Cricket Magazine Fiction and Non-Fiction Stories for Children and Young Teens May/June 2017

Dear Cricket, I am a big fan of this magazine. I study in India, in an awesome place right in the middle of the mountains, surrounded by the Himalayas. I am away from my parents in America for nine months a year. My brother, who is two years younger than me, is with me. Every morning I wake up to the sight of the mountains right outside my dorm window! My friends, who I have been with since preschool, are 99 percent not American. Most of them are Spanish, English, or Australian. My favorite story in Cricket was “The Forty Thieves” (January–May/June 2016). I am really good in Indian classical music and Indian dance. Except for this, I am normal. Maya P. India My mom really likes traveling, so I’ve…

ASHA ARRIVED ON a bright summer day. My new stepsister, Beatrice, and I leaned over the fence and watched as men carried things into the house next door: lamps, bookcases, boxes, a green couch. My mom and I moved here to Seattle a month ago when she got married. From the top of the hill where we live, we can see Puget Sound sparkling in the sunshine. When Mom first saw the view, she squeezed my shoulder and gasped, “Seth, isn’t it beautiful? It’s like living in a postcard.” I nodded because I wanted Mom to be happy. She and I walked down to the pier and looked for seals, just the two of us, and when we saw one with his shining black eyes poke his nose out of…

Kai Kaus, Shah of ancient Persia, was not noted for being a great king. In fact, he was said to have been rather foolish. But he will long be remembered for his legendary flight. From his youth Kai Kaus had been fascinated by the heavens. One fine spring day he sent for his astronomers to tell them of his plan. “I have thought of a way to fly,” he said, “to see for myself the nature of the sun and moon and how it is that night follows day. I will study the planets and the stars that surround them. Nothing like this has ever been planned until now!” The Shah’s eyes shone with excitement. His astronomers stared at him in astonishment. Kai Kaus laughed to see their expressions. Then…

“Last June, my parents jumped off a roof because of a pinky ring.” SMALL PERSONS WITH WINGS by Ellen Booraem submitted by Zora Dabbs of Evanston, IL “It was a vast, shining globe and it cast a light of lambent topaz into space—but it was not a sun.” STARS WARS, EPISODE IV, A NEW HOPE by George Lucas submitted by Maellie Lewna of Milwaukee, WI “Sophie had waited all her life to be kidnapped.” THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL by Soman Chainani submitted by Maya P.of Cincinnati, OH “In the fall of 1777, Philadelphia sat twitching like a nervous mouse.” THE SCARLET STOCKINGS SPY by Trinka Hakes Noble submitted by Vanessa Darigain of Albuquerque, NM “The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit.”…

DID YOU KNOW that the triangle is the strongest geometrical shape? Triangular braces, called trusses, are used as supports in many large construction projects. In the 1800s a revolutionary design of overlapping triangles was used to build covered bridges throughout the South. The old dusty roads of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi were connected by these sturdy bridges, many of which were the work of Horace King, a remarkable man who, although born into slavery, grew to be recognized as the South’s master bridge builder. King was born in the Cheraw District of South Carolina on September 8, 1807. He was tri-racial, having African, Native American, and White ancestry. His intelligence and ability must have been recognized early. He learned to read and write at a time when most slaves…

Rain roars on the metal barn roof gushes from downspouts outside the barn doorway where I stand with my brother and sister separated from our house by a gray curtain of rain. “I’ll get an umbrella,” shouts my father. He pushes a pitchfork deep into a haystack, twists the handle, and hoists it up, up, and up, high above his head. “Get underneath,” he says. I hitch my fingers onto his belt as the four of us walk jostling and laughing our way to the house porch where we sit and watch the rain splash on parched corn leaves.…