connection to nature

Poetry·Ava Alexander, age 11 — Winter melts into spring as mountains show green haze, moles tunnel, and a robin pulls the first worm from softened ground.

Poetry·Isabel Sutter, age 12 — A girl hangs laundry on a summer day, watching a monarch butterfly and mourning dove while sunlight transforms ordinary towels into an artist's palette.

Story·Jonathan Morris, age 13 — An eight-year-old boy breaks through his grandfather's emotional walls by building a model pirate ship together, transforming their relationship through shared imagination and craftsmanship.

Poetry·Isaac Kamgar, age 11 — A skier experiences the sensory rush of flying downhill, tasting the sky's blueness while steel edges carve through snow.

Poetry·Anna Elizabeth Blech, age 12 — A gondola ride on a New York lake at dusk becomes a meditation on the city's transformation as day turns to night, ending with the gondolier's Italian song.

Story·Iona Swift, age 12 — After losing a theater role, a girl flees to a creek where nature's calm gradually soothes her devastation and helps her find peace.

Story·Emmy J. X. Wong, age 12 — A Newfoundland girl finds a mysterious bottle on the shore, launches it with a carved whale inside, and watches it travel the world collecting treasures from children in different countries.

Story·Claudia Ross, age 13 — Walking a valley trail after elementary school graduation, a girl finds a broken eggshell and realizes the hawks circling her are searching for it.

Story·Emma Place, age 11 — A girl sailing with her family off the Maine coast slips into the water and rides a dolphin after a pod appears alongside their boat.

Poetry·Mina Alexandra Oates, age 7 — A winter morning at a lake where steam rises, ducks linger, and observers choose traffic over stillness, missing the quiet moment.