Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists

Saturday Newsletter: May 26, 2018

Slowly, the Faeries appeared and sat on the daisies in the circle like chairs Illustrator Susannah Benjamin, 13 for The Faerie Circle by Alana Yang, 12 Published March/April 2007 A note from William Rubel The first Stone Soup Science Issue is in the works. The deadline for submissions for this issue, which will include fiction, art and nonfiction writing, is July 1, so this a good beginning-of-Summer project. The nonfiction element is a more unusual one for Stone Soup, and Editor Emma has asked me to explain in this Newsletter what the two kinds of science nonfiction writing we are looking for are, so you can start to think about your submissions. A few weeks ago, I was given a tour of a United States Department of Agriculture laboratory by a scientist who worked there. He was so excited about his work! He was so excited about what he was studying! He was so engaged in his stories about the science he was doing, and his work was so creative, that I became jealous! I thought, wow!, what a great thing it is to be a scientist! We are looking for writing from young scientists that communicates that kind of enthusiasm to us, your readers. One kind of science writing we are looking for is writing that describes science projects or experiments. A science project might include an insect or rock collection, or the careful observation of the behaviors of a pair of pet parakeets. A science experiment is something you have done as a working experimental scientist in which you test a hypothesis through experimentation. For those of you who have participated in a school science fair you may already have science projects that you could write up for Stone Soup. Whether you are an observational scientist or an experimental scientist, in the end you have to tell people what you’ve done. What have you observed? What do the observations mean? Or, what was your experiment? And what did it explain? All science ends in story. What Stone Soup is looking for are stories written when you are working with your “science” hat on, that will engage other Stone Soup readers. The second kind of nonfiction science writing we are looking for is writing on scientific issues, like global warming, or plate tectonics, or snow leopards. Can you write about these subjects in a way that makes the subject accessible and interesting and engaging for non-scientists? There are lots of examples of writers who can. Reporters for the science sections of newspapers, like the New York Times, are science writers who can engage non-experts. A marine biologist and conservationist called Rachel Carson wrote a book called Silent Spring in 1962 that had a lasting impact on the environmental movement all over the world. She told her science story in a way that captured imaginations. That is what we are looking for for Stone Soup. The Stone Soup Science Issue also includes fiction, poetry, photography, and art inspired by science. You might research an animal and become very knowledgeable about how that animal lives, about its behaviors, and about the way it moves. And with that knowledge you might make a model or a painting, or write a story with that animal as a character. You might write a piece of prose or a poem that is inspired by close observation of nature. This could include a natural place that you love. One of the most extraordinary works of art I have ever seen, a painting I think about a lot, is a small watercolor by Albrecht Dürer called The Great Piece of Turf, of a patch of grass with wild flowers. It is painted with the eye of a scientist, and with the feelings and heart of an artist. We are looking forward to seeing what happens when you try to combine those things, too! Getting ready for our June issue Don’t do it! Do not read your Stone Soup issues on your tablet in the bath! This is asking for trouble. My excuse is that I had started the bath water running just as I started reading the printer’s proof of the June 2018 issue, and I just didn’t want to stop reading. I’d like to remind all of you who want to read offline, wherever you like, that the PDFs of each month’s issue are available to subscribers for download on the first of the month. A few of you have asked about the Kindle format. We are working on it, and ought to be able to offer Kindle editions soon. We are also back in print. All of the 2018 issues up to May are in our online store now for sale as single issues; the June issue has been printed, is on its way to our mailing house as I write, and will be ready to be sent out on June 1st. And finally, for our adult readers: please take a look at the section below on our privacy policy, which we have updated to ensure we are in compliance with new European legislation, and a reminder of your control over what email we send you.Enjoy the rest of May, and don’t forget to make the most of the fabulous May issue on our homepage now, while you wait for June to come at the end of next week. Until then, Emails, Privacy and GDPR As you may know, on May 25th 2018 the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy laws came into effect.< You currently receive this email newsletter, which contains the latest news about Stone Soup online, our print offerings including books, and offers, reminders about submissions and contests. You also receive emails notifying you when the new monthly issue of the magazine is published online. If you wish to opt-out and stop receiving our emails, you may do so at any time by unsubscribing from this list. The link allowing you to do so is at the bottom of every email from us, including this one. As a non-profit devoted to children’s creativity our work focuses on championing a broad range of creative outlets for our young readers, contributors and artists through our publishing programme, events, newsletters and publications. Our ability to ensure a vibrant future depends on us being

The One and Only Ivan, Reviewed by Phoebe Eckstein, 13

This story is about promises kept, selflessness, and friendship. It’s about Ivan keeping his promise to his friend, Stella, and trying to get Ruby to a better place. Ivan is a silverback gorilla. For twenty-seven years, Ivan has lived in the mall. Every day, Ivan is in his domain watching the people outside as they go about their lives. Ivan hardly ever thinks about his old life when he was living in the jungle. Instead, he watches television, draws, and paints. Ivan’s life is not sad. Sometimes he’s happy, especially when he’s painting. But Ivan doesn’t seem to realize what he doesn’t have. He doesn’t realize that his cage is small and he insists on calling it a domain and not a cage. There’s a part where Ivan says “I know what most humans think. They think gorillas don’t have imaginations. They think we don’t remember our pasts or ponder our futures. Come to think of it, I suppose they have a point. Mostly I think about what is, not what could be.” This suggests that Ivan might not have any hope. I think it’s more that Ivan doesn’t hope for anything because he doesn’t know what to hope for. So when Stella tells him about a zoo, a place where she says humans try to make amends to the animals, he begins to have something to hope for. Ivan’s best friends are Stella and Bob. Stella is an older, wise elephant who remembers much of her old life in the jungle, and knows many stories. Stella and Ivan have a very strong friendship that compels Ivan to make a special promise to her. His other friend, Bob, is a crafty stray dog who stays at the mall, but doesn’t want an actual home. Bob’s would rather find his own food than be fed by someone else. At one point in the story, when he is asked why he doesn’t want a home, he answers, “Everywhere is my home, I am a wild beast, my friend: untamed and undaunted.” The other main character is Ruby. Ruby comes into the story when business at the mall slows down, and fewer people come to see the animals. Mack decides to get a small baby elephant (Ruby) for the circus. Ruby is young and naïve and asks lots of questions. When Ivan sees her in her small cage, and when he sees how Mack makes her practice her circus routine even when she’s very tired, Ivan decides he must make some changes. The story is narrated by Ivan. But as Ivan says, gorillas don’t waste words. I think the author did a great job incorporating that concept – short sentences and descriptions without wasting words – into the way the book was written, but without making the story too simple. This is a wonderful story for anyone ages 8-13. The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. Harper Collins, 2012. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process! Have you read this book? Or do you plan on reading it? If so, comment below!

Gun Control: Why We Need It

Gun control is one of the most hotly debated topics today. There are several reasons why it is needed today. According to the Department of Justice, between 1994 and 2014 background checks have blocked 3 million gun sales to prohibited people. Imagine how much death rates would plummet if we locked down on gun control, and think of all the lives that could be saved by this simple institution.I am fighting for revision of the Second Amendment for several reasons, some of which are accidents, death and violence, and crime rates. Guns cause numerous accidents each year, and anyone can be a victim. According to the Injury Prevention and Control, between 1999 and 2013, 9,983 unintentional deaths have occurred because of gun accidents. This demonstrates that each year a great number of people die as a result of a this. In addition, The US General Accounting Office stated that by enacting gun control laws such as mandatory safety features would reduce the number of accidental deaths, and estimated that 100% of deaths per year in which a child under 6 years old shoots and kills him/herself or another child could be prevented by automatic child-proof safety locks. This shows that by taking simple safety precautions, the number of deaths can be decreased by a great number! Deaths and violence is a growing problem in our country. The FBI discovered that in 2013, 1,962 people died from a gun in arguments over matters such as money. This illustrates that presence of a gun makes a conflict more likely to become violent and that by locking down on gun control, fewer deaths will occur every year. CDC Data and Statistics proved that gun control will lead to fewer suicides because between 1999 and 2013 there were 270,237 firearm suicides in the United States. A 2014 study published by the International Review of Law and Economics, when the numbers of gun ownership went down in the United States, the overall suicide rates went down as well. This is just one of the many reasons why most guns should be prohibited. More evidence from Michael Planty and Jennifer Truman from Bureau of Justice Statistics illustrates guns are rarely used in self-defense. The facts are: of the 29,618,300 violent crimes committed between 2007 and 2011, 0.79% of victims protected themselves with the use of a firearm. If you are really trying to protect yourself and your family, in the event of an emergency when you need the use of a firearm, you would have to have multiple firearms in the house to reach one when you need it. Furthermore, you would need to have the firearm in a place that is not hard reach. This means that you are more likely to have accidental deaths to really have the use of a firearm for self-defense. Crime rates are becoming an increasing problem. According to research done by ProCon, the presence of more guns can actually serve as a stimulus to burglary and theft. By omitting the presence of guns, crime rates will go down which is beneficial to the safety our county. We need gun control for several other reasons, as demonstrated by the American Journal of Public Health, the presence of a gun in a domestic violence increases the risk of a woman being killed five times. Imagine if gun control was put into action, and think of all the lives that would be saved. The National Crime Victimization Survey found that 467,321 persons were victims of a crime committed with a firearm in 2011. As well, seven children and teens are killed a day by a gun in the United States. One child is worth all the guns in the world. We clearly need gun control for reasons such as accidents, death and violence, and crime rates. We did not fight for a free country just to be victims of gun violence. “The life of a single human being is worth a million times more than all the property of the richest man on Earth.” – Che Guevara Note: We also published a Special Feature on the blog of other submissions related to Gun Violence. Check them out here.