finding home

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·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·Alex Perry, age 9 — A young skier investigating dark puddles in cracked ice falls through and fights to survive, his life flashing before him as he struggles toward the surface.

Story·Nate Sheehan, age 12 — A Japanese boy moves to America in 1956 and faces bullying until a friend named Conrad stands up for him, ultimately getting expelled for defending him in a fight.

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.

Poetry·Katherine Shock, age 12 — Morning light filters through as a girl and her cat share a quiet moment of connection, curling together in the gray-gold dawn.

Story·Hannah Ogden, age 13 — During a fierce Irish storm, Emma ventures into the woods to find her lost sheep and encounters a fairy ring of dancing leprechauns who help her home in exchange for...

Story·Morgan Biagioni, age 13 — After a fight with her mother about fitness, a girl flees to her rooftop refuge and realizes that having a mother, even an imperfect one, is a gift.

Poetry·Abraham Lawrence, age 12 — A boy contrasts the metaphorical fog of human deceit with the real fog of his countryside home, finding paradise in nature's simple peace.

Story·Carrie Merhout, age 10 — A lonely ranch girl discovers a stray silver cat in the barn, secretly feeds it, and eventually adopts it when the cat needs help giving birth to kittens.