ACARA Years 3-6

Story·Sariel Nana Friedman, age 10 — A girl visits the family's summer cottage while her father is at war, discovering she can feel joy even amid sadness when her brother lifts her over the waves.

Poetry·Anna Preston, age 12 — A frog on a lily pad becomes a graceful dancer, tensing and leaping through rain to catch her dinner with a flick of her tongue.

Story·Brigid Cami, age 13 — A girl rushes through homework to spend thirty minutes by a lake, feeding ducks and contemplating the vast sky and her future.

Story·Adanma Raymond, age 12 — A girl anxiously waits by the phone for news of her mother giving birth, then meets her new baby brother Zachary at the hospital.

Story·Alexis Colleen Hosticka, age 12 — A thirteen-year-old who has hidden her love of animals since childhood finally reveals her secret when she volunteers at an animal shelter and falls for a kitten named Cinnamon.

Story·Emily Livaudais, age 11 — A girl moves to Iceland after her parents die, discovers her grandmother once lived there, and finds comfort in a special doll her grandmother arranged for her to receive.

Story·Grace Watson-Martin, age 11 — A young enslaved girl and her mother escape to freedom after Rachel is sold to a slave trader, running through woods and hiding in safe houses along the Underground Railroad.

Story·Alana Yang, age 12 — A seventh grader sneaks out at midnight to her childhood faerie circle and witnesses real faeries dancing under the full moon, who spell her name in daisies and leave her...

Story·Alice Mar-Abe, age 11 — A girl's beloved neighborhood market closes, teaching her through the owner's wisdom about accepting change while cherishing memories.

Story·Connor Pickens, age 13 — During a Boy Scout hike in California, two boys spot a forest fire and must lead their troop in a desperate race to reach a ranger station before the flames...