connection to nature

Story·Andrew Wu, age 11 — A philosophical narrative following four reincarnated beings—seed, insect, fish, and bear—each discovering Nature's cyclical patterns of creation, destruction, and renewal through their brief lives.

Story·Ziqing (Izzie) Peng, age 10 — A child describes their city's beauty through the day, then reveals how its bright lights confuse baby sea turtles, causing them to crawl away from the ocean.

Story·Sabrina Guo, age 12 — A young violinist tours China with the Joyous String Ensemble, performing alongside master musicians while discovering how music can literally save lives and connect memories across time and place.

Story·Dennis Losett, age 11 — A family hiking near Sorrento encounters a brown dog they name Figadindi after local cactus pears, who accompanies them through changing landscapes before disappearing as quietly as he appeared.

Poetry·Vidhat Kartik, age 9 — A young poet cycles through the seasons with rhyming couplets, capturing each season's distinctive markers from falling leaves to fireworks to hibernating bears.

Poetry·Mae Gesser, age 9 — A quiet poem captures night through four precise images: stars as sequins, moon on water, grass swaying like a rocking horse, silence like an empty page.

Story·Clare McDermott, age 12 — A forest walk becomes a moment of wonder when a hummingbird appears, transforming the atmosphere with its iridescent presence before vanishing.

Story·Adam Smith, age 10 — A boy describes an idyllic natural scene with waterfall, river, and wildlife, finding pure happiness in nature's beauty before returning home to dream of it.

Poetry·Eleonore Lecue, age 6 — A six-year-old's expansive meditation on silence as it moves through mountains, trees, and rainbows, shifting into reflections on growth and mortality.

Story·Sabrina Guo, age 12 — A girl observes her cat's nightly ritual of staring at a grandfather clock, finding in the cat's simple presence a lesson about time and certainty.