A Window to Young Minds: Volume 1 (Short Stories by Young Writers)

Gold Medal Winner: 2018 Readers' Favorite Award

When Janis Gull, a pirate aboard the sky’s most feared ship, finds love for the first time, she’s determined to cling to it. But her disapproving father threatens their romance, infuriating her--and pitting her against her own heart.

In 1937, German brothers Peter and Hans are forced to leave their mother behind and flee their home country in search of a better life in America. The boys are of a lucky few to board the famous Hindenburg, and Peter promises himself to be the father figure Hans will never have. When disaster strikes on the airship, and the lives of his loved ones are on the line, can Peter be the hero his younger brother needs?

Alone in the wilderness and snow, a little girl desperately clings to the idea that her father hasn’t abandoned her. But the voice in her head constantly tells her otherwise. All she can do is wait for him to return. The question is, will he return before it’s too late?

Our future depends on stories . As the world advances, literature has the ability to ground us—in our humanness, our imaginations, and our enlightenment. Fueled by the need to interpret the past, to explore the present, and to imagine the future, each generation shapes the world of books. In order to preserve this, we must have a new generation willing to share their stories. The annual Lune Spark Short Story Contest was started in May 2017 with the vision of supporting young writers.

A Window to Young Minds is the first of the contest’s yearly anthologies, Short Stories by Young Writers. The twenty-three wonderful stories in this book are handpicked from 2017’s entries. The talent of these young writers shines in their command of storytelling and their unique take on genre—from a pirate love story to the Hindenburg disaster on May 6, 1937, in New Jersey.