family bonds

Story·Ayla Schultz, age 11 — A girl whose family is fragmenting befriends her silent cousin by creating a mechanical dancing bird that mirrors the shorebirds they both love.

Story·Elia Smith, age 10 — A girl volunteers at a nursing home, collecting words and stories from residents who share their memories, imagination, and a precious dictionary with her.

Story·Jenna Fields, age 13 — After her grandfather shares memories of her late grandmother during a rainstorm, a girl discovers the meaning of finding sunshine even on cloudy days when he passes away two days...

Story·Ellie Woody, age 13 — An adopted Korean girl visits her birth village on Easter, confronting the life she might have lived before choosing the family who raised her.

Story·Ennya Papastoitsis, age 11 — A family's ritual of baking chocolate-chip cookies becomes a meditation on memory, tradition, and the passage from childhood tea parties to present-day conversations.

Story·Molly O'Toole, age 12 — A girl finally gets her turn to be Lucia in her Swedish family's St. Lucia Day celebration, but forgets the words to the traditional song at the crucial moment.

Story·Albert Shu, age 10 — In 1960 China during the Great Leap Forward famine, a hungry boy eats his entire lunch bread on the way to school, remembering his family's lost wealth.

Story·Abigail Johnson, age 12 — After losing their mother in a car accident that leaves five-year-old Marcella unconscious, siblings Ellie and Luke wait anxiously in the hospital until Ellie's handmade poster helps welcome Marcella back...

Poetry·Jordan Guberman, age 12 — A child and grandmother bake bread together in an old kitchen, sharing laughter, sneaking batter, and talking about life while waiting for the loaf to rise.

Story·Ermeen Choudhury, age 12 — Five years after her twin sister Grace falls to her death from their treehouse, twelve-year-old Chloë returns to find Grace's spirit waiting to play pirates one last time.