January/February 2010

Poetry·Mina Alexandra Oates, age 7 — A winter morning at a lake where steam rises, ducks linger, and observers choose traffic over stillness, missing the quiet moment.

Story·Emmy J. X. Wong, age 12 — A seventh-grader with a lifelong crush on her neighbor plans to reveal her feelings at the Valentine's dance, but gets the flu and misses it—until a midnight mailbox exchange changes...

Story·Dylan J. Sauder, age 13 — A boy hiding in an abandoned Paris theatre discovers ghostly musicians are his mother's orchestra, leading him to his grandfather, the famous conductor Alexandre Mierceles.

Poetry·Eden Amital, age 13 — Gulls fly between mountain peaks while the immobile rocks' shadows dance below, exploring the contrast between movement and stillness in a landscape.

Story·Emma T. Capps, age 12 — A girl hides in her favorite tree before a dreaded doctor's visit, finding solace in the branches and sharing a poem that no one else appreciated.

Book Review·Wendy Mass, Reviewed by Danica Lee — Every Soul a Star, by Wendy Mass; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers: New York, 2008; $15.99 “…the sun will get erased from the sky, the planets will come out...

Story·Mac Vogelsang, age 12 — After his grandfather's death, a boy inherits a lucky penny passed down through generations, only to have bullies steal and throw it in a lake.

Poetry·Devorah Malka Reisner, age 12 — A new student sits alone watching unfamiliar faces until a red-haired girl's kind note transforms isolation into the beginning of friendship.

Story·Josepha Natzke, age 13 — A magnificent buck stands guard at forest's edge, sensing danger, then battles a hungry cougar to protect the sleeping does and fawns.

Story·Katie Mercer-Taylor, age 13 — Two girls meet at a mountain overlook on Anne's last day before moving to California, sharing a moment of understanding about their respective losses and transitions.