Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2017 i Cricket Magazine Fiction and Non-Fiction Stories for Children and Young Teens

Unlike her mother, grandmother, and sisters Aquatic I and II, Diana is not a robot. When Diana finally asks her mother why she is different, Mother overheats, unable to process the question. Later, Grandmother explains that the robots took Diana to the isolated island she has grown up on to protect her from the other humans who are destroying themselves with pollution and war. On the night of her twelfth birthday, while trying to fall asleep, Diana smells smoke from a campfire. She sneaks out of her bedroom and goes down to the beach, where she discovers Li, a human girl, who “stole” her brother’s boat and crashed it on the island’s rocks. Diana feels strange emotions talking to another human, especially when Li calls her parents and says not…

Dear Old Cricket, Hi! You’re so intelligent! When I get an issue of Cricket, I sit in my beanbag chair and hurry through (if absorbing every word is hurrying) to read your wise words. I think my favorite of yours is either the one about time (January 2017) or the one about the history of farming materials (July/ August 2016). I think my favorite stories are “The Elephant Song” (May/June–July/August 2016), “Hope on High” (September–October 2016), and a tie for first place between “The Swedish Bottle” (November/December 2016) and “The Iron Cross” (November/December 2016–February 2017). Your #1 fan, Blakely Bresee, age 12 Gresham, Oregon P.S. Ladybug, what is your favorite book? Hi, Blakely, One of my favorite books is Flicka, Ricka, Dicka, and the New Dotted Dresses. But I have…

THE WOMAN WAS rushed to Necker Hospital in Paris. Her face was pale and sweaty as she gasped for breath and clutched her chest. Young doctor René Laënnec raced to her bedside. Laënnec saw that this patient was desperately ill, perhaps ill enough to die. But what was the cause of her symptoms? In 1816 there were no x-ray machines or ultrasounds—no tools at all to help Laënnec diagnose internal illnesses. Like all doctors of his day, Laënnec could only rely on what his patients told him about their symptoms and what he could observe with his own eyes. But this patient was too sick to be of much help. And of course Laënnec couldn’t see inside her body. He turned to the only other tools that he had available—his…

RECENTLY, I HEARD from my friend Gene Luen Yang, who is the Library of Congress’s National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Gene told me why he began his graphic novel American Born Chinese with a retelling of the legend of “The Monkey King,” the story we’ve reprinted in this Cricket. I also learned about his program Reading Without Walls. “Almost every Chinese and Chinese American kid has grown up with stories about the Monkey King. He’s not only a popular figure in blockbuster movies and cartoons, but he’s also a main character in the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West, one of the four pillars of Chinese literature. “When I began writing comics as an adult, it occurred to me that I could adapt the Monkey King legend to…

REUBEN APPROACHED THE house with blue shutters. The driveway was bare, the garage door shut, the windows dark. The house was an impenetrable fortress to all except he who had the fish key chain. Reuben squeezed the key chain and rang the doorbell with his other hand. The Brigdales should’ve left already, but he had to make sure. How embarrassing would it be to burst in on them just as they were about to leave for their trip? The doorbell chime got Bandit barking, his scruffy head peeking through the curtains in the nearest window. One more doorbell ring to be sure. Getting no response other than Bandit’s barks, Reuben inserted the key and opened the door. Bandit jumped and pawed at Reuben’s thigh. The mutt knew his scent from…

First prize 10 and under Audrey Moeller, age 10 Duluth, MN Mother Turtle Once a year,She makes a journeyAcross the shining seaTo the place whereMiracles have happened again and again She slowly comes out of the waterGoes all the way up the sandMakes a holeJust deep enough Her eggs slowly comeOne by one With a flipper she covers them up,Then joins the vast ocean againTill one dayWhen Mother Turtle will return First prize 11 and up Elena Finnegan, age 13 Los Ranchos, NM Related by Love Why do you careif we don’t look alike?We do if you look past our shells.Our hearts speak the same language.Why do you thinkthat love is dependent upon biology?We arestrongerkindermore courageoustogether.Why do you believethat my skin of coconut and hers of cinnamonseparate us?Although we don’t…