Innholdsfortegnelse for November/December 2016 i Cricket Magazine Fiction and Non-Fiction Stories for Children and Young Teens

“One Snowy Night” medium Leonid Gore was born and raised in Belarus. He studied art in the Academy of Arts in Minsk. Since 1990, he has been living in the United States, where he has illustrated more than thirty children’s books, five of which he also wrote. Gore has been widely praised for his artwork in such books as Sleeping Boy (a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year) and Lucy Dove (an IRA Children’s Choice book and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year). He also excels at illustrations for book covers, including those for The Christmas Rat by Avi, Well Wished and The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley, and Blizzard! by Jim Murphy. His paintings have regularly been shown at the prestigious and competitive annual exhibitions of…

THE FAMILIAR RED of the swastika armband caught my eye. Through the early morning mist, I saw the outline of a soldier’s body. I figured he was dead, but I had to be certain. I glanced around. No one in sight. Common sense told me to get out of there, but I trudged toward the soldier, my boots heavy in the mud, his body pulling me like a magnet. I slowed a few meters from where the soldier lay and held my breath. He was on his back, his hands over his head like he was lifting them in surrender. During the past four years of German occupation I’d seen a total of three dead bodies, but never one this close. I swallowed hard, trying to push back the nausea.…

Emerging from her nest, my hamster peeks, Clutching a pumpkin seed in tiny paws And gnawing upon it with tiny jaws. Her fur is long and soft and smooth and sleek. Her eyes are bright and round, her face is meek, And on her little toes are tiny claws. Her whiskers twitch; her voice now gives me pause. She makes a quiet yet meaningful squeak. I think she wants to say “Give me a treat! A blueberry would make a tasty snack—A peanut, or a bite of Colby Jack. I don’t need much to fill my velvet cheeks.” I choose a cookie crumb, and as I feed it She nips my finger, but she doesn’t mean it.…

FOR AN ESPECIALLY delicious Christmas morning breakfast, try these big, hot and puffy pancakes. Dutch pancakes are really more German than Dutch. Their name comes from Deutsch, the German word for German. Whatever you call them, they’re a scrumptious treat for a frosty holiday morning. What You Need: 2 eggs 1 cup milk 1 cup flour 2 tablespoons sugar 3 tablespoons butter 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar What to Do: 1. Preheat oven to 375°F. 2. In a medium-size bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, flour, and sugar until lump free. 3. On the stovetop, melt butter completely in a cast-iron or other ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. 4.Pour the batter into the hot pan and cook for one minute, then ask an adult to set the pan of batter in the…

I ARRIVED AT Mr. Dakin’s farm just outside Darrowby on a warm April morning. The green hillside ran down to the river, and the spring sunshine danced on the water. The birds were singing, and lambs played on the flower-strewn pastures. I saw Mr. Dakin in the cow barn and went across to him. The farmer had a long face, made even longer by his drooping mustache. He was a kind man but he always looked mournful, and this morning he looked sadder than ever. I had come to examine a litter of piglets who had upset tummies, but Mr. Dakin seemed in no hurry to leave the barn. He was gazing at his old Shorthorn cow, Blossom. “She’s got to go, Mr. Herriot.” “Old Blossom? Why?” I asked. “It’s…

When they gaze into “The Swedish Bottle,” Elfa sees scenes of her childhood in Sweden and of her future happiness in America, while Nellie is transported to a lovely island where she speaks with her mother whom she misses so much. In “The Telescope,” King Fensgar looks at maps of faraway lands through his magical telescope and sees people and places he never knew existed. For this month’s contest, everybuggy wants you to send us your best drawing of a place or time you would love to see through a magical telescope. Will your magical telescope transport you to a real place you have always wanted to visit or somewhere that exists only in your imagination? Perhaps you will look at a globe and be inspired by some fascinating spot…

IF YOU GO far, far north in New York City, you’ll come to a place that looks just like a country town. There are tall trees and little houses with gardens on narrow, crooked streets. It’s a quiet place. You can almost forget where you are. On one of those crooked streets there once lived a large brown cat. He had brown stripes on his back, on his head, and on his legs. But on his tail, which was thick and broad, he had black stripes. He had amber eyes, fine white whiskers, and a white tip on his broad tail. He was very big, the biggest cat in the neighborhood, perhaps in the whole city. When he stretched himself out full length, which he was fond of doing on…

A tiger cat that once roamed free, He claimed the world that he could see From high atop the tallest trees Or on the roof tops in the breeze, Where he’d look down on other males And spy plump mice and lizard tails To bring back home as gifts for me, His own special delivery. His once bright stripes of marmalade Have softened and begun to fade, But he does not know he is old, His eyes still sparkle orange-gold To chase the shadows down the hall And flecks of light across the wall, To stand his ground and claim his place With younger cats that share his space. His realm is now inside my house, His fiercest prey a catnip mouse, But he can leap and climb up still…

ONCE UPON A TIME there lived a young king named Fensgar in a land near the top of the world. Winters in that land were long, and during the darkest, loneliest time of one particular winter, the king felt the whole realm was frozen with boredom. It seemed to him the streets were silent as everyone sat numbly indoors, and the woods were still while all the creatures slept. On a stormy, frigid day, King Fensgar wandered through room after room of his castle, searching for anything that might intrigue him. He listlessly examined trinkets in cabinets and baubles in chests. He stopped by the kitchen, where the cooks were chopping up root vegetables, and stared into the pots that bubbled on the huge stove. “Vegetable soup again?” “Yes, Your…