US Common Core ELA

Story·Zaki Moustafa, age 13 — A fourteen-year-old Confederate soldier marches through dawn fog to ambush a Union camp, then confronts the horror of killing boys his own age.

Story·Bethany Johnsen, age 13 — Two cousins play an elaborate game of orphan sisters surviving in the jungle, transforming a suburban yard into a world of tigers and adventure.

Poetry·Maya Koretzky, age 12 — A speaker encounters an ancient, painted figure by firelight, and together they lie beneath stars, bridging time through shared wonder.

Story·Maria Lohr, age 13 — Two sisters on their Florida vacation sunrise walk discover baby sea turtles being attacked by seagulls and devise a plan to save them.

Story·Malin Moeller — A boy in an orphanage experiences vivid dreams of a jungle that begin bleeding into reality, leading him to discover his connection to an enslaved ancestor.

Story·Mariel Dempster — A girl sent to an Italian convent school to stop her from painting secretly learns from an old man in the town plaza and ultimately convinces her mother to let...

Story·Steven Lu, age 12 — A boy watches from his hillside home as flood waters from Deer Mountain devastate his village below, imagining the mountain as an angry deity.

Story·Katherine Roth, age 13 — A mother discovers her childhood photo album with her daughter, triggering memories of her last night with best friends before they were separated by different high schools.

Story·Sophia Stid, age 11 — A girl escapes to a secret clearing in the woods where she experiences brief moments of becoming the creatures around her—squirrel, robin, blade of grass.

Poetry·Jean Hope Sack, age 12 — A girl climbs an ancient Sequoia on her family's tree farm, watches an osprey soar past, and records the moment in her tree-kept poetry book.