animals

Poetry·Luka Simpson-Khan — A witch narrates her daily routine of potion-making, mushroom hunting, fortune-telling, and mirror-breaking, all told with playful rhyming couplets.

Story·Ava Jamieson — A girl finds a dying kitten in the snow and her veterinary-student sister saves it, bringing the sisters closer after growing apart.

Story·Cadence Bertsch — A dragon with weak fire nearly freezes to death in a snowstorm until humans in a cave share their food and warmth, changing the dragon's view of humanity.

Poetry·Emma Hoff, age 9 — A nine-year-old observes the borrowed life of a rented farmhouse—fake flowers, visiting cats, painted oceans—cataloging what is temporary and what endures.

Poetry·Emma Hoff, age 9 — A girl recounts a week on a farm where cats have the wrong names, adventures lead through tick-filled grass, and moments are too perfect for words.

Poetry·Emma Hoff, age 9 — A child describes the frozen world inside a Henri Rousseau painting where a tiger sits tamed, a man holds blank paper, and nothing moves or grows despite appearing alive.

Personal Narrative·Teresa He, age 11 — A girl recalls three years of observing squirrels, rabbits, and birds from her Illinois home's windows before returning to China.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 10 — A disembodied perspective from a ditch observes the world above—sun, sky, ladybugs—while grass grows wild around what remains.

Poetry·Eily A. Chiu, age 9 — A child greets morning in a garden filled with roosters, geese, flowers, and a brook, experiencing each element as a gift from the natural world.

Personal Narrative·Michael Chao, age 13 — A boy rescues two abandoned baby hummingbirds from a tennis court and raises them by hand, learning to feed and care for them until they're ready to return to the...