Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2015 i Cricket Magazine Fiction and Non-Fiction Stories for Children and Young Teens

Gillian Crenshaw is in love with acting. She’s even studied method acting, techniques for developing deeply emotional, intense roles, created by the great director Stanislavski. When Gillian tries out for the school play, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, she is confident she will get one of the best parts. But Mr. Ellison, the director, doesn’t cast her. Instead he encourages her to join the stage crew. The middle child in a large family, Gillian often feels that her parents pay more attention to her academically gifted older sister, Diana, her couple of older brothers, Winston and Alden, and her younger brother, Dex, who has cerebral palsy and requires special care. When her family appears interested in her part in the play, however, Gillian pretends that she has a role onstage. Only…

IT WAS SAID that he had a spinal deformity, a hunched back, which might have made him, had he been a commoner, the butt of jokes or an object of pity. Instead, being of noble birth, a duke’s son and then a duke himself, he rose to sit upon the throne of England during the tumultuous fifteenth century. Some considered (and still consider) him to have been a competent king, a wise reformer who protected legal rights for the poor, and a valiant military leader; others think of him as one of the greatest villains of English history. His claim on the throne was shaky. During the previous hundred years, England’s crown had been seized numerous times by might of arms, and the dynastic succession had become muddled. At the…

TAKE A TIME LESS sea legend, mix with the musical genius of German composer Richard Wagner, and you have Grand Opera at its best. My friend Bob Morrow tells me that Wagner based his opera The Flying Dutchman on the tale of an impetuous Dutch sea captain who, in 1641, sailed his ship into a ferocious storm while trying to round the Cape of Good Hope at Africa’s southern tip. As his vessel was torn apart in the crashing seas, the captain swilled grog, sang bawdy songs, and shouted a blasphemous oath that he’d round the Cape if he had to sail until doomsday. The devil heard the oath and condemned the captain to sail forever. But Wagner gave the legend a twist. In his version, the devil grants the…

Dear Everybuggy, First off, Sluggo, keep on playing sports. Ladybug, quit being bossy! I like playing soccer. My two most favorite positions are right offense and goalie. Everyone seems to think I am the best player on my team; I think I have equals. I am also very good at baseball and basketball. I like running, riding my bike, Rollerblading, and pogo sticking. My favorite books are Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and the Tennis Shoes Adventure series by Chris Heimerdinger. I love to read. I really like bears and penguins. My favorite school subjects are math and science. Tater, what is your favorite kind of science? Will Shields, age 11 Manchester, New Hampshire I like most kinds of science, Will, but if I had to pick a favorite, I’d say…

“ YOU ’ RE NOT THE only one,” Bobby’s father said as he drove their car very slowly and carefully through the empty streets. In spite of the fact that there were no other vehicles on the road, driving was still dangerous in this situation: his dad could hardly keep his eyes open. “There are at least a dozen other people in this part of the state who haven’t responded to the Hibernation Instinct.” Bobby’s mother hugged him with one arm while resting her head atop his own. For a moment, he thought that she had slipped off to sleep, but then she said in a warm, drowsy voice, “We thought that you would be. . . affected like your brother and sister. But, well, you’ve always been your own…

1645 WIELICZKA , POLAND Staszek held his breath as the rope sling he sat in swung out over the dark gaping mouth of the salt mine. Dropping swiftly, he felt his stomach lurch as the cool damp air of the tunnel rushed upward over his head. He’d been swallowed, he thought, like a fly being gulped by a snake. He was glad now that he hadn’t eaten the breakfast offered in the mine canteen, because he felt queasy. He looked back up to the entrance and watched the torchlight grow dimmer as he plunged deeper down the shaft, away from his family and home. His mother had wrapped his lunch in a cloth for him and kissed both cheeks, as he said goodbye without looking in her eyes. The flame…

“On a warm October night in Chicago, three deliveries were made in the same neighborhood.” CHASING VERMEER by Blue Balliett submitted by Melody via Chatterbox “When I was nine years old, I hid under a table and heard my sister kill a king.” QUEST FOR A MAID by Frances Mary Hendry submitted by Brenna Cooper of Brandenburg, KY “Now, for those of you who know anything about blind children, you are aware that they make the very best thieves.” PETER NIMBLE AND HIS FANTASTIC EYES by Jonathan Auxier submitted by Dylan C.of Santa Rosa, CA “Linderwall was a large kingdom, just east of the Mountains of Morning, where philosophers were highly respected and the number five was fashionable.” DEALING WITH DRAGONS by Patricia C. Wrede submitted…

Perhaps Tamitha ought to have suspected the little green woman who stood at the bridge—not because she was green (that might have been seasickness) and not because of her tattered clothes (Tamitha was no fancy dresser herself) but because of the sneaky way she shifted her eyes at Tamitha’s approach. Tamitha, however, was not a suspicious person, and while she was no dummy, she was not terribly observant. She tended to get lost in her own head. Now, for instance, as she approached the bridge on her way to town, she scarcely noticed the summer sun high and hot above her, or the way the birds piped as they wheeled through the bright blue air, or the ripples of tall grass that stretched into the distance on either side of…

WHAT HAS NO eyes, ears, lungs, arms, or legs but has five hearts? No, it isn’t an alien from outer space. In fact, this creature may be living in your own backyard. It’s a night crawler, the common earthworm. The worm gets its name from the fact that it comes to the surface of the soil at night. Earthworms are herbivores. They eat decaying plant matter, which is in the soil they swallow as they burrow. They can eat up to one-third of their body weight in one day. How big an earthworm gets depends on the species of the worm, its age, diet, and environment. Canadian night crawlers, which are very popular with fishermen, can grow to be more than one foot in length. Night crawlers are invertebrates—they have…

WINNERS MAY/JUNE 2015 ART CONTEST Moments in Nature First prize 10 and under Cora Goulding, age 10 Cherry Hill, NJ First prize 10 and under Gabriella Searle, age 10 Bow, WA First prize 11 and up Miriam E. Shamess, age 11 Caledonia, MI First prize 11 and up Sophia Sunkin, age 11 Trabuco Canyon, CA Second prize 10 and under Ella Martinez Nocito, age 8 Sunderland, MA Second prize 11 and up Clare Hawkins, age 11 Scott City, KS Second prize 11 and up Sasha Zeidenberg, age 14 Amherst, MA Third prize 10 and under Elise E. Brown, age 10 Decatur, GA Third prize 10 and under Gwendolyn Ivey, age 9 Chico, CA Third prize 10 and under Estelle Petras, age 9 Birmingham AL Baby Geese Are Born During a…