“Give Me Your Hand”Ziqing Peng, 11 (Nanjing, China)Published in Stone Soup September 2019 A note from Jane Levi Last week I arrived in Santa Cruz, CA, the home of Stone Soup. There are lots of reasons to be happy to be here, but one of them is slightly unexpected: I get to live with four baby chicks. They are so cute! Well, that much is pretty obvious, I suppose, but the ways in which they are cute are so interesting. They are big enough now to be living outside in an aviary (not yet with the bigger hens, but with a rabbit and a parakeet), so they have lots of space to move and we can observe their behavior. And it is amazing to see: they do absolutely everything together. If one runs across to the little pond to have a drink, the rest will follow. If one climbs up on a pile of straw to peck at a bug on the fence, they all climb up to have a go. If one stays on the pile in the evening sun to sit down, nesting-like, and look out at the world, guess what happens next? Each one is an individual bird, but they move together as one fluffy group, cheeping the whole time—even when they are eating. How do they do that? Seriously, if you know, please write and tell us! When I re-read Una Dorr’s story from the September issue, this week’s featured story, it made me think about these chicks (and not just because I am currently obsessed with them). The reason the chicks are not yet living with the older, bigger hens is that they are too small to defend themselves. When they do eventually move to the hen coop, they will be junior newcomers joining an existing team that’s already worked out how to live together and who comes where in their pecking order. I guess the move will be their equivalent for us of moving house and going to a new school, or switching from elementary to middle school. Even though they will still have each other, the chicks’ lives and relationships will get a lot more complicated, and they will have to work out who their real friends are or could be—just as Kiera does in “The Hello Kitty Shirt.” I hope for the chicks’ sakes that there will be a claw of friendship stretched out to them, like the kittens’ playful paws captured in Ziqing Peng’s lovely photograph. Have you moved house recently, or switched to a new school? If you have, and you are having a similar experience to Kiera’s (or a completely different one!), why not take some time this weekend to write about it? Or, perhaps you are in the same school as before but you are noticing changes in your groups of friends, or you have seen how people respond in different ways to the new kids that have arrived this semester. You can write about that too, or take a picture that sums up the experience of the new school year and its new people and challenges. We always love to see what you produce, so don’t forget to submit anything you are happy with! Until next time, Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! On Monday, we published Alicia’s blog post “Thoughts on Jewish Refugees in Shanghai.” Did you know that China welcomed Jewish refugees during World War II? Read Alicia’s piece to find out more, and how she thinks it relates to the refugee crisis today. From Stone Soup, September 2019 The Hello Kitty Shirt By Una Dorr, 12 (Brooklyn, NY) Illustrated by Ziqing Peng, 11 (Nanjing, China) From afar, Kiera fit in perfectly at MS 452. Watching her pick at her peanut butter and jelly sandwich while fanning herself with her homework folder on this late September day, an unsuspecting onlooker might give her a glance and deem her an average seventh grader, not particularly interesting and far too obsessed with clothes, hair, and makeup. This onlooker, seeing her talking naturally with the group of girls surrounding her, would suspect that this was simply an ordinary day for Kiera, that she had known these girls for years. In assuming this, the onlooker would be entirely wrong. While it didn’t show, this may have been the most important moment Kiera had experienced in the 11 years that she had been alive. Ever since her family’s SUV had finally pulled up in front of her new house in Brooklyn after the drive from New Jersey early that summer, Kiera had waited for this moment. Finally, after nearly a month of relentless effort, she had been accepted by the popular kids at their lunch table, and therefore into their group of friends. If she were to embarrass herself in front of these people, this new friendship she had formed would crumble in front of her eyes—something that she wouldn’t let happen, no matter what. Every day of being thought of as the quiet one, the friendless one, the lonely one who sat with a book in the corner of the playground during recess, vanished from Kiera’s mind. Now she was speeding down the road to what she had only dreamed of in years before: popularity. …/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
Thoughts on Jewish Refugees in Shanghai
When people think about the Holocaust and Jewish refugees during WWII, they rarely think about Shanghai. For a long time, I didn’t even know Shanghai was open to Jewish refugees at that time. Recently, I watched the documentary Survival in Shanghai. That documentary featured many Holocaust survivors who told of their escape to Shanghai. When I watched it, I couldn’t help but think of the current Syrian refugee crisis, and how my country, the U.S., doesn’t allow many Syrian refugees to cross our borders. Like Shanghai did more than 80 years ago, the U.S. should help those people in need, even if we do have problems of our own. The Holocaust was one of the most horrific and notable genocides in history. It began when Adolf Hitler started to persecute Jews as a scapegoat for Germany’s financial problems. That persecution became widespread in 1933 when he rose to power in Nazi Germany. Jewish homes and businesses were smashed, and synagogues were burned. Many Jewish people were put in concentration camps, and were then killed in numerous ways, including starvation, gas chambers, and overwork. As a result, over 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. As Jews tried to flee from Germany, they had no place to go, for not many countries wanted to rouse Germany. However, He Fengshan, a Chinese diplomat, issued Chinese visas to Jewish immigrants. The exact number of visas he issued is unknown, but he gave out twelve hundred over the first three months of his position, so the number is believed to be in tens of thousands. One must realize during that time, China had its own hardships to deal with. The Japanese, allied with the Germans in WWII, were occupying much of China, including Shanghai. Despite their own mistreatment, the Chinese pushed their misfortunes and grievances away in order to help others. They sacrificed money and time to help refugees settle in to their new homes. The Chinese opened their arms, and gave their kindness and food, even when they barely had enough food for their own families. “What impressed me most was the welcome we received,” said Jared Cohen, one of the Holocaust survivors. “…they accepted us, they were happy with us, and we were respected.” Willa Sassoon, another refugee, recalled her friendly neighbors, who invited her to their home every day to play with their daughter after school. “They more or less adopted me,” she said. Today, Syria is in the middle of a civil war. 13 million Syrians have lost their homes, and need a safe shelter. Since 2015, 18,000 Syrians received US visa. However, in 2017, the US president, Donald Trump, imposed a travel ban on six Muslim countries, including Syria. He said terrorists may be hidden in a crowd of Muslim immigrants. That ban stopped the flow of Muslim immigrants of many ethnicities. America, as a developed country, has more resources than most other countries, and should take the responsibilities to help others in need. Many Americans believe Syrians would commit crime, and would be a bad appendage to our society. However, that is not true. After the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, ordinary people just like you and me, lost their homes overnight. Hardworking adults and innocent kids were placed in refugee camps. Men and women who could bring benefit to our society are refused by the US government a chance to rebuild their lives. A study on Syrian immigrants by the Washington Post shows that Syrian immigrants have been a “highly entrepreneurial group.” 11% of Syrian immigrants in the US are entrepreneurs, compared to 3% of the people born in the US. Also, according to the Center for American Progress, all immigrants in the US for less than ten years have an average annual income of $30,000, while recent Syrian immigrants earn average wages of $43,000 a year. One of the biggest fears Americans have about Syrian immigrants is terrorism. What if a terrorist sneaks into the US by pretending to be an immigrant? According to the Nation Institute and Center for Investigative Reporting, there have been about 90 deaths caused by Islamist terrorists in the US, from 2008-2016. That may be a lot, but in only 2016, there have been 37,461 deaths caused by cars in the US. Does that mean we should be afraid of cars, and ban them? No, we should use precautions to make our roads safer, educate drivers, and enforce driving laws. Similarly, instead of cutting off the flow of immigrants, we should enhance border control, intelligence work, and law enforcement to minimize terrorist attacks. In fact, even with the travel ban, terrorists may still come into our country illegally, so blocking immigrants is not an effective strategy. I live in an active Jewish community called Scarsdale, New York. At school, during the holidays, many people go around saying “Happy Hanukkah” instead of “Merry Christmas.” Many of my friends are Jewish, and they are so nice, dedicated to study, and kindhearted. I hate to imagine what would have happened to them had they been living in Nazi Germany. I would have definitely helped them, even if it meant endangering myself. To put them up for mistreatment and choose not to help would have made me hate myself for the rest of my life. The Jewish during the Holocaust and the Syrians today could be your neighbors, classmates or friends. They are just ordinary people like you and me. In summary, Americans should allow Syrian immigrants into our borders, like the people of Shanghai did for the Jews. We should look past stereotypes and fear of terrorism, and lend helping hands to less fortunate people. If the people of Shanghai were able to support Jewish immigrants on their meager resources, Americans should do so too.
Saturday Newsletter: September 21, 2019
Sunset SilhouettesAnya Geist, 12 (Worcester, MA)Published in Stone Soup September 2019 A note from William Rubel Congratulations to all the winners in our book contest! We are excited this week to announce the winners of Stone Soup’s first annual book contest, and we can’t wait to share their work with you in 2020. First Place Three Days Till EOC by Abhimanyu Sukhdial, 11 (Novel) Second Place (joint) The Golden Elephant by Analise Braddock, 8 (Poetry) Searching for Bow and Arrows by Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, 11 (Poetry) Third Place Elana by Hannah Nami Gajcowski, 9 (Novel) Honorable Mention Leather Journal, Abhainn Bajus, 14 (Poetry) The Hidden Key, Peri Gordon, 9 (Novel) Frozen Nocturne, Sabrina Guo, 13 (Poetry) The Demisers, Zoe Keith, 11 (Novel) Last Birthday Boy, Olivia Ladell, 13 (Novel) Family of Spies, Micah Lim, 10 (Novel) Escape the War, Priyanka Nambiar, 13 (Novel) A Brief Encounter with Chaos, Anyi Sharma, 11 (Stories) Congratulations to our worthy winners, and well done to everyone who entered. We have been amazed and delighted by the quality and quantity of long-form work our contributors are producing and want to make this contest an annual feature. Meanwhile, we are getting to work on the publishing process with our 2019 winners. We will let you all know when you will be able to read them! Last weekend I had a surprise visit from one of our recent contributors! Tristan Hui, who wrote “Coconut Pudding,” this week’s featured story from our September 2019 issue, couldn’t resist taking a look at the Stone Soup offices on a trip to Santa Cruz, California. I think she and her father were probably quite surprised to see just how “virtual” the Stone Soup office really is (and, perhaps, how messy my house is—but that’s another story!). We moved out of our formal office space two years ago, and all of us work on the magazine from home or wherever we happen to be traveling to (which ranges from London to Vancouver to Santa Cruz!). With the magic of technology, we can work anywhere and “meet” by phone and video. But it was really nice to meet one of our recent writers in person. Thanks for dropping by, Tristan! Until next time, Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! On Monday we published Lauren’s moving story “The Cold Winter,” on the blog. Read what happens when a teacher at the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota reaches out to her college alumni group to explain that the power company has turned off the heat in her students’ homes. We published part 2 of Himank’s guide to playing Kabaddi. In this blog post, learn more about the different ways to score, the different roles of players, and the warning card system. Lastly, we shared a poem from 1993 entitled “Amazon” on our Twitter and Facebook this week, unfortunately still timely and worth a read. From Stone Soup, September 2019 Coconut Pudding By Tristan Hui, 12 (Menlo Park, CA) Illustrated by Anya Geist, 12 (Worcester, MA) I used to be Grandma’s favorite. She told me it was because when I was born, she was the first to hold me. “No one can replace you, Thu,” she would say, taking me onto her lap and stroking my dark hair. “No one.” Bao, my older brother, was Grandpa’s favorite. Grandpa’s life had been centered around him, and sometimes it seemed like I was Grandma’s only cháu trai, her only grandson. I loved it. One humid June day, the gentle waves rocked our house as I docked the sampan boat and skipped inside. “I’m home from school!” “Good!” Grandma was sitting in the rocking chair, repairing a fishing net. “Thu, come here.” …/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.
