birds

Story·Max Strebel, age 11 — A boy reluctantly leaves his TV show to help with chores, befriends a squirrel, attempts to rescue it from a hawk, and discovers a new connection to nature.

Story·Isabel Harding, age 13 — During an autumn storm, forest creatures—a squirrel, owl, fox, mole, and others—struggle for shelter and food, their lives intersecting in a complex web of survival.

Poetry·Mark Roberts, age 11 — A morning forest walk becomes a meditation on interconnection as the speaker observes woodpeckers, geese, manzanita trees, and realizes 'I am the tree, soil and sun.'

Story·Annam Nayak, age 12 — A young man who can speak to birds is banished by his father after revealing an unwelcome prophecy, but returns years later wealthy and wise, fulfilling the birds' prediction.

Story·Sophia Stid, age 11 — A girl escapes to a secret clearing in the woods where she experiences brief moments of becoming the creatures around her—squirrel, robin, blade of grass.

Poetry·Jean Hope Sack, age 12 — A girl climbs an ancient Sequoia on her family's tree farm, watches an osprey soar past, and records the moment in her tree-kept poetry book.

Story·Maria Lohr, age 13 — Two sisters on their Florida vacation sunrise walk discover baby sea turtles being attacked by seagulls and devise a plan to save them.

Story·Margaret Bryan, age 10 — A girl treasures a robin's feather and its song, loses the feather to her sister's art project, then rediscovers music's magic through her sister's violin playing.

Poetry·Edie Patterson, age 10 — A meditation on leaving paradise, watching cars diverge on a canyon highway while coyotes howl and a finch lifts off into morning light.

Story·Hannah Mayerfield, age 10 — A reincarnated blue jay, now human, returns to a fountain where they once drank as a bird, mourning lost flight until moonlight brings new hope.