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Story·Monica Del Toral, age 12 — During the Pearl Harbor attack, a young Japanese-American woman searches desperately for her brother among the wreckage while confronting sudden hostility from her neighbors.

Story·Amy Cheetham, age 11 — A sensory tour through an idealized horse farm captures the sights, sounds, and smells of barn life from grain room to arena to pasture.

Story·Caitlin Peterson, age 13 — A family at their cottage befriends a three-legged deer they name Tripod, watching her survive and thrive over six years despite her disability.

Poetry·Max Mendelsohn, age 12 — A celebration of marbles through their sounds, colors, and textures, comparing them to children playing and stars lighting up the world.

Story·Caitlin Peterson, age 13 — Two sisters create a secret midnight world for their stuffed animals in the woods, rebuild it after destruction, and return twenty years later with their own daughters.

Poetry·Natalie Fine, age 12 — A night in a vibrant city comes alive through sensory details — dancing on cobblestones, lights on water, sleeping on doorsteps under a diamond-filled sky.

Story·Katie Russell, age 12 — Five softball-obsessed girls who refuse to outgrow their park face a newcomer in pink who shatters both their expectations and a neighbor's window with one swing.

Poetry·Timmy McWhirter, age 12 — A boy and his grandmother sit outside a dingy trailer, their bright smiles transforming the worn surroundings into something luminous.

Poetry·Rosemary Engelfried, age 13 — A Pacific Northwest autumn storm transforms Douglas firs and ocean cliffs into a world of fog, rain, and distant waves.

Story·Marlee Rosenthal, age 12 — A girl's memory of discovering chicken pot pie with her aunt transforms an ordinary Thursday dinner at Ponzio's into a sensory celebration of family tradition.