animals

Story·Rose Fischer, age 12 — A girl's birthday wish for a puppy and amazing drawing skills comes true when her drawings literally come to life, creating chaos at school.

Story·Aiden Chen, age 11 — A tree narrates its life from seed to death, surviving fire, drought, and bears, only to be felled when humans build too close to its trunk.

Poetry·Talia E. Moyo, age 10 — A young writer catalogs the places that shaped her — from African deserts to New Jersey beaches, Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls to French villages — weaving family, food, and a beloved...

Story·Elaina Heinitz, age 10 — A grumpy man captures the town's beloved wake-up bird, but when the whole town mourns its loss, he realizes his mistake and sets it free.

Story·Emily Carver, age 11 — A red wolf named Ruby gets separated from her pack, is tranquilized and relocated to Yellowstone, where she finds a new pack and home after proving herself in battle.

Poetry·Analise Braddock, age 9 — A circus where performers swap acts transforms into animals and objects overnight, then mysteriously returns to normal the next day.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — Morning fog lifts as blackbirds sing and a coyote chases a dog, leaving the speaker wondering who cleared the fog away.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — A meditation on trust through two contrasting images: a dog with a chess piece and the persistence of hope despite love's impermanence.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — A prose poem captures running with a silver poodle by the ocean, where salt air mingles with thoughts of politics and stars emerge from boredom.

Poetry·Tatiana Rebecca Shrayer, age 13 — A prose poem imagines the inner life of a crab—its loneliness, fear, and anger—questioning whether people remember the being they've hurt after mounting it on a wall.