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Story·Emily Grant, age 12 — A golden stallion who killed a girl's father returns months later, saves her from a barn fire, and earns the family's forgiveness.

Poetry·John Rager, age 12 — A student on a creek field trip catalogs sky and water discoveries, from mud puppies to scraped knees, reluctant to leave when time runs out.

Story·Megan Petty, age 11 — A dog befriends a pregnant wolf cast out from her pack, ultimately choosing to protect her from a hunter and join the wild to prove dogs and wolves can live...

Story·Ani Wilcenski, age 11 — A boy watches snow transform the landscape and records the lives of forest creatures, while his father sees only an eyesore to remove.

Poetry·Zinnia Schwartz, age 10 — A sudden storm transforms a sunny afternoon in the park, sending a child running and slipping on raindrops as darkness overtakes the day.

Story·Jenna Lasby, age 13 — A girl with a walking stick from an old injury rescues her brother from the same river where she was hurt, finding courage through a butterfly's example.

Poetry·Sarah Wood, age 12 — A hummingbird hovers at a window screen, holding the speaker's gaze in a moment of mutual wariness before vanishing in a green streak.

Poetry·Ella Rogers, age 10 — A salmon's perspective during its final leap upstream, narrowly escaping a grizzly bear's jaws before reaching calmer waters.

Story·Jordan Dunaway-Barlow, age 13 — During a thunderstorm, a Native American girl rescues a cardinal trapped in a flooding snake hole, names him Fire, and reluctantly releases him at dawn.

Story·Kathryn Malnight, age 11 — A girl mourns her lost dog Dixon, taken from her family, holding onto hope that he lives somewhere and remembers being loved.