Fiction
“Larissa! Get back from there." The voice cut into Lacey's musings like a knife, ripping her daydream and dumping her back in the present. To be precise, 1912. "I won't have you standing that close to the edge of the deck," Lacey's governess, Mrs. Etchman, said apprehensively "What would your mother think?" "She'd probably be [...]
Fiction
Casping peered out of the curtains hiding her in the carriage speeding down a gravel road. A guard on the seat beside her grunted and reached over to pull her back inside. With a sigh of grief and understanding, Casping sat back against the silk-covered seat. She hung her head and let the burning sensation [...]
Fiction
“Mommy, nooo! Don't make me go!" I clutched the leg of my highly embarrassed mother as she tried to calm my fears. It was my first day of preschool and I was terrified. I began to cry even harder when my mom attempted to pry me off of her leg. She told me that she'd [...]
Fiction
Gloria took another deep breath, no luck. The thick musty air still hung heavy in her room, meek rays of sunlight crept out through the slits in the door and captured millions of dust particles surrounding her. She managed to force open a window that had been painted shut, which only served to create more [...]
Fiction
One day in 2003, when I was in fifth grade, Ms. Brune partnered me with Brandon so we could quiz each other for an upcoming test. The desks were pulled into pairs, facing each other. I was glad we were by the window because it was hot that day Brandon sat on his feet the [...]
Fiction
Jack was sick... violently sick. These were the roughest seas they had encountered since leaving Newport News, Virginia, twelve days before. In the hold of the ship, where it was dark and musty, and the smell of diesel fuel assaulted his sensitive nose, Jack and his crate slid this way and that. His thoughts, once [...]
Fiction
The airport is packed. It’s so hot! I wish they had air-conditioning inside the Managua airport. Managua is the capital of Nicaragua. It's nighttime. I can't believe it can be this hot at night. I don't want to know how hot it gets to be during the day. When the porter is taking our bags [...]
Fiction
A nine-year-old girl sat on her parents' bedroom window seat looking out at the stormy, gray sky It's going to rain, thought the girl. It's going to mimic how I feel. Slowly the girl lowered her tear-filled brown eyes to her right knee. It felt a little better now, but just a day earlier she [...]
Poems
The little brown dog huddled up against me breathes deeply knowing he is safe. Crickets chirp outside an owl hoots frogs croak but he sleeps through this snoring on my lap. His body is so warm with each slow breath he heaves his body pushes against mine and he knows that I am still with [...]
Poems
Standing on a stretch of glossy rocks lumps of mussel shells adorned with seaweed advance forward into my grasp. Murky greens color the water in shady reflections, the thought of wind and shadows combined. There is no divider for sky and sea they are intertwined like ivy leaves around each other. For what is not [...]
Poems
Pure, dazzling white Miles of ice blend with miles of snow and snow-covered rock which can be deadly if you don't know where to look A solitary climber winds his way up this mountain stopping only now and then to adjust his tinted snow goggles This high up he almost feels ill overwhelmed by the [...]
Book Reviews
Ingrid and the Wolf, by Andre Alods; Tundra Books: Toronto, zoos; $8.95 When I first looked at the book cover, I imagined how uneventful it would be. But I guess the saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover," is true. As soon as I read the first page, I felt like there was some [...]
Book Reviews
The Rhyming Season, by Edward Averett; Clarion Books: New York, zoo5; $16 When Brenda Jacobsen’s brother Benny died, basketball was never the same again. It wasn't just basketball that changed. Her mom and dad didn't get along well and then the lumber mill shut down. The whole town just seemed upside-down, especially when Brenda's high [...]
