food

Story·Sophie Stid, age 13 — Every Saturday, four-year-old Elsa and her four sisters walk through Boston, collecting bagels, moon cookies, and laundry, until a broken carousel forces them to create their own magic.

Story·Ryan Gallof, age 13 — Two cousins bond over strawberry picking games after the older brother dismisses them, discovering their own friendship beyond the shadow of the eldest.

Story·William Gwaltney, age 11 — A family's Saturday night visit to a Mexican bakery becomes a sensory journey through pastries, Spanish conversations, and anticipation of Sunday's church crowds.

Poetry·Kelly Dai, age 12 — Thirteen sensory vignettes capture autumn through taste, sound, sight, and feeling, from gingersnaps to geese flying south to the mountain's sigh.

Story·Emmy J. X. Wong, age 11 — A Chinese-American girl struggles with her identity after moving from San Francisco to Boston, finding strength in her grandfather's wisdom about heritage and belonging.

Story·Eleanor Holton, age 10 — During Ireland's potato famine, a boy struggles to support his family after his sister Molly dies of tuberculosis, eventually escaping to America.

Poetry·Nicholas Wilsdorf, age 12 — A boy waits in line at a shaved ice stand, observing others' pleasure before experiencing his own first taste of Gushing Grape.

Story·Alexandria Lenzi, age 13 — In drought-stricken Africa, a girl's beloved zebra friend is sacrificed to save her dying mother, then the rains finally come.

Story·Jessye Holmgren-Sidell, age 13 — During the Irish Potato Famine, a girl on a coffin ship to America remembers losing her family to starvation and the promise she couldn't keep to her dying sister.

Story·Emmy J. X. Wong, age 12 — A Maine family transforms their seafood restaurant into a tropical paradise when a nor'easter threatens to cancel the parents' long-awaited twentieth anniversary honeymoon to the Bahamas.