Fire and Water, iPad Air 4 | Cathy Jiang, 11 (Portland, OR), published in the January 2022 issue of Stone Soup A note from Emma Happy New Year! I’m excited to start the year with the new January issue of Stone Soup and especially with the story I’m featuring in this newsletter—“Up on the Roof” by Harper Fortgang. “Up on the Roof” is a dystopian fantasy story set in a futuristic world in which there is no longer a “United” States—only a “Divided” States of America. On one side, the Purple People; on the other, the Green People; in the middle, a dangerous “Forbidden Strip” where people of both colors choose to mix. The allegory is all too apt for our current political times: a huge gulf—its own kind of forbidden strip—seems to separate the Left from the Right, the urban from the rural, the rich from the poor, the white from the Black (or indeed, all people of color). In her story, Harper’s protagonist, a Purple Person, meets someone who changes her mind about the Green People—and she commits to bringing this change of mind, and heart, first to her family, but hopefully to the world. I hope we can all bring this energy and optimism to our communities in 2022, working with each other to understand and close these divides however we can. This weekend, in your own writing, try to emulate Harper, and address a current political issue facing the world today through fantasy, science fiction, or other allegorical means. As always, I’d love to read what you produce. Lastly, I would like to thank everyone who donated to Stone Soup in 2021; every little bit counts, and we are so grateful for all of our supporters. Until next time, Emma Harper Fortgang, 13 San Francisco, CA From Stone Soup January 2022 Up on the Roof By Harper Fortgang, 13 (San Francisco, CA) “Who’s there?” I call into the empty blackness, a chill running down my spine. I watch as a black cat leaps past me and around a corner, disappearing into the darkness. I exhale a sigh of relief and try to convince myself, yet again, there is nothing to fear. I begin walking, squeezing the strap of my satchel filled with documents like a four-year-old clinging to her mother’s hand. I dart across the street, heading toward a haunted-looking building with decaying red trim. Delivering business documents in the Forbidden Strip is dangerous, especially for a thirteen-year-old Purple girl like me. My parents would have never let me come here, but we are struggling for money, so I became a business courier. The Forbidden Strip is part of the Divided States of America, which consists of three separate lands. I hail from the West, a land solely for the Purple People, and the Green People occupy the East. My parents tell me the West is far superior and our brilliant shade of lavender should remain separate from the East’s pale-green skin. We believe in individual achievement and preserving traditions while the East advocates a new direction, putting the government’s interests ahead of citizens’ needs. I am told that the people from the East look down on us and we have a long history of conflict, causing mistrust and fear. Between both lands lies the Forbidden Strip, where people from the West and East choose to live together. I have heard terrible rumors about the people who live here. However, important documents still need to be transferred from the West, even if we are separate territories. So, I must skulk through the neighborhoods of the Forbidden Strip delivering documents, afraid of every shadow I see. Continue reading “Up on the Roof” here… Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered in the United States of America, EIN: 23-7317498. Stone Soup’s advisors: Abby Austin, Mike Axelrod, Annabelle Baird, Jem Burch, Evelyn Chen, Juliet Fraser, Zoe Hall, Montanna Harling, Alicia & Joe Havilland, Lara Katz, Rebecca Kilroy, Christine Leishman, Julie Minnis, Jessica Opolko, Tara Prakash, Denise Prata, Logan Roberts, Emily Tarco, Rebecca Ramos Velasquez, Susan Wilky.
Weekend Project
Saturday Newsletter: December 25, 2021
The Attack of the Christmas Lights by Eliana Pacillo, 12 (Walpole, MA) published in Stone Soup December 2021 A note from William Wow! It’s Christmas! The end of another strange year. I am in Los Angeles visiting a friend. I had planned on being in Egypt! I’d like to extend a special thanks to Emma Wood for another year of brilliant work as editor-in-chief of Stone Soup and judge of our annual Book Contest. Thanks to our fabulous staff — Sarah Ainsworth, Laura Moran, Caleb Berg, and Tayleigh Greene. Jane Levi has just left the company. Thank you to Jane for extraordinary work these last few years helping to shepherd the magazine. Thanks to all of you who have supported our 2021 Annual Drive. As we have mentioned, we are starting a big push to get Stone Soup back to self-sufficiency. We have this amazing $25,000 matching gift so everything you give between now and the end of the year is matched, doubling the value of your gift. I think the best ending to the 2021 newsletters is to leave the last word with one of our writers. I hope you enjoy this reading of a poem by Emma Hoff, one of our students. As this poem was written during one of our Saturday writing workshops, all the time she had to write it in was 30 minutes! Until next year. Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Sarayu B., 11, wrote a gripping personal narrative about the time their grandmother was hospitalized with COVID-19. Analise Braddock, 9(Katonah, NY) From Stone Soup December 2021 Parallel Christmas By Analise Braddock, 9 (Katonah, NY) Parallel lines don’t stop. Christmas doesn’t stop. The snow sticks and not a light flicks out. Not a curve or a bend in a parallel line. The time ticks and tocks for Santa. Comes and goes for Christmas, but the lines of Santa’s are forever. Get ready, hang the stockings. Set out the cookies and milk. Light up the tree for a parallel Christmas. Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered in the United States of America, EIN: 23-7317498. Stone Soup’s advisors: Abby Austin, Mike Axelrod, Annabelle Baird, Jem Burch, Evelyn Chen, Juliet Fraser, Zoe Hall, Montanna Harling, Alicia & Joe Havilland, Lara Katz, Rebecca Kilroy, Christine Leishman, Julie Minnis, Jessica Opolko, Tara Prakash, Denise Prata, Logan Roberts, Emily Tarco, Rebecca Ramos Velasquez, Susan Wilky.
Saturday Newsletter: December 18, 2021
Bridge in the Snow, Fujifilm X-T1 | Claire Lu, 13 (Portola Valley, CA), published in Stone Soup December 2021 A note from Sarah Happy weekend! I hope everyone is having a calm and restful December. If you haven’t had a chance to read Anya Geist’s Born on the First of Two, which was published on the first of this month, I want to direct you to the excerpt we published from the novel in our December issue (you can also scroll down to the end of this email to read it). We also have a lovely interview on our YouTube channel with Anya and Abhi Sukhdial, (which you can view above) where Abhi and Anya talk about character development, the worlds that Anya created in the novel, real-life inspiration, and so much more. If after watching the interview you find yourself hungry for more, there is a longer, more exclusive look inside Anya and her process writing Born on the First of Two that you can view, here. Coinciding with the interview, we have also launched a book page for Born on the First of Two that includes the interview as well as April Yu’s five star review of the novel. Keep visiting the page for other news—reviews, awards, events—regarding Anya and Born on the First of Two! Anya begins with a powerful prologue that draws the reader in by vividly describing a character’s troubling recurring dream. Without knowing any specifics about the plot, the reader learns of the dream (or is it perhaps a memory?) that plagues this character. As readers, we begin to wonder: what could this mean? Who are these dark figures? And why did her parents leave? This compelling beginning of Anya’s novel reminded me of a recent topic covered by William in one of his Saturday Workshops: origin stories. In William’s workshop, the young writers were challenged to imagine the beginnings of a character who might go on to do significant things. In the post summarizing the workshop, you can find examples from participating writers to serve as examples, if you need them. My challenge for you this weekend is to combine the dream concept from Born on the First of Two and the idea of origin stories. First, come up with a character’s life arc, from beginnings that could be considered quite modest, through a life that takes a surprising turn and challenges the expectations for this character’s trajectory. But crucially, have this character be followed by a memory or dream, whether faded or lucid, of an event that happened in the beginning of their life. How does this dream continue to haunt the character? And what does the dream reveal to the reader about the character’s beginnings? Perhaps it is a tragic dream or memory, as in the case of Born on the First of Two. Or maybe it is simply embarrassing– school children laughing at one of their peers. Think about what you want to convey about the character’s motivations and how an event can shape a person’s life. If you’re inspired to create anything based on this weekend writing activity, please consider submitting it to Stone Soup—we love to read your submissions. Until next time, Congratulations to our most recent Flash Contest winners! Our December Flash Contest was based on Creativity Prompt #181 (provided by Molly Torinus, Stone Soup contributor), which challenged participants to write a creation story for a fictional world of their own imagination. For the third consecutive month we set a record for number of submissions, all of them worthy of recognition. Molly’s ingenious prompt led to a breadth of creativity, with creation stories for fully realized worlds containing mathematical sets with biblical influence to anthropomorphic clouds to a dance recital gone wrong. In the end, we selected our usual five winners and five honorable mentions. As always, thank you to all who submitted, and please submit again next month! Congratulations to our Winners and Honorable Mentions, listed below. You can read the winning entries for this contest (and previous ones) at the Stone Soup website. Winners “Darkness” by Kimberly Hu, 9 (Lake Oswego, OR) “Adventure to the Lost Kingdoms” by Tang Li, 9 (Palmetto Bay, FL) “The Beginning, the End, the Rebirth” by Lui Lung, 12 (Danville, CA) “The Fearful Cloud” by Julia Ma, 11 (Portland, OR) “The World of the Grand Staff” by Maya Mourshed, 10 (Silver Spring, MD) Honorable Mentions “One Dance” by Audrey Billington, 10 (Hillsboro, IL) “Math: The Origin” by Lucas Hinds, 13 (Lenoir City, TN) “The Creation of Warland” by Sophie Li, 11 (Palo Alto, CA) “Eternalia” by Brooke Negin, 11 (Kanata, ON, Canada) “The Fourth Dawn” by Divya Srinivasan, 12 (Sammamish, WA) Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Super reviewer April Yu, 13, couldn’t get enough of Anya Geist’s debut novel Born on the First of Two! Don’t miss the latest Book Club Report from Laura Moran, which details the group’s meeting with acclaimed author Lucy Worsley! Young Blogger Ismini Vasiloglou, 12, wrote a glowing review of Tristan Hui’s novel The Other Realm, which won the Stone Soup Book Contest 2020. From Stone Soup December 2021 An Excerpt from Born on the First of Two By Anya Geist, 14 (Worcester, MA) Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. The girl’s breathing was labored and fast, the way it always was when she had this dream, this memory. It was a strange dream; it seemed to linger in her mind, tickling its edges like light in her peripheral vision. She’d had it for as long as she could remember, but she never became quite used to it; every time it came to her in her sleep, she found herself unsettled. The sky was light blue, and the sun radiated its warmth down on the Earth. Birds chirped contentedly in verdant, leafy trees while bees hummed along as they flew from flower to flower, careful not to damage the soft, delicate petals. The girl—then just a baby—sat on the
