The amazing book I read this summer was Coraline by Neil Gaiman. I found this book so enjoyable because there are so many surprising twists. This book starts with a curious and adventurous girl named Coraline Jones and her family moving from Pontiac, Michigan to the Pink Palace, an extremely old building in Ashland, Oregon. Coraline keeps whining to her parents that she is so bored until one day, there is a horrible thunderstorm. With her parents busy working on a garden catalog, she finally decides to explore her new house. She keeps exploring until she tries to open the large carved door in the drawing room. The door was locked so she takes the iron key and unlocks the door. She expects a new room but surprisingly, there is just a pile of bricks. That night, she quietly walks to the same door and opens it. However, this time, instead of a pile of bricks, there was an unusual hallway. She keeps walking down and when she opens the door, she sees her mother cooking. Or was it her mother? When her “mom” turned around, Coraline noticed something weird about her. Instead of human eyes, there were black round buttons! There, she met her button eye dad and for the first week, they were very nice to her. However, one night, her mother tried to persuade her into replacing her normal eyes with buttons. Since I do not want to spoil the book, I’ll just say that throughout the story, there are many surprising and chilling twists that will make you jump out of your chair. I think that the book, Coraline, is both dark fantasy and fairy tale. Coraline, in a lot of ways, is a fairy tale. A fairy tale is a story with magical elements and some of its common characteristics include enchanted settings (such as forests, and weird castles/buildings), and clearly defined good and evil characters, a completely understandable problem, climax, and resolution. Coraline has all of those characteristics. Coraline and her family lives in a creepy, old building and a significant part of the book occurs in Coraline’s garden. Also, clearly, the good characters are Coraline, and Coraline’s parents and the evil character is Coraline’s fake mom. Lastly, Coraline’s problem, climax, and resolution is so clear. However, Coraline is not a Disney fairy tale but is more of a Grimm fairy tale. The reason I am saying I think Coraline is both dark fantasy and fairy tale is this reason: As I said, Coraline is similar to the Grimm fairy tales. Grimm fairy tales are very dark, creepy, and has a lot of twists. Coraline has all of those traits. Dark fantasy is mainly explored in Coraline through the setting of both the real world and the other world. Though both settings can be very different at the start, when all the sacred truths are revealed, both settings are very similar. They have very unusual, mysterious, and chilling settings, which are definitely primary elements of dark fantasy. Even until the end, Coraline’s setting remains a supernatural atmosphere. Throughout the book, scary and surprising twisted parts come out, making it more of a dark fantasy. As you can see, this is why I think Coraline is a dark fantasy and a fairy tale. In conclusion, Coraline was a very amusing and super enjoyable novel. Though it scared me so much and sometimes gave me nightmares, this would definitely be a book I would recommend to people. In addition, I would recommend this book to people who are over 10 years old and people who are not scared of horrors. The reason is that this book can really shock someone and terrorize someone’s mental state. If you can not see, read, and imagine scary things, then, please be alerted. However, if you liked Alice in Wonderland, you will enjoy reading this book. Those who plan to read this book, you are in for a scare! Coraline by Neil Gaiman. HarperCollins, 2002. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process! Have you read this book? Or do you plan on reading it? Let us know in the comments below!
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
The Hate U Give, Reviewed by Ben, 13, and Jackson, 13
Editor’s Note: The following review is review is co-written by Ben Frost and Jackson Ohle-Kot. In our opinion The Hate U Give is a great book for young and old readers. It shows the story of Starr Carter, a young high-school student growing up in Garden Heights. She is leaving a spring break party when her unarmed friend (Khalil) is murdered by a white police officer. This begins Starr’s hunt for justice. Jackson likes this book because Starr is split between worlds. She goes to school at Williamson High, which is located in a rich white neighborhood. She doesn’t feel like she can bring her other friends into to her home or the rest of Garden Heights, but most of all she can’t tell her other friends about Khalil. Ben likes this because book because it shows a different perspective on the community within Garden Heights. It shows the kindness, the craziness, and the intricacies of Garden Heights. It shows the life of gang members, family members, business owners, and much more. “This is a very interesting book that I would recommend to anybody.”It poses an interesting challenge for Starr’s uncle who is a police officer. He feels like he should be loyal to the police but does not support their decision to protect the shooter. He also gets in a fist fight with the officer that shot Khalil, and gets put on leave. She ends up being tried as a witness in front of the grand jury, where she testifies for the murder. We feel like it would be a major spoiler if we tell you what happened in the ruling so, we are going to leave that to you. The rest of the story is very interesting and we would not want to ruin it for you. In conclusion, it shows a hostile police department that tries to twist her words when she is being interviewed as a witness. However her family trained her and told her to NOT let them speak for her. We have noticed that most books will show the police as the “good guys” but in this case, the police originally committed the murder, and continue to lie on everything from live TV to evidence, saying that they found a gun and drugs in Khalil’s car. It shows what they will do to save themselves, and we praise this book for that unique perspective. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Balzer + Bray, 2017. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process! Have you read this book? Or do you plan on reading it? Let us know in the comments below!
Saturday Newsletter: April 27, 2019
Illustration by Thea Green, 13, for the story “Penny’s Journey”, Published November/December 2005 A Note from William Rubel I came back from Kenya to my home in Santa Cruz, California, to find that spring had finally arrived. We had had such a wet—and for us, cold—winter! I hope that all of you are enjoying a lovely spring. My garden is lush with foliage and alive with flowers. But it is not a normal city garden. It is a wild garden, a garden of wild plants. I pull out all the grasses, but otherwise I let the wild plants grow—“weeds,” as some call them. Water a weed garden, and nature presents you with a paradise! Wherever you live, even in the most built-up parts of a built-up city, you will find beautiful flowering “weeds.” For this weekend’s photography project, I’d like you to go out to your garden, if you have one, and also to take a walk in your neighborhood. At this time of year you will find flowering weeds wherever there is dirt—including in sidewalk cracks. Use your phone or camera to draw out the beauty in the dandelion and in the other wild plants you find. Perhaps your day looking at urban weeds will convince you to let them into your garden as I have! If you take a photograph that you feel is especially good, please submit it to Stone Soup so Emma can consider it for publication. Thank you! I’d like to say something about the poem “Some Days,” which you will find as the last entry in this newsletter. The poem asks questions about something that is really, really important. It is a poem that explores a question that those of you who have not yet reached university will be able to study when you are there: How is identity constructed? You are a girl. You love pink. Why? Were you born loving pink, or do you love it because ever since your mother’s baby shower—which means before you were even born—everyone around you associated you, a girl, with the love of pink. We can all agree that a dragon is a fiction—a made-up creature. In her poem, Olivia seems to ask whether our identity as boys, girls, men, and women might not also be something of a fiction, like the dragon. Thank you, Olivia, for making us think. Until next week, Focus on poetry for the final days of National Poetry Month! To celebrate National Poetry Month, we are offering a discount on the wonderful Stone Soup Book of Poetry, a collection of 120 poems published in Stone Soup between 1988 and 2011. Pick up print copies at 25% off, and eBook editions at half price in the Stone Soup Online Store through April 2019. And, for more poetry ideas, don’t forget to visit the Academy of American Poets’ website—in particular, check our their “Dear Poet” initiative. Just click on their logo below: Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com. New blogger Oishee Sinharay urges us to take animal abuse seriously: “When people abuse animals, they often forget that animals, no matter what kind, are living, thinking, beings.” Read more here, but be aware it is an upsetting topic. On Thursday, we published a piece by Abigail Herrington that goes over some interesting traditions that people in Poland have to mark springtime. Read Abigail’s post to find out about Śmigus-Dyngus or “Wet Monday,” and the Drowning and Burning of Marzanna. From Stone Soup, March 2019 Some Days By Olivia Cadham, 11 Some days I am a girl. On these days I like to giggle and play with toys. I wear bright blue clothes and shirts with cats on them. When I feel like a girl, my feelings change. I feel kind and happy. I like being a girl. But . . . There is a downside. My heart is bigger than on other days. It becomes too big for my body. This causes my feelings to mix together, and that results in emotional drama. This doesn’t make me want to be a girl. So . . . Some days I am a boy. On these days I like to be silly and play rough. I wear darker clothes, like blue, black, or red. When I’m a boy, I feel like my body fits me better. Sometimes it’s as if God intended me to physically be a boy, but changed his mind at the last second. I like being a boy. But . . . Sometimes I feel like I’m too awkward to be a boy. I’m not a very sporty person, and I don’t like jokes. This causes me to appear abnormal and too “sensitive.” This doesn’t make me want to be a boy. So . . . Some days I am a dragon. On these days I like to stomp through the hallways and growl under my breath. I wear light clothing on these days so, being a Dutch Angel Dragon, my fur doesn’t overheat. When I’m a dragon, I like to use pronouns like it, they, them, and their. But . . . Dragging around invisible wings, horns, and a tail all day gets exhausting really fast. I get agitated, and sometimes chirp swears (or something rude) in my language. Even though no one can understand, it is not a good feeling to be cursing, even if it’s an accident. This doesn’t make me want to be a dragon. So . . . It’s really quite simple. I make another choice . . . to be Olivia, who is currently a dragon (roar!!!). Read more reflective poetry on our website, Stonesoup.com. 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
