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-The Youth Review is proud to present our 28th series, a summer contest on the theme "The Sounds of Summer." This edition of EMP's Youth Review featured an incredible range of diverse, creative, and thoughtful submissions! We were truly blown away by the imagination and voice showcased in each piece.
The awards are as followed: 🎉 GRADES 6-12 DIVISION: 1st Place: Sounds of Summer by Bonnie Chen 2nd Place: Rattlesnake Lake by Belle Miao 3rd Place: The Sounds of Summer by Vihaan Agrawal Honorable Mentions: Sounds of Summer by Serena Wang Sounds Like Summer by Katie Ching Soundtrack of My Summer by Emma Yang 🎉 GRADES K-5 DIVISION: 1st Place: A Day at the Pool by Kaylee Yang 2nd Place: Summer Blooms by Molly Wong 3rd Place: The Melting Sun by Moksha Kandiboti Honorable Mention: Sounds of Summer by Aadya Mishra Congratulations to all our winners and honorable mentions! -EMP Youth Review
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We are ecstatic to announce the selected winners of our latest call for submissions: "The Summer Adventure!" (Apologies for the delay in this post.)
In this literary and artistic showcase, pieces range from expressing an ideal summer, recounting the creator's summer experience, and fictional stories (with beautiful messages)! It has been a joy to witness the wonderful creativity of the submitters. Winners (linked below): 1st: A Jello's Summer by Serena Wang 2nd: Family RV Trip 2024 by Enchi Kuo 3rd: My Summer Adventure by Bonnie Chen 1st: The Unforgettable Summer of 2024 by Vihaan Agrawal 2nd: My Summer Bucket List by Katie Ching Congratulations to all! -The Emerald Youth Review Created by Vihaan AgrawalThe excitement in the air was palpable as I sat at home, eagerly waiting for my grandparents to reach home from the airport. After what felt like an eternity, they finally arrived, their eyes twinkling with joy as they stepped into our home. The long flight from India couldn't dim their enthusiasm. With hugs and warm greetings, we welcomed them into our world, ready for the adventures that lay ahead. The first few days flew by in a blur of catching up and settling in. The very same weekend, we decided to take my grandparents to a little village about three hours away from our home called Leavenworth. The vibrant colors, tiny shops, and bustling atmosphere greatly appealed to them. We spent the day roaming about, snapping pictures, and eating Bavarian food. Shortly after our trip to Leavenworth, we planned a day trip to a nearby national park. My grandparents, who had always loved nature, were thrilled. We hiked through trails, admired waterfalls, and even spotted a couple Marmots. As it was only June, there was still plenty of old snow and ice. Enough to look like a winter wonderland, and since snow is a rare sight in India, they absolutely adored it. We introduced my grandparents to some of our favorite cuisines, such as Thai, German, Japanese, and Ethiopian cuisines. In return, grandma cooked up simply scrumptious food, for 42 days the kitchen became a trip back to India, with the aroma of spices filling the house. As we sat down to Eat meals together, they shared stories of my father and his brother’s childhood in India, making the experience even more special. Along with grandma’s cooking, my grandparents and I made it a point to play at least 1game of cards every night. Whether it be Moongus, Laal Paan, Courtpeice, 3 2 5, or 6 9. All the games I mentioned in this list is a traditional Indian game which was taught to me by them. In addition to that, they taught me different strategies and tricks to make me better at those games. Another part of our schedule was our morning exercise. Because they usually took an invigorating walk every morning in India, my grandpa and I usually played cricket or badminton, and sometimes both for about an hour a day, while grandma worked towards her daily goal of completing 7,000 steps per day. The biggest highlight of the visit was the bond that grew between my grandparents and me. We spent hours together, playing games, telling each other stories, and learning from each other. It was truly some of the best, and liveliest 42 days of my life. Full to brim with stories, laughter, marvelous food, and the most important, the comforting presence of grandma, and grandpa. The final day arrived way too soon. We drove to the airport with heavy hearts, knowing that it was time for my grandparents to return to India. There were tears and long hugs as we said our goodbyes. But as they walked towards the gate, they turned around and waved, promising to visit again soon. We waved back, grateful for the 42 days of love, joy, and unforgettable memories. Created by Katie Ching I drew this piece to list all the things I would accomplish during my dream summer. Most of these are things I like to do during the summer, but have not done them all in the same summer yet. Some of them are also things I haven't done before, but wish to do. Here's how it goes: I would like to go to the beach, go blueberry picking, travel to Brazil, go to a pool party, visit a farm, and crochet.
Created by Serena Wang Perhaps you have heard about the city FruitLiddle. If you have heard of the city, then you probably also know what the city does best. Like all other places, the city of FruitLiddle is unique. But unlike other cities, which might specialize in making cars or computers, FruitLiddle is best at making jello.
They made their jello purely by hand. In fact, it was even a law that machine-made jello would be banned and the maker of it would be fined up to a million dollars! Because the jello were made by hand, there was something quite special about them that even the people of FruitLiddle didn’t know. Every summer, the jello would come to life! This was because in the summer, people consumed more jello than in the other months. In the winter, the jello froze in their packages, which made them horribly hard and inedible. In the Autumn, people were too busy buying warmer clothes, having less money for other things. In the Spring, the jello had just thawed and was too moist. But in the summer, it was hot, so a nice, cool jello became much needed. This was why, in the summer, jello came to life. Before the humans came to buy them, the jello would claim a spot at the very back of the shelf, where they would make themselves comfortable and pray they would go unnoticed for the year. However, most jello didn’t go unnoticed and were soon sold. But every year, newly made jello replaced the old. This summer, the jello were determined to survive again. A young jello named Jellys was especially excited. The store she was born in was a tiny shop named “Jello Hello.” It sold only jello. The shopkeeper, who was a short old man with graying hair and wrinkles, had devoted his time to trying out new recipes. The door had a bronze bell on it and it would ring whenever a customer pulled the door open. When it sounded, the jello would scurry back to their spots on the shelf. The old man would stand up from his place at the cash register and say “Welcome!” before taking the customer by the arm and giving them a tour of the shop. Then, he would step back and say, “Ask me if you need anything.” The shelves that held the jello were made of oak wood. The elderly man had placed all the jello in plastic crates. He marked their flavors, brands and prices on a little tag. On the back of the tags, he always wrote: “Please put the jello back where you found it.” Jellys lived with two other jello. They were both very well made and beautifully decorated. One of them, named Juniper, had slender slices of peach and chunks of pineapple arranged in a swirly pattern in her, as well as shiny, orange-colored gelatin. The other, Jack, had melon bits inside him and paired with a minty green gelatin color, it looked fresh and clean. Jellys had a pale yellow gelatin color and only a humble slice of mandarin orange for decoration. When she woke up that summer morning, the first thing she saw were her friends, still sound asleep next to her. How they glimmered in the summer sun! Their fruit slices were carefully sliced and arranged. They were the living image of a person’s dream jello. Jellys saw a tall glass mirror adjacent to her shelf. She looked around cautiously. A sign hung on the door. It said: “Closed! Please come back later.” Click Read More Created by Enchi Kuo This summer our family took a 10-day RV road trip to the beautiful Oregon. It was so much fun! We went to Smith Rock where you can see a huge monkey-faced boulder and many rock climbers. We walked behind a tall majestic waterfall. We visited the Bonneville Damn which is home to a 90-year old 500-pound “Herman” the Sturgeon. We built sand castle on South Beach soaking in the golden sunset. We also climbed the Peter Iredale shipwreck which sunk and ran onshore in 1906. Not to mention sleeping in the Mt Hood national forest and all the s’mores we roasted over camp fire. We had such a great time we didn’t want to come back home :)
Created by Bonnie ChenIt all started on a clear sunny day, when the sky turned dark and rain clouds filled the sky that used to be clear. I was just taking a swim in the shallow parts of the Pacific Ocean when I saw this happen. This had to be the most terrifying moment in my life. I was contemplating what to do when a gigantic wave crashed above me, and I was pushed forward by the water. I didn’t know I fell asleep until I woke up. I was on a sandy beach somewhere. The silky soft and warm sand felt soothing underneath my cold body. Thankfully, the wave didn’t wash me up too far, as the tips of my toes were moist and still touching wet, warm sand. Unfortunately, I couldn’t seem to move. The sun shining on me seemed to be pinning me down to the ground. Before I knew it, I fell asleep of exhaustion again. When I gained consciousness again, the burning afternoon sun was scorching me. I never felt this dehydrated before until today. A cool breeze suddenly swayed the trees, and a sudden wave cooled my body… but wait. I wasn’t on the beach anymore. I was in water. This water didn’t seem very natural though. I was inside some kind of container. The first thought that came into my mind was that I was being kidnapped. Then suddenly the container holding me rocked back and forth and the water sloshed loudly inside. I was lifted and carried away. My body hasn’t regained power yet, so I helplessly floated inside the half empty container of water. I was put into a trunk of a car and my mysterious kidnapper and I drove around for a while. I heard screams and a girl towered above me. I glared at her and her family came to see what was happening. I sent a side eye to each of them. The next thing that happened outraged me. The family of three left me in the container. I sat there for hours and hours until a new day came again. The girl, I think her name was… Ellie? She took me to a huge campus. The campus had multiple buildings, and I couldn’t keep track of where I was. I heard her talking to an adult saying: I brought a friend today… its, ok?... Alright… Despite what Ellie said, she still placed my container roughly by her desk. I was glad that I was the center of attention, but I wasn’t enjoying how everyone thought I was “so cute”. When class began, the teacher rambled on and on about playwriting and boring stuff like that, but when we got to writing the plays, I was interested. It seemed so fun to write a whole story and plot how the characters talk with each other. After the class, I thought we were going home, but Ellie took me to a cafeteria, and she ate her lunch. She tried to feed me some smelly leftovers, but little did she know that I couldn’t eat it. Finally, I got ready to be packed into the car to go home. Surprisingly, Ellie brought me to another class. In this class, the teacher didn’t make any introductions, and we got right into the activity. Ellie opened her computer and started dragging colorful blocks around. It was like playing with Legos but on a computer. Later I learned that this activity was called coding. My head was spinning with all the colors of the blocks. Ellie dragged all the blocks into one monstrosity, and with a click of a button, a beautiful animation popped up. It was magical. I couldn’t help thinking about how this was alike to the playwriting camp. The actors were the blocks, and the result of the coding was how the play came together and smoothly ran. Time flew by and we had to go home. I didn’t realize it back then, but nobody seemed to realize the weird container by Ellie’s desk. The week of camp passed by fast, and Ellie had to return me back to the ocean, she knew it. The drive to the beach seemed to pass in the blinking of an eye. During this week my human owner seemed to warm up to me, although I don’t think I feel the same… Not long after Ellie’s family said goodbye to me, Ellie released me into the water, and I swam freely as a moon jellyfish once again. THE END Welcome to the recognized work of our latest call for submissions, "We Were Neighbors!"
Our 18th series came with submissions of supportive neighborhood communities, dangerous and suspenseful horror tales and even the "neighborhoods" of thoughts within our minds! We were blown away by our submitters and thank them for their hard work. It was the greatest pleasure to be able to review and provide feedback for these wonderful pieces of art and writing. Featured: Our Global Neighborhood, a community anthem by Katie Ching. Old Man Sith, the tale of a close escape by Vihaan Agrawal. Whispers Beyond the Fence, a deep dive of generational secrets by Allison Li. We Were Neighbors, art + writing about two unlikely friends by Bonnie Chen. You and Me, an inside look to a girl's thoughts by Serena Wang. Thank You my Neighbor! a heartwarming art of appreciation by Mika Ching. It Starts With Me, a message about building the community by Enchi Kuo. We hope to see such great works again in our next Call for Submissions. This series has truly been a joy to experience. Sincerely, The Youth Review editing team  Katie Ching is a 9th grader at Stanford OHS."I was inspired to make this piece after a recent trip to Turkey and the UAE, which opened my eyes to the fact that as people, we're so distant physically, yet so close in other aspects. The famous landmarks in the drawing symbolize physical distance between people, and the string of people holding hands is used to represent people from different countries. This is to say that it doesn't matter where a person lives, what their nationality is, what language they speak, or where they're from, what matters is that we're all people, and all value similar things. As you may notice, the people in the drawing are "reflected" under the landmarks. This is because people may not live in the country they are from, but they are still part of our global community. A bit on the title, I titled my piece "Our Global Neighborhood" to represent the same theme as I have just described. The "global" part describes the physical distance and diversity between people around the world, while the "neighborhood" part describes a sense of community and closeness, disregarding the various barriers they might face between each other. The title was intentionally made an oxymoron, to contrast the largeness of the world, and the smallness of a neighborhood."
It was the super whiffle, the ball that curved, slid, split and even rose. That’s what it said on the advertisement and that’s what happened. It was like magic. At-least that’s what I felt about it. You would too if you saw it. Somehow wherever you threw the ball, it seemed to be attracted to the chalk strike zone I drew on the fence. But the one time it’s magic failed, boy, did it get me into trouble. The ball went over the fence into our dreaded neighbor Old Man Sith’s house. Old Man Sith was a neighborhood legend with his ratty features, humped back, rotting teeth and his red eyes. He had white hair, sallow cheeks. He was nothing but a bag of bones. His thoughts though were worse than his looks if that was possible. He was known for being particularly sour, mean and cruel to little kids. If any toys or balls were in his yard even by a centimeter he was guaranteed to come hobbling out of his house to take it and destroy it in front of your eyes, and that is exactly why I was so alarmed at my ball going over the fence. I sprinted and dove to a tiny crack in the fence separating our yard. The ball was not far away. I could probably scale the wall and get back quickly. As I started to climb the fence Old Man Sith came running out of his house and saw me trying to get the ball. He gave a wicked cackle seeing my attempts and roughly picked it up and threw it across the yard into a tangled blueberry bramble. “Guess, you won't be getting that thing now!” He said in a raspy voice. “We’ll see about that!” I mumbled at him “Yes, we will.” He replied Immediately after going home, I told my dad about what happened and tried to persuade him into having a talk with The Old Man. My dad gave a bleak no and reasoned that it was my fault for playing on that side of the yard. I asked my mom and she too said no. So I went to bed that night with the resolution that if no one would help me I would get my ball myself. Early the following morning, I snuck into Sith’s yard. His yard was a mess, it was overflowing with weeds, thorny bushes and blackberry brambles which never had any blackberries on them. I tiptoed across the barren yard until the point where I could see my ball and almost reach it. I bent under the bramble with my fingers wrapping around it. I withdrew my hand and stuffed the ball into my coat and turned around to run out of this wasteland. But as if he was a ghost, Sith was standing right there with a horrible, nasty grin. “Well doesn't that just take the biscuit! Trespassing into my property, then stealing my stuff!” Sith exclaimed in mock shock. “Well, technically it’s my ball.” I countered “Eh, whatever.” He says as he reaches out to grab me. “What are you doing! Get away from me!” I screamed and ran away. I would have gotten back home safely if it wasn’t for a loose rock sitting on my way. The loud thud was the noise of me face-planting after tripping on a rock. I tried getting up, but my ankle gave out. I looked behind me and Sith was there. He dragged me into his house. His house was dirty and smelled like a prison cell. There were broken dishes all over the place and there were rats inhabiting the kitchen. He dragged me up the creaking stairs into a musty and damp room. He threw me in and locked the door. I sat in there trying to figure out what to do for hours. There were no windows in the room except for a tiny one almost at the ceiling. I knew that if I found a way to get out of that window, I would be free. I looked around the room for tools that would help me. There was nothing in the room except a big brown bag. I peered into it hoping for rope of some kind. I only saw clothes in the sack. I took them out with a plan to tie them together into a giant rope. But after a few minutes of extracting clothes, I unearthed a rustic old cell phone. I gazed at it in awe. Here it was as if God heard my prayers, an answer to all my troubles. A cell phone. I quickly booted it up and called 911. I recited everything to the police. The police told me they were on their way to save me, and sure enough they were here in under ten minutes releasing me, arresting Old Man Sith and explaining the situation to my parents. After the arrest of Old Man Sith, whose actual name I later found out was Sith Ramsey, his house was sold to a small family with a boy of my age, and I am glad to tell you that they improved the house, transformed the garden, and their son Luke is one of my best friends. Vihaan Agrawal is a 6th grader at Timberline Middle School."A fictional story about a cantankerous old neighbor. NOT AT ALL REAL."
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