Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists

Rachel Alana Fomer Stone Soup Illustrator Rachel Alana, Artist and Former Stone Soup Illustrator I’ve written recently about two Stone Soup authors who have published their own books. This week, I’d like to introduce you to Rachel Alana, who illustrated several stories for the magazine about fifteen years ago as Rachel Stanley. You can find examples of her work in these links: Hermione and Leafy The Flying Angel Diver Rachel, as she puts it, “has been drawing all [her] life.” You can see more of her work, and learn more about who Rachel is through her website and her Instagram page. I know that most Stone Soup illustrators have several years of serious drawing behind them before their first publication in the magazine. I also now that when you are ten or twelve one of the great questions that you have is, what will I become? My daughter, who will be eleven in two weeks, often asks me, “Dada, what I will be?” Of course, I have no idea, except she has said since she was six that she wants to be a scientist, and I think that is very likely. Some of you reading this will likewise become artists and writers. If you are an adult, and a former Stone Soup writer or illustrator and are still writing and doing art—whether professionally or as a hobby—please let me know by replying to this newsletter. I will be on vacation for a couple weeks, so I won’t respond until mid-August but am excited to hear from you. We are thinking of devoting a place on our Stone Soupwebsite to former contributors and former members of the Honor Roll. I chose to feature this drawing of Rachel’s because it happens to be a drawing of me! Well, not really of me, personally, but it is a drawing of a boy playing with a boat in a French park. One of my strongest childhood memories is playing with a boat in the Tuileries Garden in the summer of 1963. Every time I go to Paris I pause by that place, even when it is winter and the boats are all put away. I will say that seeing the park does make me sad, as does Rachel’s drawing, because my mother died about ten years later, and playing with those little boats with your mother on a hot summer afternoon in Paris is about as wonderful an afternoon as one will ever have. So boys playing in parks with toy boats always makes me think of her. This one of the great powers of art. To take us someplace else. Back in time. Forward in time to a place that will never really exist. Into the lives of others, or back into one’s own life, but a part of one’s life that was long ago. Going on vacation, so until mid-August! William Rubel Founder & Executive Director Poetry Issue Still Open! Send us a poem, write a poetry review! Emma, our editor, tells me that the poetry issue is filling up, but is still open. So, don’t be shy! Send Emma your poems for the special September Poetry Issue. Emma has also asked for reviews of poems. We have never published reviews of poems before, and in fact this is rare in adult literary magazines. I am repeating here what we have published about this previously, but adding an incentive for you to write poetry reviews.The first five people to submit a poetry review will receive a free copy of the 2017 Stone Soup Annual, a lovely book with everything we’ve published in 2017 (regardless of whether Emma accepts your review for publication). You can review Emma’s guidelines for poetry reviews here. Buy Stone Soup for Summer Reading Summer is still going strong. If you haven’t already, please consider buying a Stone Soupsubscription for the reader and creative child in your life. Stone Soup is available online and can also be read offline in app form or as a downloaded PDF, either printed out or on a tablet. Mid-November we will be publishing a print annual for 2017 so you will also have the opportunity to buy a year’s worth of Stone Soup in book form. With a subscription, your child will get access to our archive of Stone Soup issues online—over 2,000 pages of reading material along with the opportunity to submit his or her own creative work to the magazine for free. From Stone Soup May/June 2004 The Flying Angel By Elizabeth B. Smith, 13 Illustrated by Rachel Stanley, 12 “Why am I so dumb, Hobo?” I asked the short, jetblack gelding. I knew he couldn’t answer me, but I knew he could understand. Just two days ago, I had failed my first seventh-grade math test spectacularly, lost patience entirely at an annoying girl who I thought was my friend, and I continued to struggle with the facts of growing up. Now, staring into the eyes of someone I knew I could trust, I spilled it all out. And through everything, the glossy black eyes of my one true friend took everything in. When I ended my period of ranting, my wet eyes met his, and he looked back like always, and winked.I threw my arms around his neck, and breathed in the smell of the horse. It was a smell that you learned to appreciate in my house, whether it was lingering in the car, collecting on my welcome mat, or biding its time on the bristles of one of the many brushes that scattered my floor. If you knew me personally, you’d know (and hopefully not be offended) that I’d switch a moment with you any time, for the presence of a horse. Right now, it was one of those times, a dewy Sunday morning, where the first signs of bitter fall were creeping in. . . .more