authentic voice
— A boy confronts his fear of spiders during a nighttime trip to the garage refrigerator, learning to see them as fellow creatures just trying to survive.
— A young writer explains how the tooth fairy works, from the fairy's tiny wings to the exchange of clean teeth for money under pillows.
— A young writer describes the physical and emotional sensations of writing, from smoothness to nervousness to the monstrous feeling of being stuck.
— A grieving girl flees a school field trip on horseback, convinced that reaching a distant tree line will restore her dead father and lost life.
— A child's meditation on the moon's solitude and steadfast companionship with Earth, emphasizing its loneliness through repetition.
— In 1953, an eight-year-old Black girl secretly befriends a white girl through a hole in the fence dividing their neighborhoods, until Brown v. Board changes everything.
— A teacher introduces experimental poetry written by multilingual students in Shanghai, created through unconventional writing prompts designed to spark wild imagination.
— A young writer describes the frustration of writer's block like drowning in lava and the relief of finding words like sleeping on a smooth waterfall.
— A young writer describes preparing for the journey into imagination like bundling up for winter, knowing she might not find her way back.
— A boy's stream of anxious questions about loneliness, belonging, and fear spirals into a plea for connection and normalcy.