parents

Story·William Gwaltney, age 12 — On Christmas Eve, a boy helps his father and veterinarian deliver a calf too large to be born naturally, saving its life through emergency surgery in a blizzard.

Story·Emily Waxman, age 10 — A girl prepares for prom in 1946, wearing a dress made from her brother's WWII parachute, reflecting on family sacrifice and finding beauty in hardship.

Story·Catherine Babikian, age 12 — A girl runs thirteen miles home from the hospital where her mother is dying, haunted by the unspoken response to her mother's final 'I love you.'

Story·Hugh Cole, age 11 — A boy who can speak to animals flees with his wolf-dog when a monster called an Alarcon hunts him for his powers, ultimately escaping when a condor saves them from...

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·Timmi Ruth Kline, age 11 — A young Egyptian girl yearns to help build Pharaoh Cheops' pyramid while managing household duties and missing her parents, who return unexpectedly at story's end.

Poetry·Eden A. Marish Roehr, age 9 — A child's ocean memories with parents transform into longing as music triggers dreams of returning to those carefree moments of jumping waves together.

Story·Akash Viswanath Mehta, age 10 — A 10-year-old chronicles his parents' divorce with remarkable emotional intelligence, tracing the journey from loss through fights over custody to unexpected gains including a stepfather and baby brother.

Story·Elise Watt, age 13 — During community service punishment, Bailey watches ducks struggle free from thorns and finds hope for her parents battling her father's cancer.

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.