school

Story·Lucy Laird, age 12 — A melodramatic sixth-grader faces her turn at kickball, convinced she'll die of embarrassment, spiraling through existential revelations before being saved by the lunch bell.

Personal Narrative·Norah Grigoresco, age 10 — After returning from Chile, a first-grader struggles with English reading until determination and practice transform her from level B to level Q, the highest in her class.

Story·Ella Yamamura, age 12 — A girl struggles for three years to answer her teacher's question about her future dreams, only finding an answer after the teacher's death.

Poetry·Carolyn Lu, age 13 — A seventh-grader chronicles her weekly emotional cycle through structured verse, from Sunday's YouTube freedom to Thursday's tennis exhaustion.

Story·Panagiotis Apatsidis Gunaratnam, age 9 — When Mike disappears from school, detectives follow clues through a haunted palace and time machine to rescue him from the Stone Age.

Story·Jamison Freis, age 12 — A boy gets a dog his mother hates. After the mother repeatedly tries to abandon the dog, it saves her from a mugger, changing her heart.

Personal Narrative·Beatriz Lindemann, age 12 — A 12-year-old defends her two-dad family through memories of ballet recitals, newspaper rituals, and playground confrontations, asserting that both men are her 'actual dads.'

Story·Kyler Min, age 8 — On planet Kepler-22b, students compete for honors status while their alien parents work light-years away, until a boy discovers the dark truth behind 'organic' education.

Personal Narrative·Claire Jiang, age 12 — A girl reflects on moving to a new house five years ago, making peace with everything except the mismatched fence her friend calls hideous.

Personal Narrative·Claire Jiang, age 12 — A girl reflects on her common name Claire, wishing for something unique, then questions whether a different name would change her identity.