A girl growing up today can join a baseball team if she wants to. In the past, things were different. “Katie’s League,” the featured story from the March/April issue of Stone Soup, chronicles the struggles of Katie, a girl growing up in the 1940s. Katie loves baseball, and she’s really good at it. Her late dad understood her passion. She’s not sure her mom would understand, so she hides the T-shirt, jeans, and baseball cap she wears when practicing from her mom. She is teased by a boy named Billy Archer and berated by the baseball coach. By chance, the team manager meets Katie and decides that a girl on the team might be good for publicity. Now it’s up to Katie to prove herself. Can she do it? Will her mom accept her as she is? Read this moving story by 12-year-old Emily Worrell and enjoy 13-year-old Ava Blum-Carr’s illustrations. Then let us know what you think!
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
A Horse Story with a Twist
We hope all our subscribers have had a chance to read the new January/February 2013 issue of Stone Soup. There are so many great stories in this issue, it was hard to choose one to feature on our website. We finally settled on “Friends Forever,” by 11-year-old Naomi Vliet, about a girl named Rachel who has always wanted a horse of her own. Then one day Rachel’s brother helps rescue a wild mare and her foal from some mustangers. Will Rachel’s wish finally come true? In alternating chapters, Naomi tells her story from two points of view: Rachel’s and the mare’s. The mare is separated from her herd, she is alone and she needs help. She knows Rachel is kind, but she won’t feel right until she’s back with her herd. Rachel falls in love with the mare and her foal, but deep inside she knows what she needs to do. In five short pages, the author paints a multi-layered portrait of a young girl and a wild animal, each with her own needs and desires. And illustrator Jessica Birchfield brings Naomi’s vision to life with her beautiful drawings. Well done, Naomi and Jessica!
Emma T. Capps Stop Action Illustration for Stone Soup
If you are an artist, watch this video! If you are a teacher, then use this video as part of a project in which your students illustrate a story. Art and writing are obviously linked in books for young children, in comics and graphic novels, and also in some of the classic works of children’s literature, like Alice in Wonderland, and Wind in the Willows. Emma T. Capps was a regular illustrator for Stone Soup from 2009 to 2011. Emma and her dad created this amazing time-lapse video, showing Emma creating an illustration for Stone Soup from start to finish. The story she illustrated, “Working for Sparkle,” appeared in the May/June 2011 issue of Stone Soup. Emma continues to make art today. She has developed quite a following for the comic strip she created: “The Chapel Chronicles.” While Emma is no longer a young child she has not stopped drawing. Here is a link to her website. Visit Emma’s website. If you look also at her social media you will see that her interests have expanded since she was a young child. Unfortunately, you will also see that she has some serious medical problems and continues work in spite significant obstacles.
