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Poetry·Isabel Sutter, age 12 — A girl hangs laundry on a summer day, watching a monarch butterfly and mourning dove while sunlight transforms ordinary towels into an artist's palette.

Poetry·Isaac Kamgar, age 11 — A skier experiences the sensory rush of flying downhill, tasting the sky's blueness while steel edges carve through snow.

Story·Emma Place, age 11 — A girl sailing with her family off the Maine coast slips into the water and rides a dolphin after a pod appears alongside their boat.

Story·Maureen Sullivan, age 12 — A girl reluctantly moves from Wisconsin to Ireland, loses her best friend's photo at the Cliffs of Moher, then discovers a hidden letter from a lonely local girl seeking friendship.

Story·Emmy J. X. Wong, age 12 — A Maine family transforms their seafood restaurant into a tropical paradise when a nor'easter threatens to cancel the parents' long-awaited twentieth anniversary honeymoon to the Bahamas.

Poetry·Anna Elizabeth Blech, age 12 — A gondola ride on a New York lake at dusk becomes a meditation on the city's transformation as day turns to night, ending with the gondolier's Italian song.

Story·Christopher Fifty and Indra Boving, age 11 — A flock of geese migrating south encounters a storm at sea, observing a skipjack crew struggling below before pushing through to reach land.

Story·Jordan Coble, age 12 — A girl disobeys her grandfather's warning and reads a magic book from his library, causing plants and animals to erupt from its pages until he rescues her.

Poetry·Kym Goodsell, age 13 — A child chases a butterfly through morning grass, stumbling but persisting until one finger brushes its wing before it flies away.

Story·Sabrina Wong, age 10 — A young gymnast fails to complete her back walkover during competition but returns to the empty gym afterward and finally succeeds, finding meaning in the unwitnessed achievement.