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.
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
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!
Saturday Newsletter: September 29, 2018
“Tiny only barks at you if he doesn’t know you” Illustrator Chelsey Scheffe, 13 for The Shooting Star by Samantha Cecil, 10. Published September/October 2004. A note from William Rubel Print is back! Yes, home delivery is back. We started printing Stone Soup again last January and are now pleased to be able to tell you that we are restarting subscription-based delivery of beautifully printed Stone Soup issues to your mailbox!* What is different between now and before? One difference is that we now publish eleven times per year. As a print subscriber you will receive a copy of Stone Soup in your mailbox every month between September and June. In July, you will receive the summer double issue. What else is different? For those of you who haven’t looked at the PDFs or purchased a print copy, you’ll find that the new Stone Soup is more colorful than before and has a dynamic, updated design. And the content is more varied—we accept a wider range of media in our art submissions (photography included), and we publish more standalone art. There are special thematic issues, such as poetry, food, science writing, historical fiction, and more. The issues also vary in length a little—some of our special issues, such as science writing or food, are a few pages longer than the others. For the new Stone Soup we turned to the highly respected London-based designer Joe Ewart. Joe is known in London museum and art circles as the go-to designer for catalogues and monographs (art books devoted to a single artist). We asked him to give us a look that will graphically put our young contributors’ writing and art on a par with the literary and artistic work of adults—that is what Stone Soup is all about, after all—and he did! Sneak preview! Look at these gorgeous covers and inside pages from issues between January and September. What is the difference between a print subscription and a digital subscription? We publish the best writing (fiction, poetry, and some short nonfiction) and art that is sent to us, around thirty pages per issue. If you buy a print-only subscription, you will receive the physical magazine in your mailbox. In addition, we now publish book reviews every week on our website, and every week we also publish blog posts by Stone Soup writers on the wide range of topics that our contributors and subscribers care about—from sewing to sport, family life to environmental issues. So, when you subscribe to the digital Stone Soup you get the current issues of the magazine in digital form, plus about 20 years’ worth of back issues, plus the book reviews and blog posts already mentioned. You also receive access to activities linked to the writing and art stored online, as well as music, interviews with authors, and more. Our new order page has all the details, with packages that allow you to choose print, digital, or a bundle with both. Stone Soup is the perfect gift for any creative child between the ages of 7 and 13. Please join us for another year of new issues, and help us spread the word that not only are we are still here after 45 years, we are back in print! Until next week *Subscriptions including home delivery of print issues are currently only available in the U.S. and Canada. Individual print issues can be delivered from the Stone Soup online store to other regions of the world. This week’s story and art from the archives Thirteen-year-old Chelsey Scheffe’s bold, colorful illustrations complement 10-year-old Samantha Cecil’s powerful story about the challenges and tribulations of school popularity in “The Shooting Star.” Read on to discover if the school nerd Darren’s wish upon a star, to become popular at school, comes true—and how matters unfold… We hope you enjoy the art and writing we bring to you from our archives every Saturday! You can peruse the illustrations and read the first few paragraphs in the newsletter, and then click through to our site using the ‘more’ link at the bottom of the story section to read the rest. Remember, subscribers have full, unlimited access to the whole archive on the Stone Soup website. Non subscribers can read a limited number of stories, poems and posts. Don’t miss the latest content from our book reviewers and young bloggers at Stonesoup.com! This week, the Stone Soup editors have been busy adding material that might be interesting or inspirational for those of you thinking of entering the Secret Kids Contest that we announced a few weeks ago. The top prize for the contest is a book deal with a publisher, which we think is a great incentive to start polishing up your best long-form work. Be ready to submit before January 1, 2019! The contest is accepting work from kids as young as 5, and up to age 18, in four age groups (meaning there are four prizes to be awarded). This week, we have been looking into juvenilia produced by writers from the past who later became famous adult writers—writers like Jane Austen, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and the Brontës. We have also put up the text of Daisy Ashford’s The Young Visiters, a classic work of child fiction initially published in the early decades of the twentieth century. Enjoy, be inspired, and don’t miss this opportunity to reach an even wider audience with your own long-form fiction. He closed his eyes and whispered, “I wish I was popular at school” From Stone Soup September/October 2004 The Shooting Star By Samantha Cecil, 10 Illustrated by Chelsey Scheffe, 13 Darren Milar sighed as he walked into the schoolyard. All around him kids were laughing, running, and playing. The sound of tetherball chains as they clinked against their metal poles rang out as Darren passed. When kids started school again, they were sometimes nervous, excited, or a little sad. But that was nothing compared to what Darren felt. Ever since kindergarten, Darren had been the outcast. The nerd, if you had to put it that way. Other kids had had loads of friends, and turned against him. Darren had only one friend, Ian, and Ian was just
