strong imagery
— A boy watches sunset from the ocean shore, sees dolphins leaping, rides waves on a boogie board, and promises to return tomorrow.
— Leaving her family's beach house for the last time this summer, a girl recalls memories of swimming, sailing, and sea turtles while dreading the return to school schedules.
— A girl in princess clothes and sandals joins an all-boys basketball team, endures weeks of mockery, then makes the game-winning shot when it matters most.
— A boy ventures into a hostile winter storm, finding strange comfort in the desolate streets before retreating to the warmth of home.
— A poem defines 'alone' through images of isolation: a homeless man at a grocery store, refugees fleeing, a mother who has lost her children, a turban among baseball caps.
— A poem that defines 'alone' through images of isolation: a homeless man at a grocery store, refugees fleeing, a pillar in rubble, an Iraqi mother, a turban among baseball caps.
— A wooden treasure box carved from Australian jarrah wood tells its centuries-long journey from forest to sailing ship ballast to African railroad ties, now holding memories.
— An Alaskan trapper obsessed with killing a lynx that's been raiding his traps discovers she has a kitten and chooses compassion over profit.
— A boy discovers a hidden world beneath his grandparents' farm where woodpecker-rabbit hybrids attack him with hot embers and ice until his grandfather rescues him.
— A thirteen-year-old writer rises before dawn on the summer solstice to watch the sunrise alone, finding validation for her literary dreams in nature's voice.