change

Story·Ocyin Davis, age 11 — A student's daily bus ride past horses in a field becomes a meditation on breaking free from routine and discovering the wild possibility within oneself.

Poetry·Cammie Keel, age 13 — A winter morning arrives through skeletal trees, a crow's shriek, silver air, and frost-cocooned grass until the last leaf falls on white ground.

Poetry·Ethan Vranic, age 12 — In a dreary autumn meadow between two oaks, once-flourishing roses now lie shriveled and colorless, their sharp thorns the only remnant of former vitality.

Story·Isabella Widrow, age 9 — On a rainy day, a bored girl finds her cat Mango in a closet and shares a moment of connection that transforms her mood.

Story·Melissa Birchfield, age 13 — A girl reluctant to accept a new piano teacher after her grandmother's death discovers she can honor memories while embracing new beginnings through music.

Story·Hannah Ogden, age 13 — A family drives through the night to grandparents' house after eviction, their old truck barely making it as a girl reflects on loss and uncertain futures.

Story·Abigail D'Agosta and Kendra Sommers, age 13 — After her father loses his job, a girl moves from a suburban house to a rural farm, resisting the change until a friendship with neighbor Willa helps her find home...

Story·Ada King, age 11 — A younger sister accompanies her family to drop her older sister off at college, grappling with change while finding comfort in a shared photograph from their childhood.

Poetry·Sydney Pardo, age 13 — A poem of lost childhood intimacy between cousins or friends, marked by shared memories of orchards, butterfly funerals, and the gulf that opens when one becomes a teenager.

Poetry·Isabelle Zeaske, age 10 — A spring walk reveals birch shadows, a fern sprout, and a plastic bag caught in a pine tree, its snap drowned by a chickadee's song.