Nonfiction

Two by Melissa Mahadeo

“Hate. That’s a strong word. You don’t hate him. No matter how many times you think or say it. In your heart you know you don’t. You can’t hate him. There’s no way. It’s impossible to hate someone you don’t know.

Of All That Is Lost by Katelyn Zawalick

“Sitting on the same couch Opie used to curl up on, I can look at the shelf next to the TV and see the small wooden box his ashes are held in. The gold placard glued on the side of the box reads, “You’re gone from our lives, but never from our hearts.”

Every weekend that I’m home from school I still sit and stare at the couch he used to lay on, wishing he was still here.”

The End of an Empty Paper by Sylver Boyer

“Paper rustling, a pencil writing, books being moved around and dropped, and thunder booming off somewhere in the distance. Oh, and an evil little blinking line staring at me judgmentally as I listen to the ancient library ambience soundtrack on my phone. I know it’s just an indicator the program uses to tell me where I am, but I feel like it’s mocking me.”

Growing Pains by Anonymous

“My books taught me what to expect from other people and that there is a world where people like me exist, and where houses don’t feel like cages. But most importantly they taught me what love looked like.”

Leah and the Green Beetle by Madelyn Chase

“On dissection day, they both had to go to the nurses’ office because they couldn’t take the frog guts. I’d wondered if she fainted at the sight of her own blood when the car crashed. When we were lab partners, I’d promised I’d do all the dissections, so she’d never have to see blood.”

A Contemplative Odyssey by Michaela Jones

“My brother, tired and sweaty, uncharacteristically ran over and jumped into his car. Everything was so quick. Then, I heard it. I heard the sirens coming down my road. You never hear sirens in my small town, especially my insignificant, forgotten road.”

Lessons (2020) by Rebekka Sanchez-Castro

“Over the summer, I got pulled over while driving home alone at night. I stopped the car, lowered the window, and placed my hands on the wheel. When the officer approached my car, he asked for my license.”