Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2018 i Cricket Magazine Fiction and Non-Fiction Stories for Children and Young Teens

Daniel Powers is an illustrator who lives on an island in coastal Georgia. When he moved there from New Mexico, he couldn’t wait to kayak out into the swamps to paint pictures and to find out for himself what might be swimming around in the inky water or lurking in the reeds. Now he’s older and wiser—he knows better than to wonder about such things. (You know what they say about the curious cat.) So now he mostly draws and paints from the comfort of his studio, safely away from the rivers and creeks that used to entice him. Is it time to renew? shop.cricketmedia.com 1-800-821-0115…

The World Health Organization estimates that cholera still kills 95,000 people and affects 2.9 million every year. If treated promptly, people can recover from cholera. Treatment consists of getting adequate replacement fluids and a course of antibiotics. Scientists have developed a vaccine to prevent cholera, but reaching people in many vulnerable areas remains difficult. Many cholera outbreaks happen after a major crisis, like a natural disaster, refugee relocation, or war. An outbreak in Haiti followed an earthquake in 2010. Another outbreak in 2016 occurred when fighting in Yemen destroyed a city’s water system. Most cases, however, are caused by lack of clean water and sanitation. In October 2017, a group called the Global Task Force on Cholera Control came together to announce a plan to reduce cholera deaths by 90%…

Dear Cricket magazine, You have amazing stories! I have only been getting your magazine for about a year and I have already fallen in love with it! One of my favorite stories is “April Rose in Charge” (March–May/June 2017). I’m hooked on the Whatever After and the Descendants School of Secrets book series. Last winter my town got hit with a nor’easter. We got fourteen inches of snow! That meant no school for two days! Keep making awesome magazines! Alena Shaffer, age 10 McEwensville, Pennsylvania P.S. Pussywillow, you are the best buggy of them all. Dear Everybuggy, I love your magazines, but I think your crossword puzzles are too hard. I’ve only had two issues, but they are awesome. Who comes up with the cover pictures? Emerson Enbysk University Place,…

WHEN SHUI- MU WAS still a baby, her parents arranged for her to marry a boy in another village. Then, while still a child, even before she had grown old enough to marry him, she was sent away to live with his family. Like a good daughter, she helped the boy’s mother wash, sew, cook, sweep, garden, scrub, polish, mop, and shop. But the harder Shui-mu worked, the more work she was given, all day long and late into the night. Though Shui-mu tried hard to please, no matter how exhausted she was, Mother always found fault. “Lazybones, didn’t you see this speck of dirt on the floor?” Mother would scream. “Sweep it again!” At mealtimes, she’d shout, “Taste these pickled vegetables! They’re far too salty!” And to prove it,…

ALONG WITH PROBING mysteries of the universe, voyaging to unexplored continents, and creating art and literature, one big human occupation has been keeping clean—in Roman baths, Turkish hamams, Native American sweat lodges, Finnish saunas, and modern Jacuzzis. But don’t overlook one small, everyday treasure: your bar of soap. Go back 3,000 years to Sapo Hill near Rome, where burnt offerings were made to ancient gods and goddesses. Fats and oils from the altar mixed with wood ashes and trickled into the ground. One day, a bright young girl discovered that this fat-soaked earth foamed in water and was just fine for laundering clothes. Thus, the first soap! That’s just a legend. No one knows who invented soap, but historians reckon it was being made in Europe over 2,000 years ago;…

BRITISH DOCTOR JOHN Snow couldn’t convince other doctors and scientists that cholera, a deadly disease, was spread when people drank contaminated water—until a mother washed her baby’s diapers in a town well in 1854 and touched off an epidemic that killed 616 people. Dr. Snow, an obstetrician with an interest in many aspects of medical science, had long believed that water contaminated by sewage was the cause of cholera. Cholera is an intestinal disease that can cause death within hours after the first symptoms of vomiting or diarrhea. Snow published an article in 1849 outlining his theory, but doctors and scientists thought he was on the wrong track and stuck with the popular belief of the time that cholera was caused by breathing “vapors” or a “miasma in the atmosphere.”…

WINNERS SEPTEMBER 2017 STORY CONTEST Future World First prize 10 and under Rose Willis, age 10 Lawrence, KS City Protection Force I took off my helmet and turned off the control board in my flight pod. Running a hand through my sweaty hair, I opened the pod’s door and stepped out into the control room in the City Protection Force Station. I scanned the room with my robotic eye. My sister, Kinn, was seated at the controls across the room. My robot eye, locked in a gaze with Kinn’s natural, human eye, analyzed her: SUBJECT: Human. Part robotic. MOOD: Curious. Kinn stood up. “Jaia,” she greeted. “How are you? Good patrol?” I shook my head and exited the room. During the patrol, I had scratched up the pod by nearly…