ACARA Years 3-6

Story·Zack Bell, age 13 — A boy plays fetch with his golden retriever, gives her a reluctant bath, then they rest together watching clouds—a perfect day he'd relive forever.

Poetry·Andrea Begin, age 12 — A speaker accidentally rips a map and imagines the torn paper could magically bring her closer to a distant friend she misses.

Story·Emma Loizeaux, age 11 — A girl recalls waking at 4:30 AM to climb Panther Mountain with her mother and grandparents, eating hard-boiled eggs while watching the sunrise from the summit.

Story·Philip Grayeski, age 11 — A boy bonds with his grandfather through fishing trips and flying lessons in the Red Comet plane, then inherits the aircraft after his grandfather's death from cancer.

Story·Audrey Crockett, age 12 — A girl finds her perfect horse at a failing stable, but when her superstitious mother refuses, she creates an elaborate scheme involving a fake dream to change her mind.

Poetry·Mark Roberts, age 11 — A morning forest walk becomes a meditation on interconnection as the speaker observes woodpeckers, geese, manzanita trees, and realizes 'I am the tree, soil and sun.'

Story·Amy Cheetham, age 11 — A sensory tour through an idealized horse farm captures the sights, sounds, and smells of barn life from grain room to arena to pasture.

Story·Caitlin Peterson, age 13 — A family at their cottage befriends a three-legged deer they name Tripod, watching her survive and thrive over six years despite her disability.

Story·Preston Craig, age 10 — A lonely girl at her father's wolf release center befriends an outcast wolf named Lupus, helping him rejoin a pack before his release into the wild.

Poetry·Katie Ferman, age 11 — A child recalls traveling interstate routes with her father, listening to Willie Nelson, wishing she could relive that hazy memory a thousand times.