Fiction
On a cool, fall afternoon a young girl ran home from school. She pushed her straight, brown hair out of her eyes as she neared her house. She could not wait to tell her parents the exciting news. "Mom! Mom!" The girl burst through the kitchen door. Her mother looked up from peeling potatoes for [...]
Fiction
At the very western tip of the world lies a land of clear waters and cold winters, where wild storms turn the sky and sea to dark gray, and white-sailed fishing boats once glided like swans over white-crested waves. During one particularly fearsome storm, where thunder crashed and lightning lit up the sky for miles, [...]
Fiction
The latch creaks gently as I push open the gate. In front of me, a small potting shed covered with wild roses blocks my view. But I already know by heart what lies beyond. And sure enough, as I walk around the corner of the shed, the sight of a familiar garden greets my eyes. [...]
Fiction
Today I go into candy shops and see little bottles of liquid Warhead sour substances and Warhead sour spray. But I can never find what I am really looking for: sour, sweat-producing, face-pinching, tongue-twisting, and eye-watering, irresistible, Warhead sucking candies. I know it sounds weird making so much fuss over something so little as a [...]
Fiction
“They're crazy!" shouted my father, bursting through the door and coming in for dinner. Mother, careworn and ever patient, calmly laid the bowls for supper. "Now, Jim," she said practically, filling our bowls with warm soup. That was what she always said when Father got excited. "I mean it Mabel!" he said, lifting his arms [...]
Fiction
Shannon lifted her head and howled into the empty black sky. It was a sad, mournful song, shattering the cold silence. Slowly the old wolf dipped her muzzle to her toes in a sort of bow. Her graying white coat bristled slightly in the chilly breeze. Snow surrounded her, looking like a big, beautiful quilt [...]
Fiction
Someone’s trust can take years to gain, but only seconds to lose. Revving the motor of my best friend's dirt bike always gave me a thrill. Yet, nothing could compare to the feeling of zooming down the back roads by my beach house on a warm, summer day. As I switched gears from first to [...]
Poems
Leaving my dear country made me sad, made me miss all that was worth remembering the food like foutou the food like attieke the food like aloko. Leaving my African country made me mourn, made me long for the people like the Baoule the people like the Senefou the people like the Dan. Leaving Cote [...]
Poems
Soft, quiet, a blanket of books, Turn left, left again, up the stairs, Feet finding the usual route. Passing comrades, enclosed in words, To the end of the row, near the window, The chair, my haven, Of books. I don't notice when it grows dark, Outside, I don't look up from the knights, And dragons, [...]
Book Reviews
The Waterless Sea: Book Two in the Chanters of Tremaris Trilogy
The Waterless Sea: Book Two in the Chanters of Tremaris Trilogy, by Kate Constable; Arthur A. Levine Books: New York, 2005; $16.95 Before I even begin writing this review, let me tell you, the glorious reader, about my two beliefs concerning fantasy novels. First, there is such a thing as sappy fantasy In fact, there [...]
Book Reviews
The Truth About Sparrows, by Marian Hale; Henry Holt and Company: New York, 2oo4; $16.95 The truth about sparrows takes you right back into the Great Depression. From the minute you open the book, all of Sadie Wynn's burdens will be yours. From the very beginning: having to give up a home, the only home [...]
