authentic voice
— Thirteen playful poems explore opposites, paradoxes, wordplay, and environmental concerns through a child's inventive lens, ending with a critique of materialism versus nature.
— A refugee teen's defiant catalog of what takes courage — building schools, welcoming the homeless, staying human — versus what's easy: destroying, hurting, closing your eyes.
— A child observes a yellow woodpecker pecking at a tree, wonders about its purpose, then watches it glide away like a paper airplane.
— A child observes a tree on the lawn, noting the birds, squirrels, rustling leaves, floating bark, and a flower bud waiting to bloom.
— A dialogue poem between two voices moves from invitation to fly, through a refugee's plea for help, to a declaration of collective strength and resistance.
— A young chess player narrates a winning game, capturing pieces with confidence until achieving checkmate in a moment of triumph.
— A thirteen-year-old discovers her first white hair and spirals through denial, envy, and fear before finding acceptance and a renewed sense of purpose.
— A child's observational poem captures an evening landscape where sea meets shore, birds hunt, stars emerge, and a hen settles into her nest.
— A boy struggles with writer's block on a memoir assignment until his family's support helps him realize he's been living the story he needs to write.
— Katrina's life changes when she befriends Mr. McCumber, a lonely old man, and later finds herself in an orphanage where she forms a chosen family with other orphaned girls.