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Contents

The Sparrow

I glide gracefully, looking down at the world below me. I swoop over the trees, adjusting my wing to catch the breeze. I feel the strong winds blow over me, calming my thoughts. I am a sparrow, I think to myself. I am me. As I think this, I get a bad feeling. I look [...]

My Dad’s Birthday I’ll Never Forget

My dad’s zebra hair was black with a few specks of white. It was his forty-first birthday. It seems that as each year passes, his hair gets more and more white. We were planning to celebrate his birthday with a special family dinner. We were going to a restaurant called Atlantic Grill. It was May [...]

Tear Drop’s Legacy

The captain of the ship Sea Horse sat back in his chair and drank a long drain of his coffee. They were almost to Spain, their destination, and the only mishap had been the thunderstorm a day ago. He contemplated this fact, and had just decided that this had been the most uneventful voyage yet, [...]

Masked

Gemma was shielding herself from a sandstorm of dandelion seeds. Her tutor, Dominick Vickson, and herself were right at the core of a lush field. “As you can see,” Dominick called above the strong summer wind, as they made their way through the long, fine, green stalks, “wind is another form of seed dispersal. So [...]

River God

We sat there, under the tree, our tree. The tree with the leaves that spread to the sun like helping hands. The tree with the tall trunk and cool shade. “It’s hot,” I complained, fanning myself with the back of my hand, the mid-August sun beating down from the unforgiving sun. Mimi stood up. Her [...]

Wordless

I cannot speak today. Instead, I must act out every word in charades or write it down on a pad of paper. I carry the pad of paper around with me, scraps of my life written down in faint pencil. “I already had breakfast,” says one. Another: “Daddy’s at the grocery store.” And, written heavily [...]

Dreaming

“I wish I was like them, the seals,” I say to Russ, still a little dazed. “Why the seals? Why not any of the other animals we have seen?” Russ asks with a puzzled look on his face. “Because they are so free in their own little world with no problems at all,” I think [...]

The Last Last Day

It was the last day. Names and Have a great summers Had been scribbled into yearbooks. Presents had been lovingly handed to teachers. For six years, we’d had last days. We’d sung cute little songs, And signed the yearbooks, The amount of friends growing each year. We’d always seen them—the oldest kids— Going to the [...]

Down at the Dock

By Rebecca Mitkus Wishnie Down at the dock when all is dark, my footsteps clang and echo on the metal corridor above the ocean. Filling the near silence, accompanying the shhhh of the waves and the thud thump of the silver boats knocking on the dock. And the sssss... callop sssss... callop of the white-crested [...]

Love, Aubrey

Love, Aubrey, by Suzanne LaFleur; Wendy Lamb Books: New York, 2009; $15.99 Have you ever read a book that is, in every way, perfect? Have you ever read a book conveying a character so well that you feel as if you know them? That’s how I felt after that first delicious read of Love, Aubrey. [...]