authentic voice

Story·Kyra Yip, age 11 — A girl with severe food allergies navigates birthday parties, medical emergencies, and social awkwardness, ultimately finding strength in her difference rather than shame.

Poetry·Irene Surprenant, age 8 — A young poet celebrates flowers with exuberant appreciation for their colors, scents, and daily presence in the natural world.

Poetry·Irene Surprenant, age 8 — A wave narrates its experiences through changing weather, from gentle shore-lapping to tsunamis, lamenting pollution while celebrating the cycle of marine life.

Story·Freya Jones, age 13 — A 13-year-old chronicles raising her 4-H pig Ash from spring to fair, knowing she'll have to sell him for slaughter, wrestling with love and loss.

Story·Rose Zimmerman, age 7 — A family camping on their way to Oregon encounters bears eating their leftovers under the stars, turning a routine stop into a magical moment.

Poetry·Eva Bandy, age 9 — A child stands frozen in autumn leaves, feeling deep sorrow for their death and unable to step on them.

Poetry·Charlie McDermott, age 13 — Wind attempts to teach bare trees to dance, but they thrash awkwardly; the speaker wishes to become the wind's pupil instead.

Poetry·Georgia Marshall, age 9 — A joyful poem captures the moment of escape from city to meadow, culminating in a spontaneous marriage proposal during a 'violet break' in nature.

Story·Seven Guo, age 6 — In a rainforest, a poor girl meets a magic butterfly who grants her wish for wealth, but the family quickly spends all the gold and ends up poor again.

Story·Yanni Yohannes, age 9 — A six-year-old dreams of creating an immortality potion, achieves it as an adult through a meteor fragment, becomes wealthy, then loses everything and returns to normal life.