humor

Story·Marcus R. Bosley, age 10 — Ancient gods create humans and give them leaves for clothing and shelter, but when humans grow greedy and attack the gods' palace, the gods curse them to lose leaves each...

Personal Narrative·Kyle Wu, age 9 — A nine-year-old experiences his first total solar eclipse from a South Carolina balcony, mixing scientific facts with sensory details and family moments.

Poetry·Sterling Waterfield, age 11 — A young philosopher questions why things are named what they are, why humans dominate, and ultimately decides to accept the world's strange design.

Poetry·Ari Martinez, age 9 — A playful exploration of mistakes through wordplay, comparing them to tissues on cake and balloons on garbage cans, then deconstructing the word itself.

Story·Sabrina Feldberg, age 12 — A Chicago teen resenting her family's move to San Francisco transforms into a fish at the beach, navigating dangers before accepting her new home.

Poetry·Isaiah Albro, age 7 — A lion and house cat race across continents so fast that a rock falls on the king of France, with the lion winning.

Story·Jerry Xia — 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.

Poetry·Sophia Dahlin — A teacher introduces experimental poetry written by multilingual students in Shanghai, created through unconventional writing prompts designed to spark wild imagination.

Poetry·Gilbert Huang, age 9 — An alien's confused observations of human life, mixing up body parts and behaviors based on misunderstood information from 'a piece of paper.'

Story·Ralston Frattarola, age 12 — A seventh-grader who loves baking in a family that doesn't understand him proves his worth by making extraordinary brownies that win them over.