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Poetry·Meghan Waldron, age 13 — A summer evening unfolds through sensory details — grass brushing knees, bats circling overhead, bullfrogs calling goodnight as day turns to twilight.

Story·Ellie Woody, age 13 — An adopted Korean girl visits her birth village on Easter, confronting the life she might have lived before choosing the family who raised her.

Poetry·Genevieve Jacobs, age 12 — A bearded dragon observes its reflection in terrarium glass, mistaking it for another lizard until the heat lamp clicks off and the illusion vanishes.

Story·Ennya Papastoitsis, age 11 — A family's ritual of baking chocolate-chip cookies becomes a meditation on memory, tradition, and the passage from childhood tea parties to present-day conversations.

Story·Molly O'Toole, age 12 — A girl finally gets her turn to be Lucia in her Swedish family's St. Lucia Day celebration, but forgets the words to the traditional song at the crucial moment.

Story·Abigail Johnson, age 12 — After losing their mother in a car accident that leaves five-year-old Marcella unconscious, siblings Ellie and Luke wait anxiously in the hospital until Ellie's handmade poster helps welcome Marcella back...

Story·Nate Sheehan, age 12 — A Japanese boy moves to America in 1956 and faces bullying until a friend named Conrad stands up for him, ultimately getting expelled for defending him in a fight.

Poetry·Jordan Guberman, age 12 — A child and grandmother bake bread together in an old kitchen, sharing laughter, sneaking batter, and talking about life while waiting for the loaf to rise.

Poetry·Katherine Shock, age 12 — Morning light filters through as a girl and her cat share a quiet moment of connection, curling together in the gray-gold dawn.

Story·Morgan Biagioni, age 13 — After a fight with her mother about fitness, a girl flees to her rooftop refuge and realizes that having a mother, even an imperfect one, is a gift.