November 2021

Personal Narrative·Michelle Wang, age 12 — A Chinese immigrant child's first day of American school transforms from terror to tentative hope when a classmate extends a gentle hand of friendship.

Artwork·Penny Gottesman

Poetry·Avery Lakomy, age 12 — A young poet questions why we divide the world into regions when their eyes see only one unified place where all people belong together.

Story·Chloe Leng, age 12 — In a post-COVID dystopia where rich and poor are segregated, a lonely delivery boy discovers an underground society of 'Peacebreakers' who refuse to wear masks or social distance.

Artwork·Sabrina Lu

Personal Narrative·Raya Ilieva, age 10 — During California's 2020 wildfires, a girl wakes to an apocalyptic orange sky and wonders when the world will return to normal.

Artwork·Anna Weinberg

Poetry·Emma Catherine Hoff, age 8 — A child imagines friends attending a funeral in Los Angeles, writes herself a letter from them, then greets their actual return with the comfort of her own fiction.

Poetry·Emma Catherine Hoff, age 8 — A child shares an apricot with a bird that grows arms, carries her away, then transforms into a beaked human named Carry in a world where apricots hang above.

Artwork·Sophia Swanson