My daughter loves to read. She does it all on her own, with no coaxing at all from me. Well … OK, that’s not exactly true. The thing is, she just doesn’t REALIZE she’s been coaxed into reading her entire life. I believe a love for reading starts early; very early and in the home. I homeschool my daughter now, but we did spend the first couple of years in the public school system and I distinctly remember volunteering to help second-graders who were having trouble reading. I would volunteer every Tuesday and Thursday for about 40 minutes and in that time I would see three students. They would woefully carry their basket of books into the library to meet with me, sit down at a table, conducive to discomfort, and proceed to read to me for 15-20 minutes. They never did get comfortable with it and it felt almost impossible as I was never guaranteed to see the same child twice. For me, it was painful to sit through and I knew in my heart that this was not the way a child should learn to read. Ultimately, and unfortunately to no avail, I recommended to the school that we try a different approach; comfy couches perhaps? Maybe the volunteers reading to the child as a way for them to experience the joy that comes with being read to … being up close and personal and allowing them those simple, engaging moments not every child gets at home. Sometimes overwhelmed and understaffed, schools are often slow to catch up with new and enlightening trends, but here are some things you can do at home to help ensure your child develops a love for reading. Start Early. Infancy is not too young; in fact, I know many mothers who start reading to their babies while still in the womb. My sister did just that and strongly feels it made an impact on her son. Honestly, the younger your child is, the more likely he or she will stay engaged as they grow older. The underlying reason being, that your child will associate reading with love. They will relate those memories of reading with the connection and bond you both developed and nurtured over the years. Reading and love will go hand-in-hand and being read to will consistently be a source of contentment and peace; a way to soothe them when they need it. Side bonus, it’s good to know every Dr. Seuss book by heart; goes over great at parties! Create Reading Nooks Everywhere. I scatter books throughout the house. In every room, you will find an inviting book just crying out to be picked up. The kitchen hutch, right by the breakfast table, every nightstand in every bedroom, an old-fashioned magazine rack bolted to the wall, bookshelves in the family room, and a basket on the hearth that we switch out with specifically selected books that help bring in new seasons or holidays. Go to the Library. Seems like an obvious one, but I’m surprised at how little my town library seems to be used these days. When I was a kid, we lived in an area that was fairly remote and we had a book mobile that used to come to our small, isolated neighborhood. I cannot put into words the joy those visits brought me! Libraries offer so many resources; you’ll find story times for all age groups, craft activities, book clubs, groups for teens and so much more. I’m even starting to see libraries offer more than books. I’ve read about libraries growing with the times and lending out tools and other household items as well. Even 3D printers are starting to become available! Read All the Time, every day. Reading at our house is as important as brushing our teeth. No TV at bedtime and, in fact, there are no TVs in any of the bedrooms in our house. Reading time happens every night and we continually change it up so it doesn’t get stale. Sometimes I still read to my daughter, sometimes we read together, and sometimes she reads to herself, but it is always how she ends her day … which also leads to her starting off her day reading because she remembers that she was into something before she fell asleep. In addition, I read to her at least once at some point every single day. I think a lot of parents think their kids no longer need to be read to once they start reading on their own, but they still value the moments and memories that come from being read to. Get Caught Reading, in case it wasn’t implied in the last tip. Be seen reading yourself. Read for pleasure; be the example. Like so many things in life, nothing could ever work quite as well as being their example. Start a Book Club. We started a book club for my daughter and her friends when they were five, we’re still going strong after three years. At first I picked the books, simple story books about strength, empowerment, giving back, family, finances, etc. Everyone came prepared with at least one question for the group. After our discussion we had a craft and snacks. Today they take turns picking the books, have pretty great discussions, and have been inspired to do many things beyond the book club like volunteering. We even sponsored a child last year at Christmas. So put down that phone for ten minutes, pick up a favorite book and read to your child. As the ever wise Dr. Seuss once said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
History of the Stone Soup Folktale from 1720 to Now, by William Rubel
“Stone Soup,” engraving by Walter Melion for the cover of the first issue of Stone Soup Some Recipes for Stone Soup from 1732, 1808–and 2019! Boil stones in butter, and you may sip the broth. (Fuller 1732) ‘Give me a piece of paper’ (said the traveler) ‘and I’ll write it down for you,’ which he did as follows:—A receipt to-make Stone Soup. ‘ Take a large stone, put it into a sufficient quantity of boiling water; properly season it with pepper and salt; add three or four pounds of good beef, a handful of pot-herbs, some onions, a cabbage, and three or four carrots. When the soup is made the stone may be thrown away.’ Published in The American magazine of wit, 1808. The recipe published in 1808 is quite similar to the one in the version of the story made by the By Kids For Kids Story Time podcast in 2019. You can listen to their lively retelling of the tale on Megaphone here or at iTunes here! Origin of the Stone Soup Folktale Title page to the 1808 British magazine with the first English version of the Stone Soup story The Stone Soup story revolves around a clever man with a charismatic personality who can get people to help him when their first instinct is not to. This is the aspect of the story that folklorists have focused on. Folklorists place the Stone Soup story within the “clever man” category of the Aarne-Thompson-Uther folklore classification system that they use to organize the entire folkloric tradition. Stone Soup is an Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 1548 folktale. Where does the original Stone Soup story come from? Is it a genuine folk tale in the sense that it had a long life in an oral tradition before being published in print? Or is it a creation of authors writing for hire? Or a bit of both? I think it is probably a bit of both. The Stone Soup story does not appear in any of the major eighteenth- or nineteenth-century collections of folk tales. It wasn’t published by Charles Perrault or the Grimm brothers. The first version I have found, that of Madame de Noyer (1720), is the work of an internationally renowned writer. We will never know who “told her” the story, or whether she read it in a book that has not been identified, or whether she made the whole thing up! All of the early versions I have come across are already polished tales. None make the claim that they were collected from a peasant. If a strong oral tradition for the Stone Soup story existed in the 18th and 19th centuries it is probable that also referenced the fairly substantial body of published stories. The First Published Version: Madame de Noyer, France 1720 The first telling of the Stone Soup story that I have been able to locate is by a French woman, Madame de Noyer (1663–1719), a female journalist, a woman of letters and a dynamic personality who lived what can only be described as an interesting life. She seems to have been a woman who burned the candle at both ends. She lived in exile from France for the last part of her life, dying in Holland. Voltaire visited her in exile. Madame de Noyer’s version of the Stone Soup story, “Soupe au Caillou” (Madame du Noyer (1720), was published one year after she died, in a revised and expanded edition of collected letters that had been published a few years earlier. Madame de Noyer’s fame was so great that in French her version of the story is the most common version through the end of the nineteenth-century. You will find it in books that attribute it to other authors, but they rarely make the changes to her telling that are required to really claim authorship. Madame de Noyer begins her tale, as so many good storytellers do, with an element of mystery: “On me contoit l’autre jour que …” “Someone told me the other day that . . .” Her version of the story is set in Normandy, in northern France. Two Jesuits come to a farmhouse, but only the children are home. The Jesuits, who are hungry, convince the children that they are not begging for food, but in fact they are self-sufficient as they have a stone that makes soup. They tell the children that all they actually need is fire, a pot, and some water, and that their stone will do the rest. They remark that this is “curieux” and from that point the game is on. A fire is got ready, a pot put over, water is added, their stone is dropped in, and then, when the water is hot, this and that is asked for until, finally, a truly fabulous soup has been made. It is a story that always has a happy ending. Everyone always seems to have a good time making the soup, and the soup itself is always loved. In many versions the tramp (and it usually is a tramp) is asked for the recipe. In many other versions, like that of Madame de Noyer, all the neighbors and even all the other villagers are brought into the story. They attest to what a fabulous soup was made by a stone. Of course, nobody thinks that a stone can make soup. Nobody is tricked into feeding the stranger. The beggar is personable and is understood to be saying, “I’ll provide you some great entertainment in exchange for a meal.” As the banter surrounding the cooking was entertaining and by any standards the soup terrific, the making of stone soup always ends with smiles all around. Phillipe Barbe’s Version, France, 1771 Historic Stone Soup Story from 1771 in French by M. Barbe One characteristic of folktales is that they are contextualized by each teller. This is something the authors of the early Stone Soup stories clearly did. For example, the second version of the story was written by Phillipe Barbe (1723–1792) in his work Fables et
Using Silence to Create a Mood
Every once in a while a story comes along that is unlike any other. Dancing Birds, the featured story from our September/October 2015 issue, is such a story. What makes it so special? Yes, the characters and setting are exotic. A Welsh girl named Glas lives with her family in a French-speaking village in Quebec. Glas makes mechanical animals in her attic. She misses her father, who is in Denmark, helping his sick brother. She misses her grandmother, who has gone home to Wales. Then her cousin Maskine arrives, sad and silent. But beyond the unusual characters and setting, the story, by 11-year-old Ayla Schultz, is special for the mood it creates. When we finish reading it, our mood has changed too. We feel the sadness, the loneliness, and the final glimmer of happiness. We are in the world of the story. How does Ayla do it? Read the story carefully, and you will see that it is full of descriptions that engage our senses. We see Glas’s dark blue eyes and her grandmother’s red coat. We smell and taste the cinnamon hot chocolate. The bare trees, icy water, and freezing rain tell us how cold it is. But above all, sounds—and especially silence—set the mood of this story. In the first scene, Glas sits silently atop a sand dune, staring at the chilly scene below, thinking about happier times. When cousin Maskine arrives, she doesn’t say a word for weeks. Finally, she speaks a few words to Glas, then grows silent again. Maskine is deeply worried about her family back in Denmark. Sometimes the silence is broken by a doorbell, a knock, or a slammed door. The postman is chatty when he brings a letter. Then all is quiet. In the story’s final scene, Glas has invited Maskine up to her attic workshop. Glas silently hands her the key to a beautiful mechanical bird. From their one conversation, we know that the girls have a bond. They share a love of birds and the way they appear to dance on the sand. Maskine turns the key and the mechanical bird lifts it legs one by one, just like the birds on the beach. For the first time since she arrived, Maskine smiles. No words are spoken, and the story ends with this perfect moment of understanding. The next time you write a story, think about sounds. Which sounds will you include, and which will you leave out? Will your characters reveal themselves through dialogue or through their thoughts? Sometimes a connection can be made between two people from a shared experience, without any words being exchanged. See if you can create a mood that stays with your reader long after the story has ended.
