Stone Soup - The Magazine by ChildrenStone Soup Painting

People of the Crow, a tale of the fantastic

Posted: June 23rd, 2010, Author: admin

Angela’s story takes place in a very specific place: Cranford, New Jersey. And yet, it not exactly Cranford. Things happen in this story that don’t take place in Cranford – or any place on earth. Things happen in this story that only happen in imagination.

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Two Stories about Friends

Posted: April 1st, 2010, Author: admin

Two stories. Short. Simple. Each story about two friends. In one, two boys walk along the beach and look at a starfish. In the other, two boys shoot off fireworks on a vacant lot. Each of these very short stories is, in its own way, complex. Not only do the stories provide a vivid picture of where they take place, but they also each reveal a great deal about the characters, their relationship to each other, and their relationship to the world.

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Working with Dialogue

Posted: February 26th, 2010, Author: William Rubel

The most remarkable part of Lena’s story is the last quarter where four characters respond to a traumatic event. This section, beginning with the “No!” spoken by the narrator and continuing to the end, depends heavily on dialogue. It could almost be a play. Notice that, although the lines spoken by Sandy, Carrie, Mom, the narrator, and Mrs. Hall are often very short, we get a clear sense of how each character differs from the others and how they relate to each other as family, friends, and neighbors. This is accomplished through the narrative that accompanies the dialogue.

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The temptation to lie

Posted: August 4th, 2009, Author: William Rubel

These two stories deal with the same problem: the temptation to lie to hide a mistake. The temptation to lie to cover up a mistake is a common one, and most people, at some point in their lives, give in to the temptation to pretend they haven’t done something that, in fact, they have.

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First Person Narrative

Posted: July 22nd, 2009, Author: William Rubel

This story, told from the point of view of the first person, is short but wound tight, like a spring. The story flows from beginning to end, concluding in a climax, Piper has succeeded in doing something that is very difficult – getting the reader of a short story to so identify with the character that we, too, feel the relief of the ending, we, too, feel overwhelmed by what is happening and a sense of exhilaration as we read the last words!

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Write about an obsession

Posted: July 22nd, 2009, Author: William Rubel

Lots of girls dream of horses. And there are lots of stories about horse-loving girls. What makes this story special, The Horse’s Reins, by Nicholas La Cortiglia, is how Nicholas, through attention to detail, makes Julie into a full-as-life character, a girl with an obsession, but a girl who is also a normal child within a family.

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