Stone Soup is the international literary magazine and website publishing writing and art by young people under the age of 14. Founded in 1973, we have published more creative work by children than any other publisher, selecting the very best from thousands of submissions every year.

The 120 poems in this volume were written by authors between the ages of four and 13, selected for publication in Stone Soup magazine. Since its beginning in 1973, Stone Soup has published art, poetry, and short fiction springing from the imaginations of young writers and artists. We have been consistently moved and impressed by the thought-provoking and expressive poetry our contributors have composed.

To help the reader through the rich variety of this collection, we have organized it into thematic sections that reflect some of the classic subjects of poetry: the seasons, friends and family, animals, night, nature, and a broader category we describe as reflections. However, every one of those groupings includes poems that touch on deeper themes than the header might hint at--you will find reflective poems about animals, family, and friendships; nature poems as dark as night; and night poems as bright as spring or the dawn. In these poems our writers tell stories about their lives and experiences, they ponder the wonders of the natural world, and they express feelings both personal and universal on subjects from laundry to love. Join them for a refreshing, lyrical, and often profound look at our world, explored and revealed anew through the language of poetry.