animals

Story·Jamison Freis, age 12 — Beverly Henderson, orphaned in 1950s Idaho, befriends a raccoon named Bandit who later betrays her, causing an explosion that kills her father and leaves her in a 13-year coma.

Story·Sean O'Connor, age 3 — A turtle who sees her imagined worlds as real befriends a dog who helps turn her visions into actual houses they can share.

Story·Alexa Rivera Rockwood, age 12 — A monarch butterfly loses half her wing crossing a polluted city on her migration to Mexico, but continues on foot, determined to be the first to complete the journey.

Poetry·Malcolm Dillehay and Bryan Lux, age 9 — Two boys explain why frogs croak in rain: when clouds made god cry, the clouds turned gray and frogs began croaking 'it's okay' to comfort.

Story·Sierra Glassman, age 13 — A young crane faces exhaustion, cold, and an eagle attack during his first migration over the Himalayas, finally reaching safety in a warm field.

Story·Ava Bush, age 13 — A lonely woolly mammoth at a rigid academic school befriends a creative girl who teaches him about color-emotions, leading to their escape to a colorful utopia.

Story·Andrew Wu, age 11 — A philosophical narrative following four reincarnated beings—seed, insect, fish, and bear—each discovering Nature's cyclical patterns of creation, destruction, and renewal through their brief lives.

Poetry·Grace Jiang, age 11 — A year cycles through the seasons as Little Deer grows from playful fawn to father, echoing his own father's words about preparing for winter.

Story·Ziqing (Izzie) Peng, age 10 — A child describes their city's beauty through the day, then reveals how its bright lights confuse baby sea turtles, causing them to crawl away from the ocean.

Poetry·Patrick Lusa, age 11 — A counting poem tracks a day's progression from winter owls at 2 a.m. through summer heat, using numbers to structure observations of daily life.