Stories

Story·Iona Swift, age 12 — After losing a theater role, a girl flees to a creek where nature's calm gradually soothes her devastation and helps her find peace.

Story·Claudia Ross, age 13 — Walking a valley trail after elementary school graduation, a girl finds a broken eggshell and realizes the hawks circling her are searching for it.

Story·Timmi Ruth Kline, age 11 — A young Egyptian girl yearns to help build Pharaoh Cheops' pyramid while managing household duties and missing her parents, who return unexpectedly at story's end.

Story·Emma Place, age 11 — A girl sailing with her family off the Maine coast slips into the water and rides a dolphin after a pod appears alongside their boat.

Story·Jordan Coble, age 12 — A girl disobeys her grandfather's warning and reads a magic book from his library, causing plants and animals to erupt from its pages until he rescues her.

Story·Maureen Sullivan, age 12 — A girl reluctantly moves from Wisconsin to Ireland, loses her best friend's photo at the Cliffs of Moher, then discovers a hidden letter from a lonely local girl seeking friendship.

Story·Sabrina Wong, age 10 — A young gymnast fails to complete her back walkover during competition but returns to the empty gym afterward and finally succeeds, finding meaning in the unwitnessed achievement.

Story·Lena Greenberg, age 11 — Two sisters who once shared an imaginary world called the Blueberry Family drift apart after moving to Connecticut, until a forgotten lunch brings understanding.

Story·Isabel Sutter, age 12 — Two sisters race across neighboring lawns, the older rediscovering the pure joy of running barefoot through grass on a summer day.

Story·Emmy J. X. Wong, age 12 — A Maine family transforms their seafood restaurant into a tropical paradise when a nor'easter threatens to cancel the parents' long-awaited twentieth anniversary honeymoon to the Bahamas.