compassion

Personal Narrative·Elise Cheung, age 8 — A girl visits Taiwan's Houtong Cat Village, where villagers care for hundreds of stray cats, and forms a special connection with a hungry orange tabby kitten.

Story·Ellie Wang, age 9 — A cat named Mayhem creates a magical name-guessing game in a water glass to find a new owner after her beloved human dies, testing each person's true character.

Personal Narrative·Billie Brown, age 12 — A young aspiring animal rescuer brings home a worm that dies overnight, teaching her that wild creatures belong in their natural habitats, not bedrooms.

Story·Lucia Osborn-Stocker, age 12 — A lonely guard dragon, hardened by years of servitude, finds unexpected companionship when a starving fox pup steals food and curls up beside him for warmth.

Story·Annabelle Vaughan, age 9 — A girl who saved a cat finds herself followed by street cats everywhere, leading to chaos when she tries to help them make her mother happy so they won't have...

Poetry·Gideon Rose, age 9 — A man without food or water, beaten and robbed, continues to think only of love—revealed to be the poet's own experience.

Personal Narrative·Michelle Wang, age 12 — A Chinese immigrant child's first day of American school transforms from terror to tentative hope when a classmate extends a gentle hand of friendship.

Poetry·Parwana Amiri, age 16 — A refugee teen's defiant catalog of what takes courage — building schools, welcoming the homeless, staying human — versus what's easy: destroying, hurting, closing your eyes.

Poetry·Nova Macknik-Conde, age 8 — A bilingual poem imagines a song the world needs — one that sounds like hope, teaches strength, and moves like water.

Story·Zahra Batteh, age 10 — A spoiled rich man loses everything when his parents die, struggles to find work, and eventually creates a program to help homeless people become rideshare drivers.