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My Hero: City Year’s Writing Contest 8th grade winner

A hero isn’t just someone who rips off his or her clothes in the pounding climax of a crime to fly off and save someone. A hero doesn’t have to have super strength. A hero is someone who is brave and makes a positive change in someone’s life, sometimes without even knowing what they have [...]

My Hero: City Year’s Writing Contest 9th grade winner

March 1st 2014, midafternoon, I peruse the instructions for this prompt and stare misty-eyed at crimson pictures of Superman on Google. “Who do I consider to be a hero?” is the question that I continuously ask myself. The next question that arrives more simply is—what is a hero? What being a hero entails for me [...]

My Hero: City Year’s Writing Contest 7th grade winner

Who do I consider to be a hero? Well, to me a hero is someone who will take a bullet for me or someone who will stand up for me and have my back even if no one else does. Also a hero, in my opinion, is someone who, if I call their name at [...]

Praying Mantis Pod

Brown, dry, crinkly

Daddy

Nurse, musician

Boy

Memorized

It’s glued inside forever

The Tearful Alligator

The tearful alligator

Pray for the People in Camden

With pale blue eyes and cropped red hair,

Elements

Earth, fire, water, and wind. Each element provides humanity with something amazing but holds the power to conjure unwieldy disasters. Earth, with its aesthetic landscapes and array of color and textures, could collapse at any given moment, causing worldwide adversity. Fire, an element of power and agility, its welcoming warmth and flames that dance upon [...]

Mama Said

The pungent smell of cigarettes inflames her nose

Head of the Table

Sit at the head of the table,

The Girl in the Window

Bombs fall,

Patience

Calmly rest my child

A New Beginning

A house isn’t a house without

Cover

Flowers

Umbrella

Cat

Circles

Elephant

Book and Vines

Girl with Tissue

Fruit

Inspired Herring

Bacon and Eggs

Girl Standing

Cardinal