First Place ($50) “Steam” by Sabrina Guo, 12 Second Place ($25) “Moonlight” by Ashley Xu, 13 Third Place ($10) “Octopus” by Marco Lu, 12 Honorable Mentions “Snowflake” by Emma Almaguer, 13 “A Tree” by Andrew Lin, 8 “The Cloud” and “Disappearing” by Madeline Nelson, 12 “Seeing the Sea,” Maya Viswanathan, 12 Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to everyone who participated; we all had fun reading and simply looking at your creations. The pieces that ended up standing out to us were the ones that not only showed us the writer had a clear understanding of the concrete poem but that used the shape of the poem to emphasize and illustrate the text. For instance, in “Steam” by Sabrina Guo, a poem in the shape of a steaming cup of tea, the word “interrupting” is itself interrupted by the handle of the mug: “interrup” is on one side of the handle, and “ting” is on the other. In that poem, Guo writes of “slow curling spirals” of steam, just as the text itself spirals around, forcing the reader to turn the page, creating a dizzying effect. What I love about the concrete poem is that it brings the relationship between the form (or shape) of the poem and its content (or text) to the forefront. Sometimes when we are writing, we simply default to the “usual” form without thinking about it. But in the best pieces of writing, the form is something that emerges from the ideas and narratives represented in the text. You can usually tell if this is the case by trying to rewrite the poem or story in a different form. If your poem feels the same in prose as it does in stanzas with lines, then it probably doesn’t need to be in stanzas! I hope you will try this with a piece of writing you are struggling with, and see if it opens up more ideas. We will publish the winning submissions in Stone Soup in 2019.
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Writing Activity: working with dialogue
The most remarkable part of Lena’s story as a demonstration of the power of dialogue is the last quarter, where four characters respond to a traumatic event. This section, beginning with the “No!” spoken by the narrator and continuing to the end, depends heavily on dialogue. It could almost be a play. Notice that, although the lines spoken by Sandy, Carrie, Mom, the narrator, and Mrs. Hall are often very short, we get a clear sense of how each character differs from the others and how they relate to each other as family, friends, and neighbors. This is accomplished through the narrative that accompanies the dialogue.
Dodger Boy by Sarah Ellis, Reviewed by Nina Vigil, 11
Before I read this book, I had never read a book that was set in Canada…in the 1970s…that was not even published yet. This book was the first. The book in question? Dodger Boy by Sarah Ellis, and it was a serious page-turner. I read it twice! We think of the 1970s as a time of worldwide cultural change, but this book also illustrated how meeting just one new person can cause your life to take a different course. The main characters are Charlotte and Dawn, best friends who have a pact; to be Unteens. This means that they try not to act like every other teenager; obsessed with boyfriends, gossipy, moody, dramatic. They just want to enjoy life and have fun together until they’re adults. Then one day, Charlotte and Dawn see a poster for a “human be-in”, a gathering of people to hang out, enjoy themselves, and listen to speakers and live music. Out of curiosity as to what happens there, they decide to go. While undercover as hippies at the be-in, Charlotte and Dawn meet a draft dodger from Texas named Tom Ed. Tom Ed goes to stay at Charlotte’s house, and suddenly her life starts to get even messier. Not only is there a huge censorship drama involving Catcher in the Rye going on at school and the possibility of her favorite English teacher being fired, but now Dawn is acting alarmingly un-Unteen and not like herself. And on top of all that, a love triangle-or rather, a confusing love square-begins to form. How is Charlotte supposed to handle it all? The importance of integrity and sticking to your ideals is a strong theme throughout the book. While Dawn gives up on being Unteen in order to fit in, Charlotte stays true to herself and what she believes in, even though that leads to fights and disputes between the two. Tom Ed stays true to himself too, escaping the draft by running away to Canada in refusal to fight for a war he doesn’t believe in. One of the ideas the book explores is if it is ever okay to break rules – even laws – to keep from having to do something that seems wrong. As Tom Ed says “There’s no real good choice here. Only bad and worse. I chose bad.” The discussions between Charlotte and Tom Ed made me curious about a lot of things. Thanks to this book, I’m probably going to be doing a lot of researching about the Vietnam War. One thing I really liked about the book was that it talked about the ‘70s, draft dodging and the Vietnam War from a Canadian point of view. A lot of the time when we as Americans think about the Vietnam War, we think of it from an American standpoint. But since Canada was the main destination for draft evaders, it played a fundamental role in that part of history. I thought it was really interesting to learn about that from a different point of view. I absolutely loved Dodger Boy. It made me laugh in places, gave me some new ideas about a lot of things, and taught me quite a bit. It made me think about how much the world has changed (in many ways for the better!) in a relatively short amount of time. Whoever you are-kid, adult, teen, Unteen-you are sure to adore this book. Dodger Boy by Sarah Ellis. Groundwood Books, 2018. 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!
