Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2015 i Cricket Magazine Fiction and Non-Fiction Stories for Children and Young Teens

Hallo, Everybuggy! I live in Virginia Beach, Virginia. My house is only a block from the beach, and when it’s warm we go swimming or look for treasures at the high tide line. I love playing outside, roller-skating, biking, swimming, hiking, baseball, animals, nature, and almost anything to do with the outdoors. I’m afraid of bugs and the dark. I love books and writing (well, I think anyone who reads Cricket does) and I highly recommend the following books: anything by Kate DiCamillo, Inside Out and Back Again, The Raft, and the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Kate DiCamillo is my all-time favorite author. I write my own stories. My mom read Cricket when she was my age, so she got Cricket for me a few years ago. She…

WINNERS FEBRUARY 2015 ART CONTEST Fantasy First prize 10 and under Rowan A., age 6Colorado Springs, CO First prize 11 and up Benjamin A., age 16Vienna, VA First prize 11 and up Eesha S., age 15Cupertino, CA First prize 10 and under Aaron O., age 8Allen, TX First prize 11 and up Leela Cromwell, age 11 Bowling Green, OH Second prize 10 and under Skylar A., age 10Colorado Springs, CO Second prize 10 and under Amelie B., age 8Atlanta, GA Second prize 11 and up Kyle G., age 16Brewster, MA Second prize 11 and up Deanna W., age 16Newport, NC Second prize 10 and under Wyatt Young, age 8Keswick, VA Mythical Creature Second prize 11 and up Shasta Sholes, age 14Redwood City, CA Third prize 10 and under Avery Kurzontkowski,…

“LAST CALL, CALLIE!” Gram jangles her keys as she heads out to the carport. “Coming!” I yell, tossing off the covers. Outside my window the sky is awash with a predawn glow. The trouble with tracking sea turtles is you have to get up early, every day. Today is my twenty-fifth day on patrol, which Gram says is probably a record for a twelve-year-old. When Dad dropped me off at Gram’s here in Florida two days after school got out, who knew I would morph from a Cincinnati city kid into a turtle-obsessed beach volunteer? If I’m not out on the beach, I’m watching turtle videos or reading turtle books. I pull on cargo shorts and my blue T-shirt, the one with baby turtles scrambling up the front and over…

NOW A DAYS IT ’S COMMON for women to serve in the military. But women leading soldiers into combat is not a totally new idea. My friend Rita Giordano tells me that it goes back a long way. In fact, nineteen hundred years ago, a British warrior queen named Boudicca led her own and other tribes against the might of Rome. When Rome conquered Britain in AD 43, Boudicca and her husband, King Prasutagus, made peace with the invading legions. Their people, the Iceni, were a “client” tribe, granted some independence in return for tribute, money paid to Rome. When Prasutagus died in 61, he made the emperor Nero heir to part of his land, hoping to ensure that the Iceni would keep Rome’s favor. But when Nero’s agents arrived,…

After about fifty-six days underground, loggerhead sea turtle eggs hatch. The hatchlings pile on top of each other, working as a team to dig out of the nest. The turtles on top loosen the sand overhead with their front flippers, while the ones on the bottom rock their bodies back and forth to pack the trickling sand down, slowly raising the floor of the nest until the turtles on top pop out. Then all the two-inch-long turtles make a frenzied scramble to the sea, usually under the cover of darkness to elude hungry predators such as sand crabs, seagulls, and frigate birds. Once in the water, the tiny turtles swim for days until they reach floating masses of seaweed. They will hide out in the seaweed for years, eating tiny…

FABLE THATCHER scrambled from Jonah’s boat onto the dock. Araceli Luminè already stood beside her, hand on her sword’s hilt. Above them, the crumbling remains of a stairway led up along the wall to the chin of the huge, ornamental full moon set within the bricks. Fable studied the staircase. It was more of a ramp, many stones missing, its steps muddy shelves of toadstools and moss. “Not many people come this way.” “Of course not,” said Luminè. “Whoever remembers there’s a doorway here also knows where it leads.” “Khaos must not use it, either,” said Fable. Luminè hoisted her pack. “I think he has easier ways to come and go—magical ways.” Jonah leaned on his pole, his green eyes narrow. “We may not be able to open it.” He…

BACK AND FORTH the brass duck rocked. Standing still for a change, eleven-year-old Alexander “Sandy” Calder watched for his parents’ reaction to the first of the two Christmas presents he had made for them. At last, their eyes widened, and they grinned. “Ingenious,” Mr. Calder said, tapping the back of the rocking duck once again. “It’s kinetic.” Mrs. Calder removed a small dog from the other gift box. It had been cut from a flat sheet of brass, like the duck, and bent to stand on four legs. “Oh, I can feel his spirit,” she said, holding it tenderly in her palm. “To think these are some of your first sculptures!” “Both works show a good use of material,” Sandy’s grandfather added with a nod. “Looks like we have another…