friendship

Story·Julia Li, age 12 — A girl feels like an alien at school, invisible until classmates realize her father is rich, then suddenly everyone wants to help her.

Story·Eva Juette, age 11 — In Nazi-occupied Denmark, two girls hide their Jewish friend and her mother in a closet during a terrifying search, transforming a childhood game into survival.

Story·Charlie Kubica, age 11 — A Polish boy moves to Miami with his father and grandmother, facing language barriers and bullying before finding community with other immigrant students in ESL class.

Story·Marlena Rohde, age 12 — Two sisters discover magical golden seaweed that cures illness, but when a greedy friend threatens them for it, they escape to join an underwater community of glowing creatures.

Story·Thomas Faulhaber, age 13 — In a world where middlenames determine destiny, a boy named Robin Burke struggles with his musical heritage until riots against the naming system expose its fundamental flaw.

Story·Rhianna Searle, age 12 — After Trump's 2016 election, two sixth-grade best friends—one Democrat, one Republican—struggle when politics threatens their friendship, until a handmade bracelet offers reconciliation.

Story·Sonja ten Grotenhuis, age 10 — A girl who can't ride a bike faces humiliation at bike camp until she meets Rosie, another struggling rider who offers genuine friendship.

Story·Samantha Abrishani, age 12 — A girl discovers mysterious footprints leading into the ocean, searches for her missing brother, and befriends the reclusive neighbor who reveals she once cared for a dolphin-boy.

Story·Melina Ahmad, age 11 — Two six-year-old best friends spend a perfect day together at a street fair, unaware that boxes in one girl's apartment signal an impending move to California.

Poetry·Stewart Hoelscher — A child's meditation on the moon's solitude and steadfast companionship with Earth, emphasizing its loneliness through repetition.