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Selected Short Stories of Ray Bradbury: All Summer in a Day

In this poignant short story set on Venus, Ray Bradbury explores isolation and bullying.

Here are links to our lists for short stories by the award-winning author: A Sound of Thunder, All Summer in a Day, August 2026, Marionettes, Inc., The Black Ferris, The Drummer Boy of Shiloh, The Flying Machine, The Pedestrian, The Veldt
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Full list of words from this list:

  1. peer
    look searchingly
    The children pressed to each other like so many roses, so many weeds, intermixed, peering out for a look at the hidden sun.
  2. concussion
    any violent blow
    It had been raining for seven years; thousands upon thousands of days compounded and filled from one end to the other with rain, with the drum and gush of water, with the sweet crystal fall of showers and the concussion of storms so heavy they were tidal waves come over the islands.
  3. stunned
    filled with the emotional impact of overwhelming surprise
    They were all nine years old, and if there had been a day, seven years ago, when the sun came out for an hour and showed its face to the stunned world, they could not recall.
  4. remembrance
    the ability to recall past occurrences
    Sometimes, at night, she heard them stir, in remembrance, and she knew they were dreaming and remembering gold or a yellow crayon or a coin large enough to buy the world with. She knew they thought they remembered a warmness, like a blushing in the face, in the body, in the arms and legs and trembling hands.
  5. slacken
    become slow or slower
    Now the rain was slackening, and the children were crushed in the great thick windows.
  6. feverish
    marked by intense agitation or emotion
    They turned on themselves, like a feverish wheel, all tumbling spokes.
  7. frail
    physically weak
    She was a very frail girl who looked as if she had been lost in the rain for years and the rain had washed out the blue from her eyes and the red from her mouth and the yellow from her hair.
  8. separate
    standing apart; not attached to or supported by anything
    Now she stood, separate, staring at the rain and the loud wet world beyond the huge glass.
  9. drench
    cover with liquid; pour liquid onto
    Only when they sang about the sun and the summer did her lips move as she watched the drenched windows.
  10. refuse
    show unwillingness towards
    And once, a month ago, she had refused to shower in the school shower rooms, had clutched her hands to her ears and over her head, screaming the water mustn’t touch her head.
  11. dimly
    in a faint indistinct manner
    So after that, dimly, dimly, she sensed it, she was different and they knew her difference and kept away.
  12. vital
    urgently needed; absolutely necessary
    There was talk that her father and mother were taking her back to Earth next year; it seemed vital to her that they do so, though it would mean the loss of thousands of dollars to her family.
  13. consequence
    the state of having important effects or influence
    And so, the children hated her for all these reasons of big and little consequence. They hated her pale snow face, her waiting silence, her thinness, and her possible future.
  14. savagely
    in a vicious manner
    "Well, don’t wait around here!" cried the boy savagely. "You won’t see nothing!"
  15. predict
    make a guess about what will happen in the future
    "Oh, but," Margot whispered, her eyes helpless. "But this is the day, the scientists predict, they say, they know, the sun…"
  16. seize
    take hold of; grab
    "All a joke!" said the boy, and seized her roughly. "Hey, everyone, let’s put her in a closet before the teacher comes!"
  17. surge
    rise or move forward
    They surged about her, caught her up and bore her, protesting, and then pleading, and then crying, back into a tunnel, a room, a closet, where they slammed and locked the door.
  18. repercussion
    a movement back from an impact
    It was as if, in the midst of a film concerning an avalanche, a tornado, a hurricane, a volcanic eruption, something had, first, gone wrong with the sound apparatus, thus muffling and finally cutting off all noise, all of the blasts and repercussions and thunders, and then, second, ripped the film from the projector and inserted in its place a beautiful tropical slide which did not move or tremor.
  19. standstill
    an interruption of normal activity
    The world ground to a standstill.
  20. immense
    unusually great in size or amount or extent or scope
    The silence was so immense and unbelievable that you felt your ears had been stuffed or you had lost your hearing altogether.
  21. flame
    shine with a sudden light
    It was the color of flaming bronze and it was very large.
  22. blaze
    shine brightly and intensively
    And the sky around it was a blazing blue tile color.
  23. release
    grant freedom to; free from confinement
    And the jungle burned with sunlight as the children, released from their spell, rushed out, yelling into the springtime.
  24. tumultuous
    characterized by unrest or disorder or insubordination
    They stopped running and stood in the great jungle that covered Venus, that grew and never stopped growing, tumultuously, even as you watched it.
  25. brief
    of short duration or distance
    It was a nest of octopi, clustering up great arms of fleshlike weed, wavering, flowering in this brief spring.
  26. resilient
    rebounding readily
    The children lay out, laughing, on the jungle mattress, and heard it sigh and squeak under them resilient and alive.
  27. squint
    partly close one's eyes, as when hit by direct light
    They ran among the trees, they slipped and fell, they pushed each other, they played hide-and-seek and tag, but most of all they squinted at the sun until the tears ran down their faces
  28. suspend
    cause to be supported by buoyancy in a fluid
    they put their hands up to that yellowness and that amazing blueness and they breathed of the fresh, fresh air and listened and listened to the silence which suspended them in a blessed sea of no sound and no motion.
  29. savor
    derive or receive pleasure from
    They looked at everything and savored everything.
  30. wail
    emit long loud cries
    In the midst of their running one of the girls wailed.
  31. vanish
    decrease rapidly and disappear
    They turned and started to walk back toward the underground house, their hands at their sides, their smiles vanishing away.
  32. startle
    move or jump suddenly, as if in surprise or alarm
    A boom of thunder startled them and like leaves before a new hurricane, they tumbled upon each other and ran.
  33. avalanche
    a sudden appearance of an overwhelming number of things
    Then they closed the door and heard the gigantic sound of the rain falling in tons and avalanches, everywhere and forever.
  34. glance
    take a brief look at
    They glanced out at the world that was raining now and raining and raining steadily. They could not meet each other’s glances.
  35. solemn
    dignified and somber in manner or character
    Their faces were solemn and pale.
Created on Fri May 12 12:05:58 EDT 2017 (updated Tue Apr 09 14:26:18 EDT 2019)

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