Horse Moon by Sara Agard, age eight

Once upon a time in the cold winter there was a little boy and his mom. They went into the forest, When the little boy turned his head, a black thing he had never seen before sprang up in front of him. The boy said, "Mom!" She said, "What?" When the boy turned his head, a big shadow appeared in front of him. It was just a rabbit. On the other side, there was another shadow. That shadow was white. It scattered far and fast. Along came the little boy's sister. She was carrying a sled. It had hay on it. She thought there was such a thing as magical horses. When the boy looked back again, the hay was gone. The horse had eaten it! Along came a little puppy running out of the woods. The boy followed the horse tracks. Instead of just one black horse, there were thousands of horses: gray, brown, white and black. The boy saw his little sister on one of the horses' backs. She was asleep. All of a sudden, one of the horses stared at one of the shadows that they had never seen before. Out of the blue, the horses scattered into the black forest. Everything there was black.

A little pony was walking in the forest. He froze. He had stepped on a stone leaf. The boy was about to walk into the forest, but when he turned his back, he saw a horse with red stripes. He had always been dreaming of a horse like that. The horse said to the boy, "Run, boy!" Before he could ask, she put him on her back and ran. She had looked all around her, and couldn't find anyplace to hide. The horse queen came out of the shadows. She looked at the boy. A herd of white horses lined up. The boy called his mom. His mom had left to go get a drink. The mom thought the boy was in bed. The boy asked the horse to give him a ride home, and she did. When he got home and opened the door, his mom was not there. She had left a note on the door: "Dear Marisa and Rex. I'll be back in a couple of days."

Rex had an idea. They would make a robot mom. It worked! Marisa was turning four. The next day Rex was going outside to play, but then he remembered that it was Monday, and he had to go to school. He took his little sister to school with him. They got on the bus. People were making fun of him. Marisa screamed for everybody to be quiet. "It's my birthday! Just because my mom's not here doesn't mean I have to have a bad day." Everybody was quiet. The moon was still shining really bright, because the bus comes early in the morning.