibbed. “What are you doing here?” “Just hanging out with the girls,” Mary Anne said. “After you do your thing, do you want to hang out with us? We haven’t done a girls’ day at the mall in forever!” “Oh, uh, sure,” Ella said. “I’ll meet you by the food court.” “Great!” Mary Anne said and flounced out of the bathroom. Why? Why? Why? Ella groaned. This is bad. Now I have to make up an excuse for why I didn’t meet up with her! A couple more minutes passed and Ella was starting to worry. If I’m not there in time the Council is going to kill me. Adam said the meeting is important. What is taking this person so long!? Finally, the line moved forward and Ella was soon inside. She peeked under the first stall and saw it was occupied. “Excuse me?” A small voice asked. “Do you mind if I cut in front of you?” Ella turned around and an older petite woman smiled up at her, adding more lines to her already wrinkled face. “I’m sorry, but I really have to go!” “Oh, of course,” Ella said and let the woman cut in front of her. Ella bit her lip, hoping that the next door to open wasn’t the one that she wanted. Thankfully, the last door in the line of stalls opened and the little old lady walked in. A few more minutes passed and another door opened in the middle of the hall of stalls, “Ms,” the pregnant woman behind her said, “that one’s open.” “Oh, you can go,” Ella said, “I like this one.” She motioned to the one that she was standing in front of. The pregnant lady gave her a weird look and moved on. Finally, the door that Ella wanted opened and a woman in red high heels walked out. Ella froze, what was Counselor Rylie doing here? Were they going to kick her out? Counselor Rylie brushed past Ella and shoved something in her hand. When she was gone, Ella unfolded her hand and opened up the piece of paper. Second Floor. Ella cursed, “Excuse me,” she said and pushed her way out of the room. She passed Mary Anne by the food court. “Are you done?” she called. “No, sorry! Line was too long!” Ella called back and beelined for the stairs. Taking the stairs two at a time, she made a sharp right and screeched to a stop, staring at another long line. Wow, were they giving out free drinks at the food court today? she thought as she went to the back of the line. Minutes passed, but unlike the other line, this one moved faster. Ella looked at the piece of paper again to make sure that she was at the right one. What was wrong with the other one? She thought. We really need a better way to do this. Finally, she was at the front of the line. Ella paced anxiously and
