authentic voice
— In this installment of a fantasy novella, Elana cures Henry's paint-fainting sickness, recruits gingerbread workers for an army, and infiltrates Casey's castle using magical lightning rope.
— A meditation on feeling trapped by others' expectations transforms into a plea for empathy and a vision of freedom through flight and song.
— A young writer explores the gap between how peers see her—aloof, friendless—and how she sees herself: kind, connected, surviving through writing.
— After falling during pointe hops at Russian ballet camp, a shy dancer gains strength and confidence through a roommate's patient coaching and encouragement.
— A poem about the sudden, irresistible pull of nature that draws you outside to turn cartwheels under the moon and watch the world spin.
— A lake speaks through a young swimmer, revealing both its natural beauty—kingfishers, trout, pines—and the damage humans have inflicted upon it.
— A teenage surfer faces the same deadly waves that killed his father at the Mavericks competition, then risks everything to save his friend from drowning.
— A crow flies free from troubles, basking in sun, her firm voice neither screaming nor complacent, taking only what's unwanted like vultures do.
— A young poet climbs a mountain path, sensing ancestral footsteps and wanting to merge with the landscape's accumulated stories and secrets.
— A digger at a World War III archaeological site discovers a general's journal that reveals how soldiers were lost in a catastrophic storm, changing his family's fortunes.