self-discovery

Story·Sienna Rapaport, age 10 — A girl with a vast imagination discovers her father is the legendary Bird of Steel and must steal his power to save Riverhaven from eternal conflict between humans and magical...

Story·Rose Amer, age 10 — A girl who hates her ugliness wishes on a star to bring her stone gargoyle to life, then learns through painful transformations that she was already beautiful.

Story·Dana Yehia, age 8 — An alien from planet Watercolors dreams of being an explorer, builds his own spaceship to visit Earth, and ends up copying everything humans say because he doesn't speak English.

Story·Olivia Rhee, age 9 — A poor farm girl discovers money in an abandoned house, uses it for school, and starts a newspaper that leads to an unexpected friendship with a rival.

Personal Narrative·Norah Grigoresco, age 10 — After returning from Chile, a first-grader struggles with English reading until determination and practice transform her from level B to level Q, the highest in her class.

Story·Ella Yamamura, age 12 — A girl struggles for three years to answer her teacher's question about her future dreams, only finding an answer after the teacher's death.

Story·Audrey Young, age 11 — A physically timid girl who has failed at every sport finally learns to ride a bike, discovering freedom and confidence in the process.

Poetry·Galen Halasz, age 13 — A young writer confronts human hypocrisy and self-righteousness, building to the admission that we're all guilty of the stupidity we see in others.

Personal Narrative·Claire Jiang, age 12 — A girl reflects on her common name Claire, wishing for something unique, then questions whether a different name would change her identity.

Personal Narrative·Claire Jiang, age 12 — A girl contemplates the unnamed plants around her house, finding in their seasonal color changes a mirror for her own shifting moods.