Frequency Bi-monthly Country USA | Year founded 1973 Based in Santa Cruz, California | |
Editor William Rubel and Gerry Mandel Categories Literary magazine
Juvenilia | ||
Stone Soup is a literary magazine for children that publishes writing and art created by children from all over the world. The magazine was founded in 1973 by college students at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Their purpose was to “encourage youngsters to use writing as a way to talk about their lives.” They continue to run the publication today from their offices in Santa Cruz, California. Booklist described Stone Soup’s editorial philosophy as “children can meet the highest standard of literature and art.”
Description
Most of Stone Soup's readership lives in the US or Canada, but subscribers come from 40 different countries, according to the editors. The magazine is published six times a year, in January, March, May, July, September, and November. Each issue of Stone Soup is 48 pages and contains 10 to 15 written selections by children, including stories, poems and book reviews by primarily 8 to 13-year-old contributors. Artists aged 13 or under illustrate every cover and story. Photos of the authors and illustrators accompany their work. Additionally, issues include letters from readers in a section called “The Mailbox,” as well as an editor’s note. The Children’s Art Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, publishes the magazine.
Children’s written stories and poems can be either fiction or non-fiction, and editor Gerry Mandel told The Washington Times she searches out work “from the heart” that “combines both beautiful writing and original ideas.”
Published authors include an 11-year-old girl who wrote about her family coming together after her mother’s death from breast cancer; a 10-year-old girl whose family survived a hurricane; a 13-year-old boy who remembered how his childhood fort was destroyed by a bulldozer and new construction; and an 11-year-old boy who created an original fiction piece about a boy waking up to find his family has turned into pigs.
In 1989, Stone Soup’s editors published an issue focusing solely on the art, stories and photographs created by Navajo children growing up on an Indian reservation. “We publish work by kids who, like adult writers, ... have things to say.” Mandel said to Curriculum Administrator.