It’s an early morning in January, and I’m sitting in front of my fireplace, drinking a warm mug filled with hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows, thinking about how wonderful the winter months are. Snowflakes are falling outside, the Christmas festivities are over, and the scent of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in the oven awaits…

The air smelled of fresh rain and blooming hibiscus as Elena walked down Calle Sol, the cobblestone street glistening under the faint glow of the early morning sun. It was Valentine’s Day, but she didn’t feel the usual flutter of hearts and red roses. She felt… hollow. A year ago, this day had been a…

One beautiful snowy morning in December, shortly before Christmas, Grace was listening to Frank Sinatra’s Christmas album and baking chocolate chip cookies in her kitchen when suddenly, she heard a loud knock on her front door. She opened the door to find a small family of Christmas carolers singing “Christmas Time Is Here” from the…

Adrean’s changed behavior raised eyebrows within his family as well as his community.  He hung around with known thugs, and he also banked classes, and sometimes, he would miss school. His parents were worried but got absorbed and overwhelmed by family businesses. His older sister tried talking to him and wanted to find out if…

Central Park blinked awake in lights of red and green, the early December air painting the horizon. A dusting of snow scattered on the busy sidewalks and roadways; forecasted to grow several feet over the next couple of days from the human on the television screen. As the snow simmered down, I watched out my…

Lettie woke up to a gloomy, misty, and cold morning. Despite the unpleasant weather, it was a school day, and she had to jump out of bed and get ready. Her parents woke up 15 minutes later and prepared for work. Before leaving, they gave Lettie her transport fee, citing the bad weather as the…

(This story is entirely fictional, but the part about my dad getting the fortune he got is entirely true.) Last Friday night, my dad and I ate dinner at our local Chinese restaurant. I ordered Kung Pao chicken with fried rice, and he ordered Szechuan beef with fried rice. Although our Chinese food always tastes…

As we all do, when we’ve grown older, I reminisce on my favorite memories. I think of what life was like as a child, when my mother cooked our warm, tasty meals or when my father tucked me into bed and told stories of how he traveled to America when he was a child. I…

There’s nothing more beautiful to me than the start of autumn because the weather gets cooler; you can start wearing sweaters, drinking hot coffee, and enjoying more time indoors. But for me, reading has always been my first love. I’ve never known anything other than small-town life in Autumn Hills, Connecticut, because my father and…

Once upon a long, long time ago, all the animals lived in the jungle, with the lion as their king. The lion and his relatives, the leopard, the tiger, and the cat, all lived with him in their own rooms in the jungle palace. The other animals lived in their own houses that they liked,…