Something special: Mary G. Lane's first publication!

Kids can do wonderful things.

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Dear friends,

My daughter, Mary, has asked me to share her first publication with you, and I am proud to do so. Please enjoy her book review, “A Town Girl’s Year in the Countryside,” on the Stone Soup Magazine blog. Mary wrote this piece last year, when she was in fifth grade.

Mary has also had a poem accepted for the print version of Stone Soup. That issue will likely come out later this year, when the poem will also appear on the website, along with a video of Mary doing a reading of her work.

When I was pregnant with Mary (overseas), all I could stomach was gummi Smurfs and macarons. Sometimes fries and Coke.

Young authors remind me that children can do wonderful things. While much of childhood feels like preparation, it is also about living. Why shouldn’t a child submit something to a magazine or website, if they want to? Stone Soup is unique in that it solicits submissions exclusively from children, allowing them to participate early on in published public intellectual and creative life; but why should a child not submit anywhere, as long as the publication’s rules allow, and as long as the child is willing to undergo rejection along the way?

Bravo to Stone Soup and other publications that encourage and support young people.

Go get ‘em, Mary!

Warmly yours,

Dixie