Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2018 i Cricket Magazine Fiction and Non-Fiction Stories for Children and Young Teens

57463396874638586751. Read these numbers slowly, then close your eyes and say them in order. Seems impossible, doesn’t it? Yet a man called Mr. S, born with an extraordinary memory, was able to remember lists four times this long. Even more surprising, a young man born with an ordinary memory taught himself to do the same. How can anyone develop a memory this powerful? To answer this question, let’s go back more than eighty years to Russia, where a stranger had just appeared, unannounced, at the laboratory of the famous psychologist Dr. Alexander Luria. The man’s name was S. V. Shereshevskii, and he wanted the doctor to test his memory. Dr. Luria noted the man’s ordinary appearance and somewhat puzzled expression. Little did he realize that this would be one of…

“Today I moved to a twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water.” AL CAPONE DOES MY SHIRTS (Tales from Alcatraz) by Gennifer Choldenko submitted by Frances K. via email “My sweat smells like peanut butter.” JEREMY FINK AND THE MEANING OF LIFE by Wendy Mass submitted by Eve R. of Greenwich, CT “So, there I was, tied to an altar made from outdated encyclopedias, about to get sacrificed to the dark powers by a cult of evil Librarians.” ALCATRAZ VS. THE EVIL LIBRARIANS by Brandon Sanderson submitted by Charlotte Hahn of Battleground, WA “If you have ever peeled an onion, then you know that the first thin, papery layer reveals another thin, papery layer, and that layer reveals another, and another,…

Dear Cricket magazine, I totally love you magazine (even if this is the billionth time you’ve heard this)! I like to read, write, and draw, so Cricket is perfect for me. I also like to play video games, so I think Cricket should have an article on classic games. I think it’s awesome that Cricket is ad-free and people in their twenties and thirties still read it from their childhood. My fourth grade teacher knew I loved Cricket so she gave me a bunch of old Crickets from as long ago as 1999! I find it funny that I’m reading magazines older than me. I noticed that in some of them, the comics are under the Letterbox and throughout the mag. And there was so little! (So sad!) Sometimes I…

NAMI FOLLOWED HER ba-ba past a maze of crates filled with purple octopus, spiky sea urchins, and brown turban snails. She longed for an ocean breeze to breathe life into the humid, fishy-smelling air of the market. They stopped at a crate full of abalone that had been brought up by Ba-ba and the other ama divers. Nami knew that abalone was considered a delicacy, but she’d always been more interested in its beautiful shell. An older woman with wrinkled hands and a kind face bowed to Ba-ba. “Ohayo, Yoshi.” She fingered an abalone shell that had been cleaned out and left behind. It was the size of a dinner plate, crusty and dull red on the outside but shimmering mother-of-pearl on the inside. “Ohayo.” Ba-ba bowed. “This is my…

Hassan sighed as he thought of Neeloufar. Would she come back today? He never knew when to expect her. His store was in the cloth-sellers’ courtyard at one end of the Esfahan bazaar in old Persia. The fragrance of kabob and Turkish coffee from the teahouse next-door lingered in the air as he unlocked the iron grill that covered his shop entrance to let in his workers and the soft spring air. Straightening some bolts of rich cloth, Hassan smiled at the thought that Neeloufar, too, loved the brilliant colors and that she loved poetry as he did. She was intelligent, with umber gazelle eyes and a silvery voice. He could talk with her for hours about anything, everything. . . . He sighed, ran fingers through his dark, wavy…

WINNERS FEBRUARY 2018 POETRY CONTEST Horses First prize 10 and under Alexander Defendis, age 10 Hilton, NY Race Horse The horse waits behind the door, eager to get out. He’s ready, hooves brushing against the ground. And, when the door opens, he will sprint, and run, run, run like lightning to the finish line. But do you ever wonder, Do the horses know why they are running? First prize 11 and up Marianne Cowan, age 13 Houston, TX Silver Hooves Near the dawn of spring, not long ago I saw a star fall with the snow All my sense told me to run But in the end it’s heart that won And to the star I flew From the glow, a silhouette I felt my eyes begin to wet Tears…

WE ALL ADMIRE beautiful birds, their bright feathers and lovely songs. But there’s a bird we may see so often we hardly notice it: Columbiformes. Rock doves. Or, in other words, plain ordinary pigeons. Well, they aren’t always plain. You’ll find some pretty spectacular types: fantails, pouters, acrobatic rollers and tumblers, racing pigeons, homing pigeons among the hundred and fifty different breeds. The pigeons pecking around in parks and backyards or sitting on statues are simply busy being pigeons. But they have a long, proud history. Ancient Persians and Greeks, for example, used them to carry military messages or the names of Olympic winners. In World War I, carrier pigeons received medals for heroism. Champion racing pigeons have flown a course of nearly seven hundred miles at an average speed…