Ross Maloy couldn’t have been put against a harder challenge. With middle school being extremely tough to conquer as it is, a rare eye cancer just sharpens the sword. He must remain resilient to defeat the deadly disease. It wouldn’t be a piece of cake, but rather, a tough cookie. Wink by Rob Harrell is an inspiring novel that shows how the light in the darkness may be brighter than one would think. With no great aspirations, Ross intended to sneak his way past seventh grade slowly. Ross had lost his mom years back to cancer, but he was able to get through that hurdle with his dad and step-mom. To keep a memory of his late mother, Ross, an exceptional artist, uses one of his mom’s old sketchbooks to express himself. With his “non-noteworthy” B grade average and a small friend group, everything was in place until cancer knocked its giant fist on the door. After being diagnosed with one of the rarest eye cancers, Ross had many more problems to face: from wearing funny hats and dealing with disgusting eye goo to the possibility of losing his sight forever or worse. Due to his unfortunate circumstance and “winking” eye, rather than helping him beat the disease, other kids at his school bully him. Yet, every cloud has a silver lining. Along his treacherous journey, Ross picked up the guitar, an instrument he began using as an outlet for his emotions. Throughout the book, he grows as a character, understanding the world through a new lens. While he has to endure the challenges that cancer brings, he doesn’t have to do it alone. With help from his friends and family, Ross fights with a determination completely unrivaled. “I walked out of there like a boss. I was going to go through a difficult surgery and eight weeks of radiation and lose the sight in one of my eyes…and yet I felt like a million bucks.” I would recommend this book for children around the ages of 9-13, but this wonderful story can be read by anyone. In my opinion, this novel would be mainly directed towards a middle school audience because of the connections they may be able to make with Ross. Wink is a meaningful story that continued to sink deeper within me as I flipped each page. At some points, there was a feeling of resolution until another problem sprouted from beneath the pages, prompting me to read more. Author Rob Harrell did an exceptional job creating this novel, outlining every detail with a layer of happiness, humor, and, sometimes, sadness. Wink by Rob Harrell. Puffin Books, 2021. Buy the book here and help support Stone Soup in the process!
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Bring on the Gratitude: A Review of “Be Thankful”
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I reviewed a poem about gratitude, called “Be Thankful” by an unknown poet. To me, gratitude means being thankful for what you have instead of thinking about what you don’t have. It is important to feel empathy for individuals who have less than you do and to appreciate all that you have. Everyone can be thankful for something–whether it be food, water, warmth, a house, or family. I chose the poem “Be Thankful” among a whole group of poems about gratitude because I was incredibly inspired by the message and tone of this poem. If you would like to read this poem, here is the link: https://blog.gratefulness.me/gratitude-poems/ “Be Thankful” is a 17-line poem divided into 7 couplets and ending with a three-line grouping. Though it doesn’t rhyme, it repeats the “Be thankful” phrase at the beginning of each stanza, helping emphasize to the reader the central theme of gratitude. The poem is intended to help readers recognize aspects of their lives that are challenging or hard, but nonetheless still could be positive and deserving of gratitude. One of my favorite parts in this poem is the stanza that reads: “Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire, / If you did, what would there be to look forward to?” This stanza highlights the emotion of envy, in which people yearn for things that they don’t have but that other people have. Envy is usually thought of as a negative emotion, but the poet suggests that one should be thankful for not having everything you want because it gives people something to look forward to. From this couplet, I thought about how to turn my jealousy into gratitude. Another one of my favorite parts is the fourth stanza that reads: “It is easy to be thankful for the good things. / A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are / also thankful for the setbacks.” As the holidays approach, it is easy to be happy for the things you have, but the poet emphasizes that people with challenges barreling towards them may be the most lucky because they have even more to be thankful for. In my opinion, this poem was a great kickoff to Thanksgiving, and it really helped me understand how to be thankful. Even if I don’t have everything, it is important to be thankful for what you do have – and if all you have right now are challenges, you can be thankful for those because they can make you better in the long run. I think people should read this poem with their family or friends on Thanksgiving to understand that everyone is a lucky person no matter what the situation is. Enjoy this holiday and time off as much as possible!
ROBOMIND Ep. 2: Speechless
https://stonesoup.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Speechless-ROBOMIND-Episode-2.m4a Podcast #2: “Speechless” Transcript: Hello, my name is Misha Ahmed, and I am your host of this podcast series called ROBOMIND. I know for those of you who weren’t here last episode you may be wondering, what does ROBOMIND mean? ROBOMIND is a combination of two things: robotics and mind. I love robotics, and I believe that it shapes how you think, and it shapes your mind. That is why I called my podcast ROBOMIND. Now, a little about me. I’m 12 now–yes, I had a birthday since the last podcast–and I am a robotics fanatic! I am on my middle school robotics team, and I want to inspire you to give robotics a shot. The name of Episode #2 is….drumroll please…”Speechless.” As you can see, I’m continuing with the Disney theme with the name of a song–one of my favorites from Aladdin. And now I want to talk about the new VEX IQ game, Full Volume, which although I’m going to be talking about it a lot, has got me speechless! But before we get started with today’s topic, I’m going to provide you with the answer to the riddle from Podcast One: Those girl bosses that we heard about last time, who were crushing it on the battlefield, they were queens on a chess board! Now that we got that done with let’s get to the juicy stuff: the game called VEX IQ Full Volume. I first heard about this game on the last day of Worlds when I was there with my elementary school team. The announcement was epic! The new game field was brought down from the roof of the convention center, and everybody was screaming like crazy in anticipation. As soon as the new video came on, it was silent. Everyone wanted to hear the description of the new game. Today, I will give you my easy and short explanation. But, first up, an analogy. Imagine you’re packing for a trip. There are three bags, and there are multiple different clothes you need to pack. Half of them are in your closet and you know where they are; the rest are in the black hole known as laundry. What does all this have to do with the game Full Volume? The person packing = the robot my team and I built. The 3 suitcases = the 3 goal zones on the field. The clothes = the 3 types of blocks on the field. The laundry = the supply zone because in the laundry you never know where things are and in the supply zone everything’s random. All the blocks are in different places. I don’t want to bore you with ALL the nitty gritty stuff, so I will go through the main points of this game. If you want to know more you can read the VEX IQ Full Volume game manual or watch the YouTube video for Full Volume. But let me just tell you what you need to know! You need to know about how to score and how to get the different bonuses. You need to know about skills challenges So, how to score. Your end goal is to score as many points as possible by using your robot to score cubes in the goal and receive as many different bonuses as possible. First, you get one point for each block scored in any goal. You can also get 5 points from knocking down red blocks off their pegs. You have a partner team–also known as your alliance–if you guys enter the supply zone, you guys will receive 20 extra points. If all blocks scored in a single goal are the same type, that goal earns a uniform bonus of 10 points. (Bonus!) You and your team can also receive a height bonus based on the highest fill level shared by all three goals. Bonus time! There are three fill levels: low, medium, and high, worth 10, 20, and 30 points. At the end of the match, robots can try to park in the supply zone. 5 points for each partially parked robot, 10 for each fully parked robot, and don’t worry I know some of you guys are like, “Do you need I license for this?” No, you just need a nice, good brain, which I’m sure all of you guys have. And a 10 point bonus for double parking. Now, I know you want to know about those skills. Every year there’s the driving and autonomous skills. Driving is when you and your team get 1 minute to drive. Then there’s the autonomous coding, which is no drivers, no remote, just code. At the end these scores will be combined to determine a Robot Skills Challenge Champion. You need to know that even if your first competition goes terrible, don’t give up. Just improve overall, and next competition you will crush it! That’s it for today. Keep your gears turning and keep your mind in shape. It is time for the new riddle! You will need a piece of paper and a PENCIL to jot down a series of letters. EPISODE 2 RIDDLE: I observed some initial letters from a sequence I see in this book. All you must do is tell me this: which letter should come next? The sequence is FSTFFSS. So tell me what is next! I’ll give you the answer next time. Thank you to all of you amazing people who added comments last time. Thank you so much! This is your host Misha Ahmed of ROBOMIND signing off!
