US Common Core ELA
— A young writer describes the frustration of writer's block like drowning in lava and the relief of finding words like sleeping on a smooth waterfall.
— A young writer describes preparing for the journey into imagination like bundling up for winter, knowing she might not find her way back.
— A dreamlike poem where nothing and noone inhabit a valley of inverted colors and upside-down trees, until someone and everyone arrive to paint the sky with love.
— A boy's stream of anxious questions about loneliness, belonging, and fear spirals into a plea for connection and normalcy.
— An alien's confused observations of human life, mixing up body parts and behaviors based on misunderstood information from 'a piece of paper.'
— A young writer explains how the tooth fairy works, from the fairy's tiny wings to the exchange of clean teeth for money under pillows.
— A young writer describes the physical and emotional sensations of writing, from smoothness to nervousness to the monstrous feeling of being stuck.
— A grieving girl flees a school field trip on horseback, convinced that reaching a distant tree line will restore her dead father and lost life.
— A child's meditation on the moon's solitude and steadfast companionship with Earth, emphasizing its loneliness through repetition.
— A girl who visits graves meets the ghost of Ada Lee Clemmons, an eleven-year-old who died in 1907, and realizes she's been keeping the forgotten child company.