The memory of Half Magic, by Edward Eager, has half-lingered in my mind for several years. I remembered liking the book when I was younger, maybe 8 or 9, but couldn’t recall half-a-thing about it. Then, over February break, when we went on vacation with my cousins, I brought the book along, in hopes of reading it to my nine-year-old cousin, Matty. Although I didn’t finish reading the book to Matty, I finished by myself, and found it just as charming as I did 4 or 5 years ago. Half Magic is the tale of four siblings, Jane, Mark, Katharine, and Martha, who are having the most boring summer of their lives. “The children never went to the country or a lake in the summer,” the author explains on page two, with their mother working all day at the newspaper (they don’t have a father) and leaving them watched over by their dreadfully strict nanny, Miss Bick. Then Jane finds a coin on the sidewalk, a coin that, as they discover, grants wishes. But it only half-grants them. For example, when Martha wishes the siblings’ cat, Carrie, could talk, Carrie begins spouting gibberish. Or, when Mark wishes his friends were home for the summer, the friends are transported to a location which is half-way home. Even to my thirteen-year-old self, both of these instances were greatly amusing. And so the story goes on, with the siblings having all sorts of adventures, ending up in the Sahara, in Camelot, and having plenty of excursions in their own town of Toledo, Ohio. Half Magic was written in 1954, and so it follows an older, more traditional approach. The siblings are four Caucasian kids in the summer, and the book does not really focus on social justice issues or any topic similar to that. There are no serious, underlying themes, no heavy aspect to it. Half Magic really is a tale, a light story designed to entertain, with positive messages and a happy ending. It is perfect for a lazy summer day with no excitement, much like the day that the story begins on, for while reading Half Magic, you are with Jane, Mark, Katharine, and Martha on their adventures and you feel the magic that flows through them flowing through you as well. It is a book with a cheery soul and a light in its eye, and will get you laughing as the siblings try to phrase their wishes properly. What is twice of not here? What is twice of half a talking cat, in the case of the magicked Carrie? Now, obviously, I have never had an experience with magic, but Half Magic describes the daydreaming we all do when we are bored, when we imagine knights jousting in our yard, or sorcerers throwing spells from their hands. Half Magic brings these dreams to life in a joyous, light-hearted tale, and the story doesn’t really end, either. In fact, the last chapter is called, “How It Began Again.” I’ll leave it up to you to figure out what that means. Remember this, though. Anything can happen on a dull summer day. For all you know, magic is just around the corner, waiting for you to find it. Half Magic by Edward Eager. Houghton Mifflin Harcout Books, 1954. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Daily Creativity #23: Write a Story Inspired by a Family Photo
Look through some of your old family photos, taken before you were born. Pick an image that you feel drawn to, then try to imagine your way into the moment. What were these people thinking, doing, feeling, and why? Write a short story about it.
Weekly Writing Workshop #3, Friday April 17, 2020: Spiders and Webs
An update from our third Weekly Writing Workshop! A summary of the workshop, plus some of the output published below The Stone Soup Weekly Writing Workshop is open to all Stone Soup contributors and subscribers during the COVID-19-related school closures and shelter-in-place arrangements. Every Friday, we meet for one hour via Zoom to respond to a new writing challenge, write together in our virtual room, and then share what we have written with one another. At our session on Friday April 17, we introduced ourselves (all 20 of us!) and discovered that besides Stone Soup team members calling in from Canada, the UK and the USA, we had workshop members from all over the world! This week, William Rubel, Stone Soup’s founder, set a challenge inspired by a fantastic photograph by contributor and Writing Workshop member Anya Geist (13): Web Dweller. He presented a number of other images and ideas from history and literature about spiders, including the story of Arachne, transformed into a spider by the goddess Athena as punishment for having beaten her in a weaving contest–leading to a lively group discussion. Before getting down to some serious writing, groups members shared super-quick inspirations for ways of approaching a piece of writing about spiders from an original perspective. Brainstorming ideas: – Write from the perspective of the fly caught in a web – Write about how Arachne feels once she has been turned into a spider – Investigate different aspects of the fear of spiders – Being trapped, and the fear of that: thinking about how spiders literally trap things – Try giving a positive perspective on a spider for a change! – How about the spider that likes people and wants to be loved by them, and is upset that people don’t like them? – Look into the origins of the bad vibe around spiders and make a story out of that – Tell the story of Arachne from Athena’s perspective The Writing Challenge: Write about spiders, or ideas related to spiders, in some form, from any perspective. The Participants: Ever (10), Peri, Suman (10), Alexandra, Amity, Djin (10), Emily (10), Hana, Lena, Ma’ayan (13), Anya (13), Analise (9), Liam (12), Abhi (12), Vivian (11), Lucy (12), Mico (13), Silas (10), Georgia (11), Mia Everyone was so inspired by myth, memory, and the emotions evoked by arachnids! Below you can read just a few examples of the great work–including a fantastic fairy story, poetry about history and memory, a terrifying horror tale, and poems about entrapment–that came out of this terrific workshop. Old Friend By Analise Braddock, 9 The spider she befriended lives around the corner under the desk near the collected dusk Spinning and spinning the tremendous tidal wave of the web Now she forgets The friend I had in my hands is now gone Further on the spider’s day is away from hers. Turning to dust fading away the spider remembers the good days Light would come in staining but only shading her smile In the time now she forgets Trapped By Anya G., 13 It is trapped Scuttling around under a glass Harmless, and powerless It has been caught in my web I waited, waited For it to fall into my trap There is nothing it can do It can hardly move It has met its demise But then why Do its hairy legs clutch at my chest Threatening to bite, to hurt me My stomach curls As I remember it, poised Over my head, ready to attack The wispy filaments of its web have been swept away And yet it has managed to spin a new one And trap me, like a fly, with its mind The Spider By Anya G., 13 It is waiting, lying in the dark Its end-goal so close… It prepares to pounce Children thunder above it Running down the warm, wooden dock Preparing to pounce on the cool, fresh lake They see only the summer day No thought of the spider Lounging right beneath them Has crossed their mind The children run closer to the water The spider hurries toward them They are there, jumping And the spider closes in The children crash into the lake Water obscuring the world The spider is dead, washed away And its dream of seeing daylight Has been pounced upon Peri Gordon, 10Sherman Oaks, CA Why Don’t People Like Me? A Poem Told from the Perspective of a Spider By Peri Gordon, 10 Why don’t people like me? I’m not a pest like some bugs. I don’t flit around or annoy anyone. Do people not like how I look? Why don’t people like me? I have many legs, but so do butterflies. I am often jet-black, but so are many dogs. Do people think that I am dangerous? Why don’t people like me? I’m not large and imposing like a protective mother bear. I’m not poisonous, and even if I were, it’s not like I go around biting people every day. Do people find me disgusting? Why don’t people like me? I don’t have gross habits like some humans. I eat insects, but humans eat chicken. Yuck! So what reason do people have? Why do they avoid me like I’m a plague? Why do children scream when they see me? Why can’t I have a friend? Why don’t people like me? The Spider and the Fairy By Ever Huang, 10 Out in the middle of the beautiful garden, overflowing with abundant flowers, irises and buttercups, there was a grand old maple tree. Its leaves were gleaming red, fiery and beautiful like fire. The sunbeams shone brightly on this tree sometimes, and the maple tree seemed to glow. Now, at one of the smallest intervals of two branches, a small spider made its home; its web of so many memories; of all the insects it had proudly caught. This spider had a good living from its nearly invisible web, getting houseflies, mosquitos, and sometimes bees. He had spun his treasured web for
