ACARA Years 7-10

Poetry·Woody Szydlik, age 12 — A young poet contemplates the Continental Divide, finding excitement in the engineering feat and the symbolic boundary between watersheds and oceans.

Poetry·Woody Szydlik, age 12 — A meditation on escaping into TV shows versus facing the messy reality of life, ending with the speaker choosing to walk into 'fresh, impure air.'

Poetry·Woody Szydlik, age 12 — A student calculates how to spend the six minutes before online math class, watching pedestrians replace morning birds while time takes on new meaning.

Poetry·Ava Espinoza, age 12 — A word discovered in a box pursues the narrator, invading their mind and triggering painful memories whenever someone speaks it aloud.

Personal Narrative·Sonia Teodorescu, age 13 — A girl labeled 'alien' by her friend for her waterproof hair and quirks observes the equally strange behaviors of everyone around her at what seems to be a summer camp.

Story·Chamonix Fernandes, age 11 — A World War II veteran visits his best friend's grave, triggering memories of the day Joseph died saving him in a jungle ambush.

Story·Oren Milgrom-Dorfman, age 12 — A girl escapes her parents on a forest hike, then later that night returns to the woods alone to weep in a moonlit clearing.

Story·Charlotte Moore, age 12 — A lonely girl exploring a castle during a field trip gets trapped in a closet and meets Jane, a mysterious servant girl who wants to be best friends forever.

Poetry·Rainer Pasca, age 14 — A child imagines living inside a snow globe where friends appear during a blizzard, counting snowflakes and jumping like glitter in the swirling water.

Poetry·Rainer Pasca, age 14 — A sensory-rich prose poem captures the disorienting joy of falling into snow, where time slows and the world transforms into crystal whispers and flying lights.