The stories and poems in this section may be most appropriate for middle-grade readers, but have something that can be enjoyed by everyone.
The portal appeared in the middle of an empty beach. Through the glowing blue upright rectangle a mixed group of half-a-dozen men and women stepped out. The dry white sand crunched slightly beneath their feet. The portal shimmered for a few moments...
The stars expandwhen a Martian and an Earthlingput their heads togetherand wonderwhether they are alonein the universe.
"You were a prince in a faraway land," he said. Malcolm told him a tale of hope and courage. And magic, too, of course. Always a little bit of magic.
Long, long ago, in the days when dragon songs still filled the air, there was a beautiful, golden dragon named Clarissa. She exercised her wings each day and dreamed of the time when she would be big and strong, so she too could fly all the way down...
"That lantern holds the soul of the unborn child. If it dies, so will the baby. And mind the Crooked-Neck Woman. She’ll stop at nothing to get her hands on a fragile spirit.”
There was no safe place in the entire world from the rain of stars. The fox fled to the one place he knew, the one place he remembered, where he had felt safe and secure and happy. He ran to the mountain and the cave near the watching giant.
From the waist down, he’s only a baby. But then I look again at his head—its head.
Blanche had known that having Albert was going to be different, but she thought to herself, alligators make perfectly good pets.
"We light the diwas, and do the puja perfectly, and sing all the right bhajans. But nothing ever changes."
I remembered the December morning when mom had dumped several huge boxes of clothes down the chute. The same day she had locked dad’s wood-shop door for good. After he died, mom hadn’t wanted to keep anything that reminded her of him.