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Story·Jack Meyer, age 13 — Two next-door-neighbor boys share mint chocolate chip ice cream and play video games on a windy spring afternoon, their friendship revealed through accumulated details.

Poetry·Adele Stamenov, age 10 — A moment of anxiety dissolves into calm through the ritual of making tea, where milk clouds float in their own suspended world.

Poetry·Julia Marcus, age 13 — A girl traces her name in breath-fog on an evening window, observing how light casts her shadow onto the lawn below.

Personal Narrative·Alicia Xin, age 13 — A privileged teen volunteers at a camp in rural China's Liangshan mountains, where friendships with local Yi children reveal the true meaning of gratitude.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — A girl and her father venture into woods to craft a bow and arrows from oak branches, shooting them into the star-filled evening sky.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — A winter morning walk to art class transforms when the speaker notices the river's muddy ice, mallard, and debris become a still life waiting to be painted.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — A cast iron staircase in a restored Russian school is the only original element remaining, holding memories of young women who once descended with diplomas and dreams of freedom.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — A young visitor to Sobibór death camp touches the train tracks and imagines herself as a child searching for murdered parents.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — A meditation on trust through two contrasting images: a dog with a chess piece and the persistence of hope despite love's impermanence.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — A former police officer now mows lawns and sells oysters, dreaming of sirens while tending rich people's gardens.