water

Poetry·Natalie Lam, age 12 — Rain transforms from mist to downpour, its gray fingers reaching through fog and pine trees, as the speaker celebrates the wet beauty of their Pacific Northwest home.

Poetry·Sonja Skye Wooley, age 12 — A midnight journey from bed to kitchen for milk captures the disorienting sensory details of being awake at 3:30 A.M.

Poetry·Isabel Taylor, age 13 — A young writer expresses the desire to dissolve boundaries between self and nature, imagining feet sinking into dirt, floating as water, swaying in trees.

Story·Shelley Noel McFatter — A river otter named Roscoe flees from hunters and is saved when an old beaver sacrifices his life to protect him, changing Roscoe forever.

Story·Tran Nguyen, age 13 — An angel recounts failing to save a Cambodian mother during a flood on the Mekong River, learning that even celestial beings have limitations.

Poetry·Emma Rose Kirby — A child watches sunset from the beach, sees dolphins, rides waves on a boogie board, and promises to return tomorrow to the ocean shore.

Poetry·William Ilgen, age 9 — A boy watches sunset from the ocean shore, sees dolphins leaping, rides waves on a boogie board, and promises to return tomorrow.

Story·Marie Chapman, age 12 — Two seventh-graders investigate dead fish at a marsh, uncovering a plot to destroy the wetland for a mall, and catch the criminals in a nighttime stakeout.

Story·MadeIon Case — A father and daughter paddle across a misty lake at dawn, observing wildlife until a beaver slaps its tail in warning before disappearing into its dam.

Story·Heather Goff, age 9 — A father and daughter paddle across a foggy lake at dawn, observing wildlife until a beaver slaps its tail in warning before disappearing into its dam.