US Common Core ELA

Poetry·Sevi Ann Stahl, age 10 — A dog named Roo races through a yard in ecstatic motion, turning corners, leaping, and becoming pure joy before skidding to a stop.

Story·Leo Roiphe, age 12 — A boy picking berries transforms into a squirrel and encounters a starving fox, gaining new understanding of nature's harsh realities through their shared moment.

Story·Evelyn Mealer, age 9 — A gymnast who loses her love for the sport after her favorite coach retires discovers she's a talented runner and makes it to the Olympic trials.

Personal Narrative·Elise Cheung, age 8 — A girl visits Taiwan's Houtong Cat Village, where villagers care for hundreds of stray cats, and forms a special connection with a hungry orange tabby kitten.

Poetry·Lucy Rados, age 13 — A beat trapped in the speaker's head both torments and defines them, pulling them through life's extremes while shaping their identity.

Personal Narrative·Augusta Koch-Cochrane, age 12 — A nervous rider at a Halloween Horse Show discovers that personal accomplishment and encouraging others matters more than winning first place.

Story·Ellie Wang, age 9 — A cat named Mayhem creates a magical name-guessing game in a water glass to find a new owner after her beloved human dies, testing each person's true character.

Poetry·Autumn E. Weinreich, age 6 — A young child's rhythmic plea to a new cat, asking it to be their companion and dubbing it 'The Tuna Cat' with playful repetition.

Story·Lily Yagi, age 11 — A dog named Chocolate wakes up abandoned, searches for her owner through city and forest, becomes leader of a wolf pack, then finds her way home after 49 days.

Poetry·Grace Zhuang, age 6 — A child catalogs what brings spring to different things — butterflies to flowers, waves to oceans — then finds their own spring in a kite against the sky.