loss

Poetry·Rebecca Beaver, age 13 — A speaker confronts the loss of their heart to the moon, becoming a whisper of their former self in this surreal exploration of identity and emptiness.

Poetry·Sara Chebili, age 13 — A grandson builds a chair beside an avocado tree he planted, hoping to help his grandmother with memory loss remember their shared moments by the shore.

Story·Bailey Curtin, age 11 — After her sister Jade dies from a brain tumor, Cate steals some ashes and walks to a PEI beach where a mysterious dove appears and draws their family's safety symbol...

Story·Sadie Perkins, age 13 — A girl visits her dying grandmother in a nursing home, struggles with grief after her death, then feels her grandmother's presence return to comfort her.

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·Rafi Mohammed, age 10 — A lost red balloon travels the world searching for the child who let go, eventually finding freedom in Antarctica among millions of other balloons.

Story·Raina Sawyer, age 11 — A grieving girl flees a school field trip on horseback, convinced that reaching a distant tree line will restore her dead father and lost life.

Story·Peyton Jacobe, age 12 — After her parakeet dies, a girl receives a stone from a quiet classmate, then passes it to a grieving neighbor, discovering how small acts of kindness ripple outward.

Story·Ellen Salovaara, age 13 — A young woman preparing for her wedding remembers her father's death when she was eight and realizes she must let go without forgetting as she asks her mother to walk...

Story·Natalie Warnke, age 12 — A princess locked in a tower escapes during an attack on her castle, meets a girl living behind a waterfall, and finds a new home after losing everything.