Stories

Story·Oliver Giller, age 10 — A boy who counts his 2,476 hairs discovers one is missing and hires a suspicious detective who charges $100 to solve the case.

Story·Vandana Ravi, age 12 — A girl's morning bike ride to school becomes a meditation on class differences and gratitude, finding beauty in her modest neighborhood despite glimpses of wealth.

Story·Emma McKinny, age 13 — A girl attends her father's opening night performance in an opera about the atomic bomb, where the show's depiction of nuclear devastation awakens her anger about historical injustice.

Story·Alex Berman, age 13 — A whimsical origin story explains how the floating, two-eyed giiants of Chocolate Lemon island became the one-eyed cyclopes we know today.

Story·Sierra Glassman, age 13 — A young crane faces exhaustion, cold, and an eagle attack during his first migration over the Himalayas, finally reaching safety in a warm field.

Story·Daniel Shaw, age 11 — A boy reflects on the tree outside his old bedroom window—his silent companion through childhood frustrations—and its loss in a hurricane, while settling into a new room with a new...

Story·Hudson Benites, age 11 — In a climate-ravaged future, an old person who preserved each season in jars watches a child accidentally break one, releasing spring back into the world.

Story·Carmen Flax, age 10 — A ghostly lilac figure wanders through pine forests and black rivers on an October night, crying out in sorrow before retreating into shadows.

Story·Salena Tang, age 13 — A girl with synesthesia who tastes words and memorizes dictionaries finds connection through a spelling bee competition, transforming from isolated to confident.

Story·Ava Bush, age 13 — A lonely woolly mammoth at a rigid academic school befriends a creative girl who teaches him about color-emotions, leading to their escape to a colorful utopia.