“Gateway to Darkness” by Grace Williams, 13 (Katonah, NY) A note from William Summer classes: The first round of Stone Soup and Society of Young Inklings classes are finishing up next week. A second round of classes—two writing classes and an illustration class—will take place in July. One class starts the 13th, another the 21st, and the last class on the 27th. The first round of classes sold out quickly. This is a fabulous program. I highly recommend it. More information and registration information is here: Stone Soup & Society of Young Inklings Summer 2020 program. Gateway to Darkness photograph: Wow! Gateway to Darkness is one of those brilliant works of art that speaks without words in a voice that speaks directly to one’s soul. You look at this photograph and you know what it saying. The knowledge is direct. An extraordinary work of art. Thank you, Grace Williams. Gateway to Darkness speaks to exactly how I feel so much of this pandemic time. Even when the sky is blue, the outdoors feel dark, my world shut down, and my daughter and I are mostly at home. The strange angle Grace used to photograph the fence, and thus frame the scene, perfectly captures my sense of these strange, disorienting times. The way the fence frames the sky is unsettling. Not symmetrical. It says to me, “Something is not right.” Leaving one’s house, we ask of everyplace we go, “Is this safe?” When I go to the grocery store to buy food, there is one employee stationed at the entrance, and one at the exit. They each have a walkee talkie. They keep track of how many people are in the store. You wait for permission to enter. You are counted in and then counted out when you leave. Inside, we all try to avoid each other. When you are ready to pay, we wait in a line inside the shop, each of us spaced out, waiting to be told that we can move forward to a register to check out. It is organized and does make us feel safe. Even so, I sometimes find myself inside the store, wearing my mask, amongst the other masked customers, crying. This photograph, and the story “Pigeon City” we are highlighting in this weekend’s newsletter, are two pieces of work that fall into the “COVID-19” category published on our blog. Jane has posted 87 pandemic-related posts at the Stone Soup website inspired by our Daily Creativity Prompts. If you haven’t already, I encourage you all to check them out. Comments are always welcome. “Pigeon City” was written in response to a prompt written by Stone Soup author Anna Rowell. Art project for this weekend: Take your phone or camera and take a picture that captures the idea of being spontaneous. I put it this way because sometimes to take a picture that looks spontaneous, you have to plan! Not always, but sometimes. Make it a photograph of happiness. Of joy. Of the opposite of being trapped and fearful. A jumping kitten. You, jumping. A face that is laughing. A spray of water. Leaves blurred by the wind. Use your imagination to make something light and delightful. When you succeed, please send it to Stone Soup so our editor, Emma Wood, can consider it for publication. Until next week, Winners from Weekly Flash Contest #12 Last week’s contest was a fantastic challenge set by former contributor Anna Rowell, 15, who was also a judge of the contest. What would the world be like without color? What if there were a few select people who could see colors? Write about the effects of not being able to see color, or of there being no color, and how that affects people and society in a good or bad way . . . Congratulations to our winners and honorable mentions, listed below. Your work really stood out in an extra-competitive field! You can read the winning entries for this week (and previous weeks) at the Stone Soup website. Winners “Seeing Through Gray” by Isabel Bashaw, 10, Enumclaw, WA “It’s All Ridiculous” by Lucy Berberich, 11, Oxford, OH “Flowers for Mamma” by Sophia Do, 12, Lititz, PA “The Sky is Blue” by Nora Heiskell, 12, Philadelphia, PA “Project Achromatopsia” by Alice Xie, 12, West Windsor, NJ Honorable Mention “Miya’s Gift” by Savannah Black, 9, Yuba City, CA “Colorless” by Anna Haakenson, 12, Beach Park, IL “A World Without Color” by Aditi Kumar, 10, Ashland, VA “In a World Without Color . . .” by Charlotte McAninch, 12, Chicago, IL “Color” by Michela You, Lexington, MA Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Amelia, 11, wrote about coronavirus in a creative way in her story “The Chase.” Read to find out if Alco Hol catches Cora Na Virus. Have you had a birthday during coronavirus? Check out Natya’s cartoon about the new way we have to celebrate, and leave a comment if you’ve had a similar experience. Charlotte, 12, wrote a poem called “The Virus” that captures the lonely and unsettling world that coronavirus created. Abhi reviewed the book The Extraordinary Colors of Auden Dare by Zillah Bethell. Find out why Abhi enjoyed the book’s pacing and interesting characters. At our twelfth Friday Writing Workshop, the theme was Sense of Character. Read some of the work created during the meeting. Vivaan, 11, wrote a poem about his thoughts on coronavirus and global warming. In “Joining Together at a Distance,” Catherine, 11, writes about how we all have to do our part during this pandemic. We posted Zachary’s picture journal documenting his time during coronavirus. Sejal, 8, wrote a poem called “Bad to Good” about various aspects of the pandemic. Fern Hadley, 11 Cary, NC From the Stone Soup blog June 2020 Pigeon City by Fern Hadley, 11 (Cary, NC) Amber rays of sunlight flooded through the city, casting long shadows behind the tall buildings. A glint of sun caught on dark-grey feathers as the bird glided through the darkening sky, skimming the tops of the buildings. It landed
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Pigeon City by Charis Choy, 11
Charis Choy, 11 Cary, NC Pigeon City Charis Choy, 11 Amber rays of sunlight flooded through the city, casting long shadows behind the tall buildings. A glint of sun caught on dark grey feathers as the bird glided through the darkening sky, skimming the tops of the buildings. It landed on the roof of the tallest one. Beautiful evening, it thought to itself. And one day… this entire city will be OURS! It cackled evilly to itself for a few moments before another bird popped its head into view. “There you are, Blu. Where were you?” Blu glared at her friend. “Stu! You interrupted my evil cackling!” Stu rolled his eyes. “So that’s your new hobby, eh?” “Call it a hobby,” Blu sniffed, ruffling her feathers. “I call it practice.” “Practice,” Stu repeated dubiously. “Well, what are you practicing for? Face it, pigeons will never be as good at singing as other birds.” “I wasn’t trying to sing,” Blu squawked indignantly. “I was practicing for when pigeons will rule the city. Maybe I’ll even be invited to do the speech!” Stu blinked and cocked his head to the side. “What makes you think pigeons will ever rule the city?” “Don’t be daft!” Blu unfurled her wings, gesturing to the glorious city before them. “Look!” She bobbed her head proudly, waiting for Stu to begin nodding his head and saying, “Ohhh, I get it!” Instead, her friend blinked his black beady eyes some more and burbled, “I don’t see anything out of the ordinary.” “It’s not what you see!” Blu exclaimed. “It’s what you don’t see! Look! There are so few humans out there right now. They already understand that they won’t be controlling the city for much longer.” Stu twisted his head around and began to preen his feathers. “Why would they ever understand that if it’s not true?” “But it is true!” cried Blu, spreading her wings again. “Remember all those hints that we always leave behind for them?” “Hints?” Stu paused to think about it. “Do you mean when Via left some of her droppings on the hood of that Lamborghini?” “You should’ve seen that human’s face when he saw them!” Blu smirked. “It looked likea tomato. And that time when Kek upchucked on that woman’s shoes was beautiful.” Stu nodded thoughtfully. “How about when Tud ate some of the kid’s ice cream at the park? That was quite interesting to watch.” “Now you’re getting it!” Blu hopped around with excitement. “You see, the city never truly belonged to humans—it belongs to us! And one day we’ll take it over, just you wait!” “Dream on, kid,” Stu replied. “I’m going to find a place to roost.”
Flash Contest #12: A World Without Color. Our Winners and Their Work!
Weekly Flash Contest #12: What would the world be like without color? What if there were a few select people who could see colors? Write about the effects of not being able to see color, or of there being no color, and how that affects people and society in a good or bad way . . . Anna Rowell, 15Redmond, WA The week commencing June 15th (Daily Creativity prompt #61) was our twelfth week of flash contests, with an intriguing challenge set by former contributor, Anna Rowell, 15. This is a prompt that got a lot of people’s juices flowing! Anna joined us on the judging panel, and with her help and thoughtful advice we managed to work our way through a wide and strong field of entries. Well done to everyone who sent an entry in: you did not make it easy for us to decide. In particular, thank you, Anna, for your help, and for a fantastic flash contest prompt–we look forward to doing it again sometime! Congratulations to our Winners and Honorable Mentions, listed below. Your work really stood out in an extra competitive field! You can read the winning entries for this week (and previous weeks) at the Stone Soup website. Winners “Seeing Through Gray” by Isabel Bashaw, 10, Enumclaw, WA “It’s All Ridiculous” by Lucy Berberich, 11, Oxford, OH “Flowers for Mamma” by Sophia Do, 12, Lititz, PA “The Sky is Blue” by Nora Heiskell, 12, Philadelphia, PA “Project Achromatopsia” by Alice Xie, 12, West Windsor, NJ Honorable Mention “Miya’s Gift” by Savannah Black, 9, Yuba City, CA “Colorless” by Anna Haakenson, 12, Beach Park, IL “A World Without Color” by Aditi Kumar, 10, Ashland, VA “In a World Without Color…” by Charlotte McAninch, 12, Chicago, IL “Color” by Michela You, Lexington, MA Isabel Bashaw, 10Enumclaw, WA Seeing Through Gray Isabel Bashaw, 10, Enumclaw, WA The new neighborhood with its new streets, sidewalks, houses, and noises were all varying shades of gray. Terrible. Dull. Hopeless. As terrible, dull and hopeless as I felt. I had just moved from my hometown to a different, smaller town hundreds of miles away from everything I loved. I hopped on my gray bike, strapped my gray helmet on my gray hair, and started riding across the gray sidewalks. I peddaled faster and faster, through a blur of gray. Everything was wrong. Why did my family have to move? Was a new job really more important than leaving the entire ten years of my life behind? The blur of gray became a whirl as I peddaled harder, barely looking upward. I glanced up and stared at the gray flowers as they whizzed by: colorless. I was beginning to hate the color gray. Then a sharp turn, and CRASH!, a big fall, and my cries into the gray world around me. The sidewalk was grayer than ever as I stared at it, almost as dark as the blood dripping down my leg. No wonder I crashed–it was hard to see where I was going when everything was the same series of non-colors. I looked up as a small gasp echoed through the block. A girl was walking toward me. I blushed with embarrassment–my cheeks turning from gray to grayer and back again. ¨Are you OK?¨ She asked, staring at my knee. ¨No¨ I said, my voice small. ¨Oh. . .¨ she said in response. I wiped away my tears. ¨I’ll get you a band-aid if you want.¨ I nodded gratefully, and she dashed back inside. I waited, and then she returned. As I put the band-aid over the scrape, she asked me: ¨So did you just move here?¨ ¨Yeah¨ I muttered. ¨Well I just moved here too!” she said, her face lighting up. ¨Maybe we can be each other’s first new friend? I saw a really fun park nearby!¨ Her name was Rosalie, and it turned out that she lived only a few blocks from my new house. ¨Time for dinner Rosalie!¨ ¨Well I gotta go,¨ said Rosalie, ¨but maybe if you’re not busy tomorrow morning you can ride your bike over and we can go to the park together?¨ Suddenly, as Rosalie smiled at me, the world brightened. The sky was bluish gray. The faint yellow sun shone down on Rosalie’s beautiful brown skin, the pinkish-white flowers moved in the breeze and my bike was a muted teal, no longer the horrible gray it used to be. I grinned and said ¨Sounds great! See you tomorrow, Rosalie!¨ Maybe this new place wasn’t so bad after all. Lucy Berberich, 11Oxford, OH It’s All Ridiculous Lucy Berberich, 11, Oxford, OH My name is Eva Wilson. I’m your all-around average teenage girl. I walk the three blocks to my middle school wearing the required outdoor gas mask every morning. My favorite subject is survival skills and my least favorite is bomb diffusion (it’s too stressful). I have a small group of close friends and we always sit in the back table of the cafeteria, watching people and making theories about who’s an alien and who is possessed by a demon or whatever. We’re kind of that one group no one notices, so it’s really easy to watch people. Sometimes we all walk home together, but most of my friends’ parents don’t want them being outside too much, because of the pollution and such, gas mask or not. My parents don’t mind me being out and about. They figured that if I hadn’t gotten poisoned by the air pollution at this point, I never would. Our world is kind of deteriorating at the moment. Everyone’s trying to save it all the time, but I don’t think we ever actually will. The damage humans did to this Earth is pretty much there forever. There’s no fixing it. I guess we’re all kind of waiting until we have the technology to send humans to another planet. Apparently there used to be this thing called color, but humans evolved and there was no longer a need to see it anymore. I’m not so sure I believe that, though. My mom says that the few people who
