Innholdsfortegnelse for November/December 2015 i Cricket Magazine Fiction and Non-Fiction Stories for Children and Young Teens

THOMAS CORAM was a small, feisty man with a big personality. Though he loved children, he had none of his own. Sent to sea at age eleven after the death of his mother, Coram enjoyed a long career as a sailor and shipbuilder, lived for a time in America, and then settled in London in 1722, when he was fifty-four years old. Restless and full of energy, and quick to help the less fortunate, the little sea captain took long daily walks through London. While wealthy people lived in elegant mansions, Coram saw the poor crowded into dingy, dirty tenements. The poorest of the poor, including children dressed in rags, lived on the streets. Violence and alcoholism were rife in these primitive, overcrowded conditions. Even children drank gin and beer,…

DURING WORLD WAR II, after the Nazis had bombed and burned the Warsaw ghetto, a boy and a girl were hiding in one of the ruins—David, fourteen years old, and Rebecca, thirteen. It was winter and bitter cold outside. For weeks Rebecca had not left the dark, partially collapsed cellar that was their hiding place, but every few days David would go out to search for food. All the stores had been destroyed in the bombing, and David sometimes found stale bread, cans of food, or whatever else had been buried. Making his way through the ruins was dangerous. Sometimes bricks and mortar would fall down, and he could easily lose his way. But if he and Rebecca did not want to die from hunger, he had to take the…

HAVE YOU EVER heard of Boxing Day? It’s a holiday celebrated in the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth countries on December 26 every year. Some people say that the ancient Roman tradition of gift giving during the winter festival of Saturnalia inspired Boxing Day, but no one knows for certain. My friend Madelyn Yvone Moffki tells me that this gift giving eventually took the form of placing alms boxes in churches on Christmas Day so that wealthy people could drop coins into them for later distribution to the needy. These early “Christmas Boxes” were made of clay and had slits in the tops but no stoppers in the bottoms. It was “smashing fun” opening them! During the seventeenth century, in order to end what Protestant ministers considered nonpious festivities associated…

To: Cricket and Buggies! I may be the first person to say this, but I do not like your mag. I love it! I have two amazing dogs. One is a whippet named Nezumi, and one is a husky/border collie named Casca. I love to read and play video games. I also draw and bike. I am hoping to go mountain biking this year. I just moved, so it is interesting living in a new house. I have been homeschooled my whole life. My favorite books are Eragon, Ender’s Game, and The Ranger’s Apprentice series. I love the Cricket story “The Christmas Day Kitten” by James Herriot (November/December 2013). I read it to my cousin all the time. Aidan Woodbury, age 12 Zeeland, Michigan Hi, Cricket, Your mags are nothing…

THE BACK OF the truck was dark and smelled of dirt and sweat. Olivier leaned forward and peered through the slit in the canvas. Outside, the trees waved their tangled arms in the warm spring breeze. Small birds perched near their nests, calling to their mates. Olivier longed to hear their songs, but the whirring and grinding of the truck’s engine drowned out every sound. They passed through a gate guarded by dogs on leashes and rifle-bearing soldiers.Olivier clutched his knapsack. Would the soldiers take it away? In the towers, a sign said: Stalag 8A. A cold shiver ran up Olivier’s spine. “Raus! Raus! Raus!” German guards hurried the prisoners off the truck into the barracks where they gave out uniforms and mattresses made of straw. It was dark when…

IT ALL BEGAN when my younger brother, Chris, and I went over to Aunt Barbara and Uncle Howard’s for Thanksgiving. My aunt and uncle live on a farm at the opposite end of town, and Chris and I love going there. We live on a farm, too, and we had to do the morning chores before we left. When we finally got to my aunt and uncle’s, Chris and I went outside to see if Uncle Howard needed help with anything. He and Dad had decided to clean out the turkey coop before dinner. Since Chris was only nine, he got the easier job of scrubbing out the watering cans. I was twelve, old enough to help load the wheelbarrow. But we still found time to ask Uncle Howard a…

ON MARKET DAYS when the farmers around Darrowby brought their goods to the little town to sell, I used to take a walk across the cobbled square to meet the farmers who gathered there to chat. One of the farmers was telling me about his sick cow when we saw the little dog among the market stalls. The thing that made us notice the dog was that he was sitting up, begging, in front of the stall selling cakes and biscuits. “Look at that little chap,” the farmer said. “I wonder where he’s come from?” As he spoke, the stallholder threw him a bun which the dog devoured eagerly, but when the man came round and stretched out a hand, the little animal trotted away. He stopped, however, at another…

WINNERS JULY 2015 PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST Summer Getaway First prize 10 and under Mariah D., age 9 Charlotte, NC First prize 10 and under Amy I., age 10 Sacramento, CA First prize 11 and up Ellie B., age 11 Roseville, MN First prize 11 and up Gillian Barkhurst, age 11 Peralta, NM First prize 11 and up Elaina G., age 15 Minneapolis, MN Second prize 10 and under Alexa D., age 9 Staten Island, NY Second prize 10 and under Marit U., age 10 Atlanta, GA Second prize 11 and up Adelaide B., age 12 Limerick, ME Second prize 11 and up Lucy M., age 12 Chardon, OH Third prize 10 and under Megan D., age 10 Naperville, IL Third prize 11 and up Hannah P., age 11 Fairfax, VA Third…