Wild Children — Richard Roberts

Bad children are punished. Be bad, a child is told, and you'll be turned into an animal, marked with your crime. Five children each tell a different story of what they became. One learns that wrong can be right, and her curse may be a blessing. Another is so Wild he must learn the simplest lesson, to love someone else. An eight year old girl must face fear and doubt as she dies of old age. Love and strangeness hit the lives of two brothers in the form of a beautiful flaming bird. Finally, the oldest child learns that what is right can be horribly wrong. Together they tell a sixth story, of a Wild Girl who can't speak for herself, and doesn't seem Wild at all.