The Tower of Toronto by Justine Chu, 12 (Fremont, CA) Published in the February 2020 issue of Stone Soup A note from Emma This week, I am writing to announce the winners of our Personal Narrative Contest with the Society of Young Inklings (SYI). Naomi and I were both so honored to read these submissions as well as grateful for the big and small ways these writers let us into their minds and hearts. Writing nonfiction seems easy—you don’t have to make anything up!—but it is not. Personal narratives require honesty, deep thought and reflection, the ability to see patterns and narratives in past events, as well as the capacity to accept that sometimes there are no patterns or narratives—just the events themselves. Like all writing, they also require an eye for detail, an ear for language, and an aptitude for play. In her winning narrative, Kateri Escober Doran vividly recounts a sharp memory from a day in kindergarten, seamlessly blending evocative storytelling with thoughtful reflection. In second place, with “Swirling Arabesques,” Zoe Kyriakakis meditates on a single phrase while on the bus home from school—showing us how even the smallest moments can become meaningful and beautiful in the writer’s hands. Finally, in third place, with her narrative “Gratitude,” Alicia Xin gives a moving account of the summer she spent in a historically poor county in rural China. First Place “Locked out of Kindergarten” by Kateri Escober Doran, 12 Second Place “Swirling Arabesques” by Zoe Kyriakakis, 10 Third Place “Gratitude” by Alicia Xin, 13 Honorable Mention “Cody’s Last Day” by Elena Baltz, 10 “A Story” by Asher Jenvey, 10 “Life in the Jungle” by Arielle Kouyoumdjian, 13 “Writer” by Vandana Ravi, 13 “Believing” by Lily Shi, 11 “Kingdom in the River” by Lydia Taylor, 13 “Gentle Hands” by Michelle Wang, 12 We are excited to share these pieces with you in a future issue. We say this every time, but every time it is truer and truer: it was so difficult to select winners and finalists for this contest. A sincere thank you to everyone who trusted us with their work.We are thrilled to be reading personal narrative submissions year-round. Please scroll down to read Ugochinyere Agbaeze’s narrative, published in the February 2020 issue, below for writing inspiration this weekend. When you’re ready, submit your personal narrative here. Until next week, Contest update & a note to artists We are already starting to plan for our next book contest—it will launch this summer! Stay tuned. And also: calling all artists! Our art submissions are always open, and it’s free to submit. We currently have a backlog of animal images and are actively looking for images of landscapes, people, and objects as well as images that have a more abstract character like this, this, or this. The more abstract an image is, the easier it is to pair with a poem or a story since it often is capturing an idea or a mood rather than a specific scene. Submit your art here. Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Have you ever had a friend who challenged you to try new things? In his blog post “Charlie,” Daniel tells us about his friend who has inspired him to “unleash his inner rebel.” Though he’s gotten some scratches along the way, Daniel has found himself enjoying adventures with Charlie that he wouldn’t have tried otherwise. How much do you know about the Rosetta Stone, the Sutton Hoo Helmet, and the Elgin Marbles? New blogger Mohan traces the history of these three cultural artifacts in “What Can We Learn About History from Objects?” From Stone Soup February 2020 Alone By Ugochinyere Agbaeze, 11 (New York, NY) Illustrated by Justine Chu, 12 (Fremont, CA) Boom! Crackle! It was dark and rainy, and as the clouds cried, lightning flashed through the sky like a gun being fired. The sky darkened. But in our school bus, there were always rays of sunshine. Our school bus wasn’t really a school bus, but more like a van. That didn’t really bother me and my friends, because we were always busy doing things to pass time. We did things together, like homework, or played truth or dare, or even watched movies on my friend’s phone. But like always, people would start to get dropped off and disappear like cookies from the cookie jar until it was just me and my friend Gabby. “Don’t you ever get lonely when it’s only you on the van?” Gabby asked. “Sometimes, but not really,” I said. But inside I knew that I was always lonely when it was just me. She looked at me with her eyebrows up in her questioning way, like she was searching for what I was really feeling. “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked me again. “Yes, I’m okay. Really, I am,” I said reassuringly. We stopped in front of her house, and as she was about to leave she said, “Well, I’ll see you Monday. Bye!” “Bye,” I said as she shut the door. As we were leaving, I looked through the window and saw her bright polka-dot umbrella open up and bloom like a flower as she walked toward her building. …/MORE Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered in the United States of America, EIN: 23-7317498. Stone Soup’s Advisors: Abby Austin, Mike Axelrod, Annabelle Baird, Jem Burch, Evelyn Chen, Juliet Fraser, Zoe Hall, Montanna Harling, Alicia & Joe Havilland, Lara Katz, Rebecca Kilroy, Christine Leishman, Julie Minnis, Jessica Opolko, Tara Prakash, Denise Prata, Logan Roberts, Emily Tarco, Rebecca Ramos Velasquez, Susan Wilky.
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Congratulations to our Personal Narrative Contest Winners!
First Place “Locked out of Kindergarten” by Kateri Escober Doran, 12 Second Place “Swirling Arabesques” by Zoe Kyriakakis, 10 Third Place “Gratitude” by Alicia Xin, 13 Honorable Mention “Cody’s Last Day” by Elena Baltz, 10 “A Story” by Asher Jenvey, 10 “Life in the Jungle” by Arielle Kouyoumdjian, 13 “Writer” by Vandana Ravi, 13 “Believing” by Lily Shi, 11 “Kingdom in the River” by Lydia Taylor, 13 “Gentle Hands” by Michelle Wang, 12 We are delighted to announce the winners of our Personal Narrative Contest with the Society of Young Inklings (SYI). Naomi Kinsman, Founder and Executive Director of SYI and Emma Wood, Stone Soup’s Editor, were both so honored to read these submissions as well as grateful for the big and small ways these writers let us into their minds and hearts. Writing nonfiction seems easy—you don’t have to make anything up!—but it is not. Personal narratives require honesty, deep thought and reflection, the ability to see patterns and narratives in past events, as well as the capacity to accept that sometimes there are no patterns or narratives—just the events themselves. Like all writing, they also require an eye for detail, an ear for language, and an aptitude for play. In her winning narrative, Kateri Escober Doran vividly recounts a sharp memory from a day in kindergarten, seamlessly blending evocative storytelling with thoughtful reflection. In second place, with “Swirling Arabesques,” Zoe Kyriakakis meditates on a single phrase while on the bus home from school—showing us how even the smallest moments can become meaningful and beautiful in the writer’s hands. Finally, in third place, with her narrative “Gratitude,” Alicia Xin gives a moving account of the summer she spent in a historically poor county in rural China. We are excited to share these pieces with you in future issues of Stone Soup Magazine (and will add links to this page as they are published). We say this every time, but every time it is truer and truer: it was so difficult to select winners and finalists for this contest. A sincere thank you to everyone who trusted us with their work. Remember, we are thrilled to be reading personal narrative submissions year-round, not only during the contest. When you’re ready, submit your personal narrative here.
What Can We Learn About History from Objects? By Mohan Li, 13
They say that history is made by people. That the future, ever fluid and shifting, is conceived of by brilliant minds, won with hard, callused hands and molded through gruel and labor. That the struggle and toil of our generation will be forever etched into history. But we are mere humans. Mortals of flesh and bone. In the grand scheme of things, our people, and the little societies we prop up are but specks upon the incomprehensible immensity of time. Like all others, the unyielding river of time will eventually claim us. And when we are devoured by time, what will remain of the great minds that dreamed this world? What of the hard, callused hands that won this world, of the struggle and toil through which this world was born? When flesh crumbles and empires fall, all that will remain are objects. It is depressing to imagine an artifact as the culmination of one’s life. To think of a lifetime of toil entombed within a rusted sword. But objects are sly, keeping many a secret wrapped deep within a rusted embrace. Buried deep beneath the grime, sheathed in rust is the sparkling splendor of enlightenment. For simple objects have shaped our past and continue to shape our future. This essay will be analyzing three of the most important objects from our history. These will be the Rosetta Stone, the Sutton Hoo Helmet and the Elgin Marbles. This essay will look at the history of these objects and the significance of these objects towards our understanding of the past. Additionally, the essay will be analyzing these objects as cultural artifacts before finishing with a conclusion. The first object this essay will be looking at is the Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stone stele from Ancient Egypt, upon which a decree is inscribed. The decree was from the reign of King Ptolemy V, issued by a council of priests to reaffirm their support of the King. It also talks of King Ptolemy’s contributions towards the temples of the priests. From the Rosetta Stone, we can see that religion continued to play an important part in the administration of Egypt. The King’s contributions towards the temple of the priests shows how far the King would go to keep the favor of the priests, and the power of religion in the courts of Ancient Egypt. The decree itself was translated into Hieroglyphs, Demotic and Ancient Greek. The Hieroglyphs was a system of pictorial writing, an enigmatic way of writing few Egyptians understood. In Ancient Egypt, Hieroglyphs were commonly associated with religion and were mainly used by priests. Demotic was another Egyptian system of writing, an early descendent of Coptic, the official Egyptian language today. Demotic was far clearer to write and learn, compared to the symbols and pictures of the Hieroglyphs. Demotic was mainly used among the general populace, giving it the name Demotic, “The Language of the People.” Ancient Greek was a language developed from the Greek City States. However, Alexander the Great’s conquests sowed the seeds of Greek culture far and wide. After Alexander’s death, his Empire was carved apart by his generals. One of these generals was Ptolemy Soter, known to us as Ptolemy I. He seized control of Egypt and brought with him Greek traditions and customs. One of these customs would have been language. Under his descendants, Ancient Greek became the language of royalty. As a result of this, Ancient Greek became the language of royalty in Ancient Egypt. With the rise of Christianity, and the closing of many Pagan temples, knowledge of the already obscure Hieroglyphs was lost. Along with this, large portions of Ancient Egyptian History and the Religion had been recorded in Hieroglyphs. For centuries, scholars had been attempting to decipher the Hieroglyphics, to no avail. However, Ancient Greek remained an important part of history, establishing itself as a cornerstone of Western culture. Ancient Greek was the language of knowledge, the language of Homer, Aristotle, Pythagoras and countless others. Thus, the language was preserved in the form of philosophy, history and entertainment. For more than a millennium, Hieroglyphics had been a lost language. So when the Rosetta Stone was first chanced upon by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799, during his expedition into Egypt, scholars recognized the importance of this artifact. Finally, they had a bridge to the translation of the cryptic Hieroglyphics through the already known language of Ancient Greece. However, these efforts were interrupted by Napoleon’s defeat, where the Rosetta Stone, along with many other artifacts were ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Alexandria. After the Rosetta Stone arrived in England, efforts to decipher the Hieroglyphics commenced. However, it was only until 1822, when the French scholar Jean-François Champollion realized Hieroglyphs represented sounds. This discovery was only solidified when he pieced together the name of foreign rulers using Hieroglyphics. Along with his knowledge of the Coptic language, which is closely related to the Demotic text found upon the Rosetta Stone, he was able to decipher the enigma of Hieroglyphs that had eluded scholars for centuries. Through the Rosetta Stone and our newly acquired understanding of Hieroglyphics, we were able to decipher centuries of lost Egyptian history and religion. I chose the Rosetta Stone because of the significance it has had to Egyptology, the key to centuries of history and religion long forgotten. Additionally, the Rosetta Stone increased our understanding of Demotic. This allowed us to look into the daily lives of Ancient Egypt’s general populace, cementing our understanding and providing new angles towards Ancient Egypt’s culture, history and religion. The Rosetta Stone is the basis of the complete picture of Ancient Egypt we are presented with today, rather than the fragments of one history’s most magnificent civilizations. The second artifact is the Sutton Hoo helmet. The Sutton Hoo helmet was a lavish helmet from the Anglo-Saxon times. It depicts eyebrows, a nose and a mustache. The helmet itself would have been made from iron, coated in a sheets of bronze
