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Contents

Family

The thing about family is, they’re always there for you. No matter the circumstances. They don’t care if you’re ugly, or dress right, they just care that you are you. They love you. I am searching for my family. I have lived in different houses, with different mothers and fathers, uncles and aunts, but I [...]

Lost by Liberty

TODAY t’s an almost perfect day. The sun has just come out after a long lazy nap in the clouds. It’s the kind of day when elves and unicorns and faeries can be found. And if you climbed to the very top of the largest oak you’d see a rainbow. It’s the same kind of [...]

Yellow Rose

My name is Yellow Rose. My dad says my mama loved that name, because it reminded her of sunshine and cheerful gardens. I love it too, but Dad says you simply can’t go around saying, “Good day, Yellow Rose,” or “How are you, Yellow Rose,” or “What do you want for breakfast, Yellow Rose,” so [...]

Speak

You never truly know what you have, until you try to live without it. Until something you love is taken, you don’t know how fortunate you are. You take everyday things for granted, like listening to the wind swirl around the branches of a giant oak or hearing the night owls call farewell to each [...]

Freedom to Fly

An eleven-year-old girl woke up on a patch of sunlit sand. Her small elfish ears picked up the sound of crashing waves and the rustling of bushes and the dense canopy of intertwining branches and leaves to her right. Her green eyes opened slowly, first slits, and then wide open and darting quickly over her [...]

The Boy Fictionalist

For all my life, I had hated writing. In fact, I had loathed it. When we were at school, our class would have to do writing exercises every day. My teacher, Ms. Sanders, would write a seemingly random topic on our whiteboard every morning. Before the end of class, each and every one of us [...]

Welcome Home

Our car, rusted red paint and all, squeaks into the driveway. It lurches to a stop, shoving Mom and me forward in our seats. The boxes in the back shift, slamming against the sides of the trunk. I shut my door with a bang and stand, staring at the ugly brown house directly in front [...]

The Search for Literature

I run my fingers across the shelves Waiting for one to catch my eye Row after row my fingers run Failure takes a step closer But there in the dusty corner Hidden by the screen of forget Lies the love of my life that will only last a couple of hours Bright red with gold [...]

3:30 A.M.

At 3:30 A.M. I gradually rise from my ocean of sleep Away from the trenches of unconsciousness Where lantern-fish dreams lurk. Tick, tick, tick The dutiful second hand is making itself dizzy again. Whirr… The fish tank motor sounds throughout the night. It is dark Yet I can see outlines of posters on my wall. [...]

My Deepest Desires

I want to be one with the earth I want to sink my feet into the soft dirt and feel no difference between myself and the world      around me. I want to slip into the cool river water and float as if I am made of it. I want to climb the tallest trees and [...]

Adopted

We walked home together. We talked about schoolwork,    and then you said, “You are adopted. I’m sorry.” Sometimes you commented on the dirt on my clothes    as we walked out of school. But this felt different, like we were at a party and all of a sudden    the music stopped and everyone stared at me. [...]

The Pet War

The Pet War, by Allan Woodrow; Scholastic Press: New York, 2015; $4.99 When I read books I always set my expectations low, and also, I reluctantly admit I literally sometimes judge a book by its cover. The cover of The Pet War is a cartoonish picture of a dog staring down a cat, and that’s [...]

We Will Not Be Silent

We Will Not Be Silent, by Russell Freedman; Clarion Books: New York, 2016; $17.99 “They could have chosen to throw bombs.” Not often in history are peaceful attempts to disrupt political regimes successful. However, Russell Freedman’s We Will Not Be Silent captures one of the past’s greatest peaceful movements, which proved that the pen—or, in [...]