Have you ever met someone that changed your life by teaching you things that you have never learned before? I have. My friend, Charlie, taught me to explore new things and try things you have never done before. At first, I was reluctant but then began to accept the idea of trying new things and unleashing my inner rebel. It all started when I met Charlie at church. Our parents were good friends, and soon, we had formed a strong bond. Charlie and one of his other friends, Justin, liked to do daring things on the church playground, such as jumping or swinging of the slides, standing on the sides of the railings, etc., and I liked to tag along. But, the first few times, I was reluctant to join them, because I had never done things like what they were doing before, and was worried that something bad would happen. However, after seeing how much fun they were having, I finally decided to try doing what they were. But I clearly was not built for this. While Charlie seemed carefree as he swung on the railings and jumped off from what seemed like really high places to me, I tensed up at even the slightest chance that something bad would happen. In fact, I gripped the railings so tightly and jumped so tensely that by the time my mom picked me up, I had blisters on my hands and my legs were sore! After many, many times on the playground with Charlie and Justin on the playground, I finally had the hang of it…sort of. Even though I only did things that Charlie had already done and said were safe, my grip wasn’t so tight, my legs weren’t so tense, and I definitely worried less. I actually thought it was pretty fun! Soon, we went on a camping trip with Charlie and Justin, and I was looking forward to hanging out with them. I was glad when I saw both of them at the campsite but little did I know, trouble was near and would be when I least expected it. Later that day, Charlie, Justin and I were playing a game in which we had to walk on a narrow strip of asphalt as fast as we could. It sounded fun, so I opted in. However, as I sped along the thin outcropping of concrete, I took a tumble. It didn’t hurt that bad, but when I examined the wound, I nearly fainted. The wound was about an inch by a centimeter, and was around one to two centimeters deep! Now, it might not sound that bad, but know this: it is not your typical skin scrape or type of injury you would expect from falling from a strip of asphalt. In fact, I had to apply bandages, gauze, and ointments daily after being rushed to the ER (Emergency Room). Nevertheless, the second day after I got injured, Charlie and Justin asked me if I wanted to make an exciting hiking trip with them. At first, I was reluctant because of my injury, but after they told me it wasn’t going to hurt, I finally agreed. I guess Charlie was beginning to rub off on me! Turns out, climbing rocks and weaving through trees and bushes with them was actually pretty fun. Charlie and Justin were really encouraging, too! As the days passed, I went on more and more adventures like these with Charlie and Justin, who I now prefer to call “Nitsuj” (Justin backward). The more adventures I had with them, the more I found how fun it is to unleash the inner rebel of your heart and let it lead you to do crazy things. For example, last year, I was pretty scared of rock climbing, but this year, at Harker Summer camp, I gave the climbing wall a try, and it turned out to be pretty exciting. Now, whenever I go on hiking trips, I like to climb the rocks on the hills or by the beach. I was amazed at how much fun I got out of this valuable lesson Charlie taught me!
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Saturday Newsletter: January 25, 2020
“A Sweet World” by Cathu Tu, 12 (Shanghai, China) A note from William I’d like to thank Cathy Tu from Shanghai for this month’s striking cover image. It is a sweet world, but it is also melting! As publishers of creative work by thoughtful young people, I think it appropriate today to talk a little about the Swedish youth Greta Thunberg. I am sure that she has inspired many of you to participate in youth school walkouts. I would like to encourage all of you to listen to a few of her talks. She is in the news this week as she attended a big international gathering in Davos, Switzerland. What I want you all to pay attention to is the unusual clarity with which she expresses herself. The ultimate task of all writers is to say what you mean and mean what you say using words that are aligned with your vision. I think Greta’s statements are worth studying for the way she distills complex ideas to their most basic core concepts and then has the discipline to stop. Unlike someone like me, who always talks too much, Greta never wanders. She is always on point. Your voices in Stone Soup are the voices of artists, poets, storytellers, and playwrights. As with Greta, your voices often speak with a maturity that surprises adults. I would like to call out one poem and the two plays from the January issue. The poem is Huài shì hǎo shì (“Evil Things, Good Things”) by Sabrina Guo, featured in last week’s newsletter. Sabrina is a long-term, repeat contributor to both the magazine and our blogs. This poem about friendship, and much more. Thank you, Sabrina. Plays! Stone Soup has not published many plays, so we are super lucky that Emma Wood was able to select two fabulous ones for this issue. Valentine Wulf’s parody of the often frustrating interactions we have over the phone with increasingly automated phone systems is a classic. The play, an excerpt of which is printed below, includes directions for music, so go to YouTube to find the appropriate soundtracks when Valentine tells you to. Parody is a literary genre that requires exaggeration. Through exaggeration, parody writers arrive at the truth. The dialogue in Valentine’s play is ridiculous, but in its ridiculousness it brings the reader to that same state of utter frustration that occurs on real calls with automated phone systems! Valentine’s play so thoroughly and creatively explores the most frustrating aspects of modern phone systems that it should be required reading for phone-system programmers. Funny, clever, insightful. You are all in for a treat! The other play in the issue is The Illusory Life of Mr. Brite. We included Galen Halasz’s play in our recently published Stone Soup Book of Science Fiction Stories. Order now if you haven’t already. Galen’s play revolves around the idea that computers end up taking advantage of a basic flaw in human behavior: our laziness. “This allowed them to turn people’s laziness against them, trapping them in the exoskeleton and weakening them for life.” Like Valentine, Galen exaggerates to find a truth. In this case, a work of science fiction, Galen extrapolates from behaviors we are all familiar with to ask what would happen if we continue in the direction we seem to be going—relying on computers “for everything.” Having read Galen’s play, the next time you look up from your tablet and realize that most of a day has passed with you watching a parade of self-loading shows, you will not have the excuse that you were not warned where this could lead. For a project this weekend, I suggest working on a short play. It can be helpful to list your characters at the beginning. And if you want people to imagine your character being dressed a certain way, then provide the kind of detail when you introduce them, as Galen does. In plays, you tell the story through dialogue. Playwrights vary in the amount of stage direction they provide, if any. Note in Valentine’s play her instructions for music and in Galen’s play his occasional notations of what gestures or tone of voice he expects of the actors performing his work. We look forward to seeing what you come up with. Until next week, Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! On Tuesday, we published a blog by Vivaan about his travels in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Read more about the city, and where you can find “unforgettable views.” We’d love to see more travelogues like Vivaan’s on our blog. Submit yours through Submittable! Thursday, we published another chapter of Marco’s series on science fiction. Read “Magic Systems” to learn about “hard” and “soft” magic with examples of each, plus the pros and cons and using them in your story. From Stone Soup January 2020 I Would Like to Speak to the Manager By Valentine Wulf, 11 (Seattle, WA) Illustrated by Daania Sharifi, 13 (Gainesville, GA) Overture: “Happy Go Lively” by Laurie Johnson. On the left half of the stage is a pristine white office room. On the right half, we see the burned-down remains of a living room, with only a small side table still standing. On the table sits an old rotary phone. The OPERATOR sits in the office, and the CUSTOMER sits on a burnt stool in the living room. CUSTOMER angrily dials the phone. There is a pause, before the OPERATOR’S phone rings. The OPERATOR picks up the phone with a fake smile. OPERATOR Hello. This is customer service. How may I help you today? CUSTOMER Hello. Yes, I would like to file a complaint. The toaster I ordered exploded and burned down my house. OPERATOR Oh no! That’s terrible. First, you will need to give me the 16-digit personal identification code, your four-digit product verification code on the certificate of authenticity that you received with your product, and the official purchase edition number written on your product. CUSTOMER What? What are those!? OPERATOR You will need to take all of
Dubrovnik Travelogue
Country: Croatia Capital: Zagreb Main Language Spoken: Croatian Currency: Kuna Dubrovnik, aptly termed the ‘the pearl of the Adriatic’ and a UNESCO world heritage site used to be called Ragusa and is a must-see town. It’s a city in Croatia on the Dalmatian coast and was founded in the 7th century. Croatia used to be part of former Yugoslavia and gained independence in 1991. Dubrovnik’s old town is a fortified city with its 10th century wall. The wall is the longest intact city wall in Europe. Old town has 4 gates: Pile, Ploce, Buza and Ponte. We entered from the Pile gate, a wide arch that leads to the Stradun, Dubrovnik old town’s main street. The Pile gate has a drawbridge that used to be closed every night. The walls are 1,940 metres long and you can walk all the way around them but you need to get tickets first. If you don’t want to walk the the whole wall you can get off at the many exits along the way. The Minceta tower is the highest point in Dubrovnik old town and I climbed it. The views were unforgettable with the red roofed old town on one side and the sparkling blue sea down on the other. The walk around the wall has quite a few steps can be quite narrow in places. Most of the time I was bouncing ahead of my parents in my excitement. There were canons on the way overlooking the sea. The experience was amazing. The Stradun, the old town main street, is lined with shops and cafes and is paved with limestone and runs from Pile to Ploce gate. It’s 300 meters long and 30 meters wide. It used to be a marshy channel of water and that’s why it is wider compared to the the other streets in Old Town. The other lanes of the old town have long flights of stairs and are like narrow alleys. You can also see a lot of washing hanging outside the houses. The Old Town has around 800 inhabitants. Something unique about the Stradun is that it has main doors and windows under the same arch. The two 15th century Onoforio Fountains in the Old Town are the only operational drinking fountains left in old town and were built because in the old days they didn’t have much water as the summers were long and dry. The original fountain was decorated majestically but was damaged in the earthquake of 1667. It was replaced with a new one that you see now. The Pile gate is marked with big Onoforio fountain while the Ploce gate is marked with the small Onoforio fountain. The big Onoforio fountain has 16 taps that you can drink from. During the Yugoslavian wars, parts of the old town was destroyed and in the places where the bricks are lighter are where the bombs hit and those were reconstructed. One must also go up mount Srd from where you can see incredibly beautiful views of the city. You can get to Srd are by gondola or by car. Most people go to Dubrovnik to see the Old Town and walk around the walls. UNESCO has threatened to revoke the city’s status as a world heritage site if more than 8000 people enter the old town per day as it is now getting difficult to maintain the site. Isn’t it amazing to learn that the concept of ‘quarantine’ was a Dubrovnik invention. In 1377 Dubrovnik decreed that any foreign merchant, sailor or goods went to an island for 40 days to see if they carried any disease. Only if it was proven that a person was healthy would they be released into the city. Dubrovnik is also interestingly home to one of the world’s first orphanages. I saw many new things in Dubrovnik and the trip was replete with memorable moments. It was fascinating to learn about the city’s history and even better to gaze at its beauty.
