An update from our fourteenth and fifteenth Book Club meetings! Over the past two weeks, the Stone Soup Book Club has been reading Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson. The story is about six children in Brooklyn, NY, who end up talking to each other in the old art room without any adult supervision (they end up calling the room the “ARTT Room” (A Room to Talk)). The kids–Haley, Holly, Estaban, Amari, Tiago, and Ashton–become friends as the year goes on, and they share their problems with one another, helping each other through all of their issues. In our first week of discussion, we focused on themes and characters. We discussed how we found the characters to be relatable, and how the interactions between the characters seemed very real, as well as talking about major themes–such as immigration, bullying, racism, incarceration, friendship, and family–and what roles they play in the book, as well as how they affect the lives and actions of the characters. Next, we talked about what it means to be a harbor to someone, as is suggested by the title of the book. We also shared experiences of either harboring someone, or being harbored by someone, and how meaningful both of those were. In our second week of discussions (our fifteenth week of Book Club!) we started out with a very fun activity! We split the group up into breakout rooms of two or three, and let each group be its own ARTT room. The participants talked about whatever they wanted, and were not required to report what they discussed. Reflecting on their experience, it seemed that most people thought it was fun to talk to people they didn’t really know, and find out what interests they held in common. It seems that the Book Club participants would be interested in participating in more ARTT rooms! Next, we discussed the end of the book; overall, we all agreed that it was very ambiguous. This led to a brief conversation where we discussed if there was a sequel, what we would want it to be about. Most people agreed that they would want a sort of reunion between the characters. Other ideas included: the characters must save the ARTT room from being destroyed, or even having an entirely different set of characters who bond in the room. Finally, we chose our new book, which is listed below! IMPORTANT: Book Club is taking a week off, and will not meet on Wednesday, July 29. We will resume Book Club on August 5. Keep reading in the meantime! The Stone Soup Book Club is open to all Stone Soup contributors and subscribers, age 9-13. We meet every Wednesday at 1pm PST (4pm EST) for one hour via Zoom to discuss our chosen book. Join us! Our Next Book (August 5 & August 12): Paint the Wind by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Daily Creativity #89: Write about the First Time You Tried a Food
Write about the first time you tried a food, whether you liked it or didn’t like it. What did it smell like? What did you expect it to taste like? Did it remind you of anything? Did the texture surprise you?
Humble Beginnings
Every year in April we celebrate Earth Day. It’s a day to take a minute and consider what we can do to benefit our environment. It can be an overwhelming task. Save the Earth? Ummm, okay? But where do we start? Well, one simple and practical place you could start is with a compost. Rotting dirt? Yes! Why? According to the Environmental Protection Agency, “About 94 percent of the food we throw away ends up in landfills or combustion facilities. In 2017, we disposed 38.1 million tons of food waste.” All of those orange peels, coffee grounds, and egg shells that you throw away every day, just go to the landfill to pile up. Instead of tossing them in the trash you could take them out to a section of your backyard. Why should I take a corner of my yard and make it into a mini landfill? Because it will reduce the amount of garbage you throw away that goes to the landfill and eventually produces Methane gas. What’s Methane gas? Methane is a toxic gas made from decomposing fruits and vegetables in the landfill. It’s toxic to us, animals, and the environment around us. What do I get for this? I mean if I’m going to put work into this, and sacrifice pristine land space, than I want to get something out of it. When my family started to compost, we noticed that we weren’t using so many garbage bags. And you pay money for garbage bags, and if you use less garbage bags, than you use less money. You also take the garbage out less. Instead of your compostable remains turning into garbage it actually turns into valuable soil. Food scraps decompose to improve soil health by adding vital nutrients and minerals into the dirt as they break down. Rather than buying packaged bags of compost dirt, you can make your own while reducing landfill waste. My family has a planter box up in the top of our yard, so we began to routinely threw all of our fruit and vegetable scraps up there. And after a while, we began notice we had plants growing from the compost. In fact, the previous Halloween, we found a few pumpkins that had grown from the compost. The best part is that it wasn’t hard at all, but we were still helping our planet. Remember, even if it’s just a little baby step, it’s still a step to saving our Earth. Resources: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home#benefits
