humor

Story·Translated from Urdu by Zahraa Haq, Art by Karuna Yang — A forgetful servant trying to remember the word for salt keeps adopting new phrases from people he meets, creating misunderstandings until a cobbler accidentally reminds him.

Personal Narrative·Noah Xia — A young artist celebrates their messy desk, inherited from their father, as a companion through creative adventures and a witness to growing up.

Story·Abigail Sun — Two girls building a snowman discover that many light snowflakes together become surprisingly heavy, then their creation magically waves at them.

Story·Aaron Bogner — An alien boy playing hide-and-seek accidentally gets sealed in a delivery box and shipped across his massive city before being discovered and returned home.

Personal Narrative·Carolina Ulloa-Compton — A four-year-old puts a bean in her ear during preschool nap time, keeps it secret for days, and finally gets it removed at a foreign object removal clinic.

Poetry·Luka Simpson-Khan — A witch narrates her daily routine of potion-making, mushroom hunting, fortune-telling, and mirror-breaking, all told with playful rhyming couplets.

Poetry·Enni Harlan — In a grocery store's frozen aisle, siblings shiver in T-shirts while their mother shops, finding warmth in imagined tastes and makeshift shopping-bag capes.

Story·Avah Dodson — A hero confronts a dragon but finds herself debating philosophy when the dragon challenges her assumptions about good and evil, ending with an invitation to tea.

Story·Cadence Bertsch — A dragon with weak fire nearly freezes to death in a snowstorm until humans in a cave share their food and warmth, changing the dragon's view of humanity.

Poetry·Emma Hoff, age 9 — A girl recounts a week on a farm where cats have the wrong names, adventures lead through tick-filled grass, and moments are too perfect for words.