Breathe with the Arrow
READING AGE 12+
In the summer of 1954, nine-year-old Shirley travels from Tulsa to rural Oklahoma to stay with her grandparents. Her grandfather, a strict and stoic World War I veteran, runs the household with rigid discipline, while her grandmother Jolene offers gentle warmth and kindness.
Shirley soon meets Cecil, their teenage grandson, who spends his days practicing archery in the fields. He teaches her how to hold a bow, how to focus, and how to trust her aim, and the two form a quiet, meaningful bond over the weeks they spend together.
But when Cecil suddenly contracts polio and dies, the summer takes a heartbreaking turn. Shirley returns home carrying both the grief of losing him and the confidence he helped spark—an unforgettable summer shaped by discipline, tenderness, and a brief friendship that changed her life.
Unfold
The morning arrived heavy and still, the heat pressing against the fields in a way that made even the air seem sluggish. Shirley awoke to the faint hum of the windmill and the distant rhythm of life in the farmhouse, yet the quiet carried a weight she could feel deep in her chest. There was a tension in the air, subtle but insistent, like t……
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