This was the last audition for a whole year, and Ella was a nervous wreck Ella wrapped her legs around the cold metal of the folding chair, held her résumé, headshot, and sheet music tightly, and clenched her teeth. She didn’t want the moms sitting in the back and the kids around her to see […]
September/October 2015
Out of My Mind
Out of My Mind, by Sharon M. Draper; Atheneum Books for Young Readers: New York, 2010; $17.99 Eleven-year-old Melody Brooks is a genius. She remembers everything that has ever happened to her, from the lullabies her parents sang to her as a baby to the words from every documentary and TV show she’s ever watched. […]
Dancing Birds
“Beautiful, aren’t they?” It was a cold Sunday morning in the fall. The trees were bare and looked like they needed a coat. The ocean water lapped up against the sand, liquid ice. Two boys played by the beach, each daring the other to go farther into the freezing water. A little girl sat […]
