Fiction
Tendrils of clinging fog rose up off the ice, curling into claws, sinking into my skin, freezing my blood as it pumped through my body. Shaking, I looked around, seeking a friendly face, a familiar face, anything, something that wouldn't leave me feeling so alienated and alone. There was none. The judges' faces were blank, [...]
Fiction
Swish, Swish . . . The repetitive motion of the windshield wipers flicks the tapping droplets to the side. The fog flushes out everything as if someone poured the foam from a soda over San Francisco. Only the tops of the Golden Gate's 746-foot towers protrude out of the milky sky. Going over the bridge, [...]
Fiction
In many ways Aubin Tupper was a lonely child, with no children nearby he thought of as friends. Living out in the country with his parents and little brother, he had homeschooled since grade two—it hadn't taken him long to find out that the public school nearest wasn't for him. He didn't hate learning, more [...]
Fiction
Walking into my father's mud-brick palace, I saw my brother standing in the middle of a plaza. Not stopping to think why he was surrounded by guards, I ran toward him. "Rudiju!" I said. Rudiju was my favorite person in the palace because he always used to play games with me when we were little. [...]
Fiction
Buck felt the wind blow through his shaggy hair as he pounded his way across the frozen forest, his whole pack following half a minute behind. The chase had lasted three days, three long days of running at top pace, his nose continually dipping toward the ground, sniffing for any twist or turn his prey [...]
Fiction
Emily and I were the best of friends. I remember those times when we were four, licking melted ice cream off our fingers in the burning sun. I remember fifth-grade days spent frolicking in the pool in hot and freezing water alike. I remember the seventh-grade blues, where the sorrow of both of our failed [...]
Fiction
Winter Palaces and Ice Ballerinas
It snowed last night, first it came down softly, then hard. My father was watching the news this morning, and told me that my school was cancelled because of the slick ice on the roads. My mother said that Jack Frost had done a good job last night. I could tell he did too. The [...]
Fiction
"Carmen!" Dad's voice rang, crisp with excitement. "Come look what came in today!" Half-heartedly, I swung off the couch and walked heavily to the door. I groaned as I stepped out of the air-conditioning into the stifling summer heat. I jogged to the corral where Dad stood and leaned on the fence next to him. [...]
Poems
She's not the type that jumps off swings But clings to the rusty chains and Drags her feet in the wood chips to stop, Squealing when I tease her by Twisting close on my swing I watch her dismount and Step gingerly away: I pump my legs and lean Backwards way way Way back so [...]
Book Reviews
Flight to Freedom by Ana Veciana-Suarez; Orchard Books: New York, 2002; $16.95 Flight to Freedom by Ana Veciana-Suarez is amazing right from the start. It is definitely a page-turner and will keep you reading for hours. When I first received the book, I wasn't sure I would enjoy reading it. I had second thoughts about [...]
Book Reviews
Virginia Lee Burton: A Life in Art
Virginia Lee Burton: A Life in Art by Barbara Elleman; Houghton Mifflin Company: Boston, 2002; $20 I can still remember when my dad read Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel to me. In fact, my dad remembers when his mother read Mike Mulligan to him. Did you ever wonder what was the story behind the [...]
