We are now thinking we would like to record stories we haven’t previously recorded. We are looking for drama teachers, or anyone with recording experience who works with children, to work with us to record Stone Soup stories for posting on this website and on iTunes. We may even produce a CD. We have been publishing Stone Soup for thirty-seven years and have a wealth of material by children up to age thirteen to work with.

If you might be interested in this project, please write to me, william@williamrubel.com. I am thinking that making recordings might entail a collaboration between a classroom teacher, a drama teacher, and a radio presenter at a community college or university radio station who could do the actual recording, and possibly the editing as well.

I look forward to hearing from you.

William Rubel
Co-Editor of Stone Soup

Dylan Sauder wrote his first story when he was 4. He had just ridden in a semitrailer for the first time and, to capture the experience, he dictated a story to his mom, he said.

Ten years later, the 14-year-old got his first story published in the January/February issue of Stone Soup, an international magazine by young writers and artists.

“Behind the Curtain” is about a boy searching for his grandfather and finding home in an abandoned theater.

The story was sparked by one line: “The soft sound of a violin could be faintly heard.”

The line came to him from his imagination, Dylan said, and “It sounded cool to me.”

That was about four years ago. Then one day during a writer’s workshop at Raymond School, 2659 76th St., he went back to that line and wrote a story around it, said Dylan, an eighth-grader.

His story is one of two highlighted on the cover of Stone Soup.

Gerry Mandel, editor of the magazine, said she usually picks a couple she feels are the best of the issue for the cover. About 200 submissions are received every week, she said, and fewer than 1 percent get published.

When he saw his story in print, Dylan said he danced around the house.

What he loves about writing is seeing people enjoy what he wrote, he says, “and seeing my thoughts and ideas come to life.”

He finds the time to write whenever an idea pops into his head.

Out of the family of six – he is the second in a quadruplet – Dylan says he and his dad are the writers. His dad, Scott, a fifth-grade teacher at Gifford Elementary School, wrote a testimony about parenting quadruplets, “Raised by Grace,” shortly after they were born.

Dylan says his dad writes more than he does. He doesn’t get to write as much, because he’s busy with youth group and various school activities like Battle of the Books and a mentoring reading program.

“I’ve always been reading, so that got me writing too,” Dylan said.

In addition to reading, he says he also enjoys singing and playing music.

In fact, his interests are so wide and varied he’s not sure what he wants to do in the future.

“That list is a mile long too,” he said. “I really like music so maybe something with music.”

Writer, doctor, chiropractor or even a pastor are all possibilities.

Still, Dylan plans to keep writing. Music and violin, two of his passions, are common themes in his stories.

“Behind the Curtain” opens with a scene that draws readers in and charms them with the magic of music: “The old, worn curtain loomed over the stage. Chairs covered in faded, red velvet cushions were scattered throughout the theatre. A piano that had once been played in the most famous of performances now housed a family of mice. The theatre was falling apart, yet it still contained a certain beauty and elegance. If you listened closely, you could faintly hear the soft, sweet sound of a violin coming from behind the dark curtain.”

Project: Write a Play with at Least Four Characters.

The best way to develop an appreciation for how narratvie helps you develop your characters is by writing a play. Go back through stories you have written and find the one with the most dialogue. Transform this story into a play. You will probably need to re-imagine the story because you may find that, once the dialogue is stripped of the accompanying narrative, it no longer makes sense. Your challenge as a playwright is to tell your story exclusively through the words spoken by your characters!

Go to the library and look at plays to learn what format to use when writing your play. You will see that at the beginning of a play playwrights list the characters and tell how they relate to each other. Also, at the beginning of each scence the characters present in the scene are listed. Character are listed whether they talk or not. The beginning of a scene is also the place to include a short narrative description of where the action for the scene takes place. When writing your play you should follow these customary practices.

The Bear

by Lena Boesser-Koschmann

THE MORNING WAS cool. It wasn’t cold, but not warm enough to go without a jacket. Sandy and I were walking toward the field where Chipper, my seven-year-old pony, was staked. I was swinging the reins, and Sandy was walking beside me. We didn’t talk to each other, and it was quiet. A bird chirped, singing out a strange melody. When we arrived, I softly called to Chipper. He lifted his head and walked slowly over to me. He nuzzled my pocket to see if I had any treats for him. I laughed and slipped the bit into his mouth. He jerked his head a little at the coldness of the bit. I unhooked the rope from his halter and, grabbing the reins in my hand, jumped up onto his back. Since Sandy was taking the road, I decided to canter Chipper in the field.

As I neared the road that separates Chipper’s field and Timer’s field (Timer is Chipper’s brother), I noticed a guest from the Goldhill Inn. He was taking a video of the inn. He nodded a friendly hello to me, and I decided to show off a little. Maybe he’d videotape me. I clicked Chipper again and gave him a little kick. He loped faster. When he came to the edge of the field where Timer was staked, I stopped him and let him walk.

Timer was going crazy. He was running around in circles, bucking and kicking his legs. I thought his unusual behavior was just in his excitement to see Chipper. I let Chipper walk up to him, and Timer kicked him. Timer was acting really weird. It was then that I noticed the bear. He was sitting in the berry patch no more than sixty yards away. I gasped. Chipper jumped. Quickly, I leapt off Chipper and tried to pull him away from Timer. It was impossible.

Just then Sandy called, “What’s wrong?”

“Bear.” I spoke that one simple word.

“What?”

“Bear,” I repeated.

“Where?”

“In the berry patch, right over there!” I pointed over toward the raspberries that were around one side of the garden. I was talking fast and calmly to Chipper, pulling at his head a little at a time. Finally, we were walking away from Timer, who was as wild as ever.

All the time I have had Chipper, I have never actually come within sight of a bear while riding (unless you count the time I heard snuffling in the woods and saw fresh droppings). Chipper was getting excited by now. He was hard to control from the ground. I ran him to the nearest tree and tied him quickly to it. It was only then that I relaxed and looked closely at the bear. It wasn’t a big bear, but I’m not too good at telling what age animals are. Maybe he was the one year old that had been hanging around the town.

“He’s so cute,” I said to Sandy, who was looking at the small bear also.

“I know. That might be the one we saw in our yard the other day.”

Just then Mrs. Hall shouted out her window at us, “There’s a bear right there, ya known

“We know,” I shouted back and then untied the reins and started walking back toward my house.

Once we were out on the road, I leapt up onto Chipper once again.

“What are you doing?” Sandy asked.

“I’m going to put Chipper back in the pasture. Then we can come back to see the bear some more.”

“Thank you for your permission, oh great one,” she said.

I giggled. Then I loped Chipper down the short path way to our house. He seemed to know where we were going. He automatically went to the gate of the big pas ture. I opened the gate and he trotted inside. I slipped off his reins, and he loped across the pasture to scratch on a stake. Then I ran to tell my mom about the bear.

When I reached the porch, I didn’t bother to use the steps—I never did—but vaulted up onto the porch.

When I opened the door, Carrie, my sister, greeted me with a questioning look.

“I thought you were going riding,” my mom said.

“We were, but the horses are all hyped up because there’s a bear in Mrs. Hall’s berry patch,” I answered.

And at the same time Sandy said, “There’s a bear over at Mrs. Hall’s.”

I laughed. “I think it’s the same one that was in our yard the other day,n I said. “Sandy and I are going over to see what it does.”

“Well, Carrie and I are going down to the school in about fifteen minutes. I have some work I need to do before tomorrow. Tell me about the bear when I get back.”

“Sure.”

Then Sandy and I walked back across the road to Mrs. Hall’s place. She was yelling and screaming and banging pans at the bear.

“She’s mad,” I said matter-of-factly.

“Very good,” Sandy said sarcastically.

“I can’t see the bear,” I said, standing on my toes and trying to see it.

“Let’s go over where we were before.” But we didn’t get a chance to because just then we saw Bill slowly walking, gun in hand, toward the bear.

“No!n I gasped. Why would anyone shoot a baby bear? A bear without its mother. A bear with nowhere to go. Bill aimed. Then a shot rang out.

“God,” Sandy said, obviously mad. I couldn’t speak. I was boiling over with anger—a steam pot that can’t stop boiling, even when the burner beneath it is off. Maybe it wasn’t dead. Maybe he had just shot to scare it. Then why had he aimed the gun? I argued with my self. “I am never speaking to him again,” I said under my breath.

“What?”

“Nothing. I just feel sorry for the bear.”

“I know. I mean, it couldn’t defend itself. They didn’t have to shoot it,” Sandy said in a sarcastic voice.

“No kidding!”

Then, we walked wordlessly back toward my house. Mom and Carrie were just leaving. They had these looks on their faces. They had heard the gunshot, obviously. “It’s dead.” My voice cracked as I said it.

“Who shot it?” my mom asked.

“Bill Hall.” Sandy spoke his name in disgust. Just then we saw Mrs. Hall walking toward the Jones’ place, her kids hanging on her.

“Is it dead?” my mom called to Mrs. Hall, even though she knew the answer.

“Yes,” Mrs. Hall called back matter of factly.

“Why did you shoot it?”

“I didn’t shoot it, Bill did!”

Great, Mrs. Hall, blame it on Bill. Mrs. Hall went on, “You know what happened yesterday? He was growling at me from behind the woodpile.” Then Silvie started crying, and Mrs. Hall continued walking.

All my mom said was, “Come on, Carrie, let’s go.” And they rode off.

I slowly walked over to Chipper. He looked at me with his big brown eyes and yawned. I forced a smile. “He’s dead, Chipper, dead.” And I buried my face in his strong neck.

The subject selection is also useful for teachers of creative writing. Creative writing assignments are often thematic. For every theme you will find that Stone Soup writers have taken very different approaches. This can help you develop projects for your own classroom. More simply, you can send your students to our web site for inspiration.

If you are still thinking about a Christmas gift, it is never too late for Stone Soup. We are mailing gift announcements every day up until Christmas Eve. And if you are like me, and often wake up just about Christmas time to the awful realization that one has waited too long and there is no way to get a gift in time, just order a subscription and tell your young friend that you have done so. Stone Soup is the perfect gift for budding writers. It offers kids great pleasure throughout the year and is that rare gift that helps kids grow more  expressive and creative.

We are looking for a commitment from you to post at least once a week. The Stone Soup website has approximately 20,000 visitors per month. Web visitor statistics are notoriously difficult to interpret — many people come and go in a matter of seconds — but we can say that several thousands of these visitors spend a reasonable amount of time at our site so we expect that your blog will immediately receive attention.

If you are interested please contact me, William, at the following address: william — at– williamrubel.com.

I look forward to hearing from you.

—————-
Now playing: Sanana Teresa
via FoxyTunes

This is where Stone Soup comes in. Stone Soup plays an invaluable role in the context of the homeschooling environment. It helps you, as the teacher, evaluate where your children place in terms of writing skills with the best students their age. It also offers your child works by other children to inspire them to write and to do their best. We encourage you to look through the sample issue posted on this site, and to look through stories, poems, and book reviews at our archive site.

We offer you a great deal of material at our web site for free, including creative writing curriculum. But it is clear to us from letters we receive from readers that children are uniquely impressed with seeing the work by other children in print and so we encourage you to both make the most of what we offer on this web site, and also to subscribe.