ACARA Years 7-10

Story·Jessica Libor, age 13 — A girl falls from a tree house in 1949 and awakens from a seventeen-year coma to find her family aged, her best friend married to her brother, and the boy...

Story·Alissa Escarce, age 12 — A sixth-grade violinist, the youngest finalist in a school competition, plays brilliantly but doesn't place, learning to transform disappointment into determination for next year.

Story·Chris Heinrich, age 13 — A boy on his first duck hunt with his father struggles between wanting to please his dad and his inability to kill the mallard in his sights.

Story·Jill Cooley, age 13 — A young ballet dancer overcomes stage fright to perform as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, discovering that her emotional connection to dance matters more than technical perfection.

Story·Arielle Gorin, age 13 — A Jewish boy flees to Switzerland with an aging WWI veteran during the Nazi occupation, learning to see beyond hero worship to understand human complexity.

Story·Sophia Emmert, age 13 — A deaf girl discovers she can feel music through vibrations when her teacher shows her how to play piano barefoot, finding her voice through the instrument.

Poetry·Isabel Taylor, age 13 — A young writer expresses the desire to dissolve boundaries between self and nature, imagining feet sinking into dirt, floating as water, swaying in trees.

Poetry·Zoe Savishinsky, age 12 — A poem confronts a classmate who casually weaponized the speaker's adoption status, exploring how thoughtless words can shatter trust and leave lasting wounds.

Story·Alexandra Orczyk, age 12 — A girl loses her childhood best friend when their families take opposite sides during the American Revolution's Stamp Act crisis, their final parting at a harbor as he sails away.

Story·Leslie Pearsall — After her sister's fatal riding accident, Dylan struggles with her mother's overprotectiveness until her own fall forces her to choose between her passion for horses and her mother's peace of...