“Utopia for an Animal” is a pictorial representation of how the coronavirus has changed our lives. As depicted, humans are stuck inside their homes and apartments, as animals outside frolic and play in an area of little to no pollution, and no hindrance to them. Elephants cross the street, antelopes look around, and bunnies and their families dance and eat grass. Utopia is a perfect society. For animals of all domains and kingdoms, this is the Utopia they would never have gotten anywhere else. Covid-19 has influenced our lives very much and changed the world to a great extent, but on the other hand there are animals, just waiting for this opportunity. Himank Chhaya, 12 Tallahassee, FL
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Saturday Newsletter: May 16, 2020
“Portrait of Adolescence” By Rishika Porandla, 13 (Coppell, TX) Published in Stone Soup May 2020 Illustrating “Real Life Checkmate” by Harper Fortgang, 11 (San Francisco, CA) A note from William Flash Contest winners. One of our fabulous Stone Soup authors and photographers, Anya Geist, age 13, wrote the five Daily Creativity prompts for the week of May 4 and was one of the judges for the Flash Contest based on her Monday prompt. The five winning illustrations are outrageously good. Congratulations to Analise Braddock, 9; Anna Dollar, 13; Catherine Gruen, 13; Olivia Titus, 11; and Elia Yamamura, 12. You can read the whole announcement (including the honorable mentions) below, and please be sure to look at their work at our website. Summer programs. For the first time, we will be offering summer writing programs. Stone Soup has teamed up again with the fabulous San Jose, California, program the Society of Young Inklings to offer Summer Zoom Writing Camps. (We ran our personal narrative contest with them last year, and we loved working together!) Full details will be published soon, so this is just to let you know that we have something planned for you. Classes will run for four days per week, Monday through Thursday, starting at 9 a.m. Pacific Time. I will continue running our Friday Writers’ Workshop (free for Stone Soup subscribers), so there will be no conflict between that free ongoing class and the summer programs. The summer classes will run 2 hours a day. Pandemic fundraising news. Longtime Stone Soup writer Sabrina Guo and her family are doing a massive amount of work raising money and buying protective gear for medical personnel on the front lines in Long Island, where they live, and in New Orleans where they are supporting a program for immigrants in distress. Next week we will be sending a fundraising letter on Sabrina’s behalf. I will personally be donating several hundred dollars to her efforts. This disease knows no borders. It knows no boundaries. If there ever was a time to take to heart John Donne’s (1572–1631) observation “never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee,” it is now. Sabrina’s work is saving lives. There is no administrative overhead, so $100 donated goes to buy $100 of needed medical supplies. Today, when I am writing this, I gave a workshop on bread history through Zoom. After the seminar was over, one of the participants wrote to me to say that she had had to leave early because “another member of my family died of Coronavirus.” Another! This is not abstract. If you don’t have a more effective way of helping save lives in your own community, then please respond with generosity to the letter we will be sending on Sabrina’s behalf. Please also read the latest update about her work, published on the Stone Soup website. Even though Sabrina is now 15, she will always be part of our Stone Soup family. I am also asking you to support Sabrina’s lifesaving efforts as part of your support for the passionate talented young people who make Stone Soup what it is. The Wednesday Book Group and the Friday Writing Workshop are both doing exceedingly well. Both groups are large, with the students doing really good work. It is a real honor for us at Stone Soup to finally be meeting and interacting with our Stone Soup readers and writers. These are no empty words—we are honored to be working with you and experiencing your talent in real time every week. Thank you. Everyone can read some of the output of the workshops and reports from the book group on our website. Do take a look, and you’ll understand why we are so excited! At some point, we will be publishing the projects for the workshops, as well. We (I) am a bit behind right now! For this weekend’s writing project, I suggest working from this one word: “changeable.”` Our lives were all going along on a certain pathway, and now they are totally changed. The weather can be changeable. Moods are changeable. Poem, story, play, dialogue, whatever works for you. Work with this idea: changeable. If you make something you are proud of, submit it to us. Until next week, Weekly Flash Contest #6: Draw or paint a scene from a book you are reading or have read. This week, we are announcing our five Winners, whose work is published on our website, plus five honorable mentions. We were so impressed by the fantastic work entrants produced, the different media used, and the creative approaches you all took. Congratulations, everyone! Winners (visit the website to see all of their work) Analise Braddock, 9, Katonah, NY Anna Dollar, 13, Monticello, FL Catherine Gruen, 13, Chino Hills, CA Olivia Titus, 11, Houston, TX Ella Yamamura, 12, Cary, NC Honorable Mentions Sienna Olsen, 9, Tauranga, New Zealand Yincheng Qian, 12, Dallas, TX Ava Shorten, 10, Mallow, Ireland Zoe Campbell, 10, San Francisco, CA Amelia Barth, 10, Elgin, IL Don’t miss the winning work, published at Stonesoup.com in the official contest announcement, here! Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Leah, 12, wrote a poem memoir about her time in imposed social distancing. Read it here. Check out the update from our fourth book club, where we discussed The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz. In “The Monster,” Haopu (Max) Xu describes two horrors. His short piece creatively underlines the need to take COVID-19 seriously. Have you been having strange dreams lately? Daniel describes one of his dreams, which made him go, “Huh?” Read an update from our last writing workshop, plus all the impressive work that participants created. Ethan, 7, wrote a poem about how coronavirus interrupted his basketball dream. But he hasn’t given up yet. Do you have a birthday during quarantine? Anya talks about her upcoming birthday, which she won’t be able to celebrate as usual this year. While sad about not being able to continue traditions, Anya brings
Flash Contest #6: Draw or Paint a Scene From a Book You Are Reading. Our Winners and Their Work!
Weekly Flash Contest #6: Draw or paint a scene from a book you are reading, or have read. Anya Geist, 13Worcester, MA The week commencing May 4th (Daily Creativity prompt #31) was our sixth week of flash contests–and our second Takeover! This time, Anya Geist, age 13, from Worcester, MA, took over the Daily Creativity prompts for the week, including some really great art prompts as well as some writing ideas. As always in our takeover weeks, Anya joined the Stone Soup team as one of the Flash Contest judges. To remind you of the process–each judge evaluates the entries independently, the judges’ scores are tallied, and we meet via Zoom to agree on our final lists of winners and honorable mentions. There were a lot of entries this week, and a large number of really beautiful artworks for us to look at. Luckily the judges had very similar views when they awarded their scores, so it wasn’t too difficult to agree on the results (though we can’t say it was all that easy with such a lot of great work to choose from!). Anya had set you a great challenge, and she had some very considered and insightful feedback on the entries. It was a real pleasure to work with her on this contest. Thank you, Anya! This week, we are announcing our 5 Winners, whose work is published below, plus 5 Honorable Mentions. We were so impressed by the different media used, and the creative approaches you all took. Congratulations, everyone! Winners (work published on this page) Analise Braddock, 9, Katonah, NY Anna Dollar, 13, Monticello, FL Catherine Gruen, 13, Chino Hills, CA Olivia Titus, 11, Houston, TX Elia Yamamura, 12, Cary, NC Honorable Mentions Sienna Olsen, 9, Tauranga, New Zealand “Albus Dumbledore” from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling Yincheng Qian, 12, Dallas, TX “First View of Hogwarts” from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling Ava Shorten, 10, Mallow, Ireland “Joey, exhausted, frightened and wounded” from War Horse by Michael Morpurgo Zoe Campbell, 10, San Francisco, CA “Then Percy let go of his tiny ledge, and together, holding hands, he and Annabeth fell into the endless darkness” from Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan Amelia Barth, 10, Elgin, IL “The Beginning of the Armadillos” from Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling Remember, we are running the Flash Contest every week during the COVID-19-related school closures and shelter-in-place arrangements. It is always based on the first Daily Creativity prompt of the week. The prompt is posted on Monday, entries are due by Friday, and the winners are chosen and announced the following week. A Hogwarts interior, from Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling Analise Braddock, 9, Katonah, NY “With a small leap she was on Jeremy’s back” from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien Anna Dollar, 13, Monticello, FL The picture I painted is a close up scene from chapter 7 of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM by Robert C. O’Brien which is titled “The Owl”. During this chapter, Mrs. Frisby must board the back of Jeremy the crow. That was easy, for as Robert C. O’Brien put it, “With a small leap she was on Jeremy’s back.” The rest of the adventure she would go on with Jeremy was much more challenging and frightening than this “small leap”. But you shall have to read the rest of the tale of Mrs. Frisby if you wish to know why. “Wingardium Leviosa” from Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling Catherine Gruen, 13, Chino Hills, CA “Wingardium Leviosa!” he shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill. “You’re saying it wrong,” Harry heard Hermione snap. “It’s Wing- gar -dium Levi- o -sa, make the ‘gar’ nice and long.” “You do it, then, if you’re so clever,” Ron snarled. Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and said, “Wingardium Leviosa!” Their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads.’ This famous scene between Ron and Hermione, before they became friends, is from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (or Philosopher’s if you’re from England) by J. K. Rowling. “Escape from Ravagog” from Neverseen by Shannon Messenger Olivia Titus, 11, Houston, TX This scene is from Neverseen, the fourth book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series by Sharon Messenger. The characters in the piece are escaping from the ogre city, Ravagog. “Self Betrayal” from “The Eagle and the Arrow” by Aesop Elia Yamamura, 12, Cary, NC This is a drawing based on a tale of Aesop named “The Eagle and the Arrow”. The eagle is flying over its home, and is suddenly pierced by an arrow feathered by the eagle’s own down. Moral: we often give our enemies the means for our own destruction.
