Sometimes at Stone Soup we receive several submissions that have to do with the same topic. Over the past weeks, we’ve received several related to gun violence, most notably school shootings and police brutality. In light of the shooting in Santa Fe, Texas today, Friday, May 18, 2018, we’ve decided to publish a selection of these sadly relevant pieces online. Drawing by William Drewes, 13 There is a lockdown on October 23, 2015. by Aidan McClure, 7 Lullaby by Rebecca Beaver, 13 Seventeen Graves by Kate Kuan, 11 Plus, a reminder to read our March blog piece, 5 Ways Children Can Make a Difference by Lucy Regnier Kline There is a lockdown on October 23, 2015. by Aidan McClure, 7 It was very scary! We had to hide in the coatroom for an hour and a half. Everybody was freaking out except for me, you know, because I am writing this. The police needed to give us an emergency early dismissal but not the good kind. Some people hid under their desks. We didn’t get to have lunch at school. The people who are working on the track left early. Mrs. Fitzgerald turned on Johnny Appleseed. Someone named Madison is writing about this to remember. I said I wasn’t afraid. Well now I am. Hu hu hu hu. That’s me breathing loud. I do that when I’m scared. I’m pretty sure everybody is terrified, even our fish is terrified. I will never forget this day. They’ll probably make my mom leave early too. I can’t wait until I get home and by the way I am still hu hu hu huing. They are starting to call the buses now thankfully. Some people think that they are going to die. Back to top Lullaby by Rebecca Beaver, 13 This little boy Shot dead- 17 Got into an “altercation” His killer claimed self defense And got away free Florida 2012 That’s where it went down This little boy Hood pulled up Iced tea in hand Skittle in back pocket A figure, observing from inside a van Zimmerman— I’m not even sure he was a man Called the police Said he was afraid Of the little boy Was ordered “Stay put. Keep away.” Wait. Soon the world would know their fate He didn’t Slowly slithered out of his van Stalked the little boy’s way Stared In his eyes So bright, so full of life Suddenly, the “man” Reached for his gun—the bullets… BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. Tore through him Dressed in red— Alone, the little boy died Hood pulled up Bright eyes dull Light; gone No one seems to care He’s gone, his killer free He becomes a symbol Of injustice Gun violence Police brutality But when all is said And all is done He was just a little boy Loved by a mother Who doesn’t want a symbol She wants her son Here, safe, alive She wishes with all her heart She had been able to tell him she loves him Say goodbye And sing her son Her poor, sweet baby A lullaby. Back to top Seventeen Graves by Kate Kuan, 11 A terrible loss on Valentine’s day Students and teachers dead in the fray How did so many lives end this way Because no one saw the signs He aspired to murder and told others so Through an Instagram profile that showed he was a foe But no one noticed and no one would know No one saw the signs Cruz was nineteen, and passed a background check Nobody knew he would take a trek To a school where his expulsion was put into effect Nobody saw the signs Seventeen gravestones ringed with wreaths Because bullets were shot from their metal sheathes Each grave for a person who no longer breathes Because no one saw the signs Back to top
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Be Aware of Global Warming
Land-ocean temperature index, 1880 to present, with base period 1951-1980. Courtesy NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies – http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/ When you hear the word “Monster,” what do you think of? You might imagine a red, slimy creature with razor-like teeth, or an enormous shadowy figure lurking around. But some monsters are not like the ones you would typically think of. Global warming is one such monster that is really threatening life as we know it today. Global warming, also called climate change, is a slow process in which the Earth is slowly getting hotter and hotter as the years go by. According to the article “Global Warming 101,” 15 of the 16 hottest years in the 134-year record kept by NASA have occurred after the year 2000. I never even knew about global warming and what was slowly happening to our planet until my dad suggested for me to research this topic. Global warming is caused by something called the greenhouse effect. In this effect, carbon dioxide and other gases such as water vapor, methane, and nitrous oxide are collected in the atmosphere. These gases are called “greenhouse gases”, and they trap heat in our atmosphere. This effect has always been happening to the Earth to keep it warm. However, it is now getting faster as more greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere. What made me angry was that humans are causing global warming. We burn tremendous amounts of coal, oil, and natural gases every day. We drive millions of cars, trucks, trains, buses, and other vehicles that release carbon dioxide. Trees actually convert carbon dioxide to oxygen, but we cut them down, releasing more carbon dioxide. All these processes (and more) of emitting greenhouse gases add up and warm our climate faster. After finding out how global warming happened, I wanted to know how it affected our planet. Unfortunately, pretty much everything I found out was a consequence for us on Earth. These are only a fraction of the many problems global warming has caused: The drought in California, 2015 “…has been intensified from 15 to 20 percent because of global warming…” There are also stronger hurricanes, heat waves, monsoons, and blizzards. The Ward Hunt Ice Shelf was the largest sheet of ice in the Arctic, but after being around for 3000 years, it started to crack in 2002. It then split in 2002 and started breaking into smaller pieces. Many Arctic animals are now starving because of their unstable, melting habitat. The coral reef—an ecosystem home to all of these species: fish, jellyfish, crabs, octopuses, sea snakes, clams, anemones, turtles, and algae—is very sensitive to higher ocean temperatures. When the ocean temperatures rise because of global warming, the reefs will die and cause other species that rely on them to die as well. I was shocked at how our planet having higher temperatures by only about 1.8°F (1°C) could affect so many things in such a bad way! This made very sad, and to be honest a little scared. I wondered what would happen to Earth many years from now if global warming kept getting stronger and stronger. My findings about the effects of global warming encouraged me to research ways humans can help stop global warming from “devouring” our planet. What I found was that we should strive to use less energy, such as taking shorter showers, using less light and electricity, and riding bikes or walking when we can instead of driving cars. There were also many more things I learned in this article about what we can all do to stop global warming. Remember, if everyone does one small action a day, we can fight the monster known as global warming.
Saturday Newsletter: May 12, 2018
“That’s practice for today, so dry off and go home” Illustrator Alicia Betancourt, 13 for Guts and a Few Strokes by Eve Asher, 10 Published March/April 2002. A note from William Rubel I am going to keep my comments short his week as I don’t want to detract from Editor Emma Wood’s call for reviews of classic books, below. What I’d like to say today is that being a reader and being a writer go hand-in-hand. While it isn’t true that all readers are writers, it is true that all writers are readers. In the last two months, our colleague Sarah Ainsworth has posted approximately thirty book reviews by our young reviewers. This is nearly three times the number of book reviews we used to publish in an entire year! Many thanks to Sarah, and an especial thanks to all of you who are now regularly sending us reviews. We love to be able to publish your thoughts to share with other readers! We also love to see the comments that people are leaving in the book review section. Anna Rowell, reviewer of the graphic novel Young Beowulf: the Bloodbound Oath has received a comment and a thank you from the author himself (thank you, Alexis Farjado!), while one of our teacher readers, Sue Granzella, is taking up our reviewers’ recommendation of Save me a Seat. Well done, reviewers Sarina Banker and Nandini Krishnan! As Emma is talking about classics, I would also like to refer you to the three reviews of classics that have just been posted to the website: The Iliad, reviewed by Che Amaral. A Midsummer Night’s Dream reviewed by Justin Park, and Oliver Twist reviewed by Vivaan Kartik. One of the signs that these are ‘classics’ is that I don’t need to tell you who wrote them. If you haven’t read them yet and want to know more, their reviews are a great place to start. Until next week William A call for reviews of the classics from Editor Emma As you know, the team at Stone Soup has been hard at work bringing our new digital-only book reviews section to life on the website. We hope you will visit it and be inspired to read more books! As we worked on this we realized that there are lots of reviews missing. Many of the classic books that lit up my childhood—and continue to inspire and change kids around the world—simply do not have a Stone Soup review. Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, The Wind in the Willows, Charlotte’s Web, and The Golden Compass—among many, many more—are missing from our archives. We can’t believe it! Do you have a classic that you love? Or one you’ve been meaning to read? Or maybe you just need to fill out your summer reading list! Whatever the case, consider taking a look at our list of classic books in need of reviewing. We would love to hear your thoughtful, intelligent, enthusiastic, or even negative takes on any and all of these books. We would also love to hear from you if you think there are classic books missing from this list and missing from our website, even if you don’t want to review them yourself. We are sure that someone will! A friend of mine who edits book reviews and writes them for a living told me that the best book reviews read like a smart conversation between the writer and their closest friend. I hope you will keep that in mind as you begin working on your reviews. When you’re ready, click the Submit button in this Newsletter or at our website to send them to us. Happy reading and writing! Emma “Hey, you guys, we oughta show Brown what we’re made of!” From Stone Soup March/April 2002 Guts and a Few Strokes Written by Eve Asher, 10 Illustrated by Alicia Betancourt, 13 Stroke. Stroke. Breathe left. Straight legs, follow through with the arms. These are usually my thoughts while swimming the hundred-meter freestyle. For those of you who don’t know, that’s two laps. I can do it in about a minute and twenty seconds, sometimes more, sometimes less. Oh, and my name is Sophia, been swimming for five years in that very pool, been on the team for three years. Had I been going more slowly and looking ahead, I would have noticed that the seemingly endless deep blue of the chlorinated water was lightening into white. I would have noticed that I could no longer see the stems of sunlight poking through the water like sprouts poking through the air. This time, all I noticed was the green line on the bottom of the pool which would mean I would do a flip turn and start on another length if I wasn’t on my last one. I knew what to expect. I felt the warm sunlit wall under my hand. Done! You know, when I’m underwater, I can’t hear or see the rest of the world. I’ve escaped to what I call Blueland. In Blueland, I don’t have a meet in two days, I’m not stressing over fraction homework, I’m not watching whatever I eat because I’m allergic to peanuts, I’m just floating in blue and relaxing. Everything fades away into the blue. But, unfortunately, I’m not in Blueland now and I wasn’t then. Coach Morris called us together. “Did you notice how Sophia’s arms came out of the water straight? That’s following through. Keep that in mind. Remember, not only do swimmers with correct strokes go faster, they also don’t get disqualified. That’s practice for today, so dry off and go home.” Every practice ended with “dry off and go home.” It signaled us to disperse, which we did. Always. “That’s practice for today, so dry off and go home” Later, while gossiping in the locker room, Maggie, whom we trusted to know the most about the pool (no one knew why), gave us startling news. “The pool’s getting a new manager and they might fire Coach Morris,” she said, amazingly calm. Out came a scream from all of us of,
