Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2020 i Cricket Magazine Fiction and Non-Fiction Stories for Children and Young Teens

Dear Cricket, I’m a first-time writer, but I’ve been getting your magazine for about two years. I know that everyone says this, but it is really awesome and I look forward to getting each issue. I’m homeschooled and I love animals. Horses are my favorite animals, and I love anything horse. I also enjoy music, reading, being outside, and astronomy. I have a cat and a dog. I also play the piano. Adelle Richard, age 12 Howard City, Michigan Dear Cricket, How have you been? Sorry I haven’t been writing to you. When is your birthday? My birthday is November 30. What states have you been to? I’m in fourth grade. My older brother is fifteen. My sister is in sixth grade. My little brother is in third grade. We…

Hermit crabs range in size from smaller than your thumbnail to bigger than a coconut. They live all over the world, both in the ocean and on land. Hermit crabs do not grow their own shells. Instead, they live most of their lives inside the shells made by other sea creatures. Hermit crabs move into a larger shell home five times or more throughout their lives (one to ten years). Hermit crabs are omnivores. They’ll eat anything—leaves, algae, insects, or bits of fish. But they’ll never eat each other, even when they’re fighting over shells. Land-dwelling hermit crabs really do cooperate when looking for new shell homes. They line up by size and slide into the empty shell in front of them in a flurry of waving legs and antennas.…

Fireflies hatch out from eggs as tiny grublike larvae. In America, firefly larvae can live underground for up to three years, where they grow larger eating worms. In Europe, nonflashing fireflies are more common. Their larvae live above ground, feasting on much larger snails by using their sharp jaws to pierce the snails’ skin and injecting paralyzing and digestive fluids. The larvae eventually spin cocoons. Fireflies live only a few weeks after emerging from the cocoons as adults with wings. Adult fireflies don’t eat at all. They just focus on finding mates.…

One afternoon in 1910, the Richmond City police received a frantic phone call. “Come immediately—someone is walking an alligator down Franklin Street!” After rushing over, the police caught two teenaged boys leading lumbering alligators down the sidewalk on rope leashes. Police hauled the boys down to the station for a firm talking-to, and returned the alligators to their home: the Jefferson Hotel lobby. From the day that it opened in 1895, anybody who was anybody visiting Richmond, Virginia, booked a room at the swanky Jefferson Hotel. Actresses and explorers stayed there, as well as famous singers, writers, and prizewinning athletes. In the lobby, you might have met novelists Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, actor Charlie Chaplin, pianist Ray Charles, or composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. Thirteen presidents stayed at the Jefferson, including William…

A LITTLE HERMIT crab living in a tropical forest has a big problem. Her body grows bigger each day, but the sea snail shell she lives in doesn’t. It just gets tighter. To keep growing, she must find a new shell. Her next shell has to be the right size, and it has to be empty. She’s looking for one that is spiral-shaped so she can tuck her soft body deep inside, safe from drying breezes and hungry birds. To find a new home, the little hermit crab must leave the leaf litter and fallen palm fronds on the sandy floor of the tropical forest. She stretches her claws, legs, and two pairs of antennas outside her shell home and lifts up. Her bulging eyes rotate in all directions. Satisfied…

ALARIC, THE FISHERMAN’S nephew, was a fool. At least his uncle always said so when he could not untangle a whelk shell from the nets, or when he left the drying squid out overnight and the neighborhood cats had a feast. Certainly his uncle and the other fishermen on the docks jeered when Alaric set off for Lake Heavensdrop as the last leaves swirled down from the branches. “Foolish boy!” said his uncle. “If you leave now, you will reach the lake in the dead of winter. To fish you’ll have to chop through a layer of ice.” “But we’re not so busy in the winter,” Alaric explained. “You can spare me for a few weeks now. Besides, when spring comes, all the greatest fishermen will try to catch those…

First prize 10 and under Ellie McDonald, age 8 Kennett Square, PA First prize 11 and up Hana de Queiroz, age 12 Reno, NV First prize 10 and under Tashlon Schauermann, age 10 Snyder, CO First prize 11 and up Leilani Medina, age 12 Canon City, CO First prize 11 and up C J, age 14 Santa Clara, CA Second prize 10 and under Charlotte Hagenbuckle, age 10 Bloomington, IN Second prize 10 and under Miri Lucksinger, age 10 South Lake Tahoe, CA Second prize 11 and up Sofia Larson, age 13 Butte Valley, CA Second prize 11 and up Justice Lily May Kitts, age 11 Judith Gap, MT Third prize 10 and under Mia Grace Figueroa, age 9 Merrick, NY Third prize 10 and under Olivia Mitchell, age 8…

IMAGINE EATING A purple grape and turning purple! Melissa Abramovitz told me that if you were a sea slug, that’s what would happen. Actually, sea slugs eat things like sea anemones, hydroids, sponges, and jellyfish, but if one of the morsels happens to be purple, or some other color, the slug will automatically change to that hue. Sea slugs store the pigments from their food in specialized cells called chromatophores. Changes in the shapes and sizes of the chromatophores cause the sea slug to change color. Camouflaged, the slug can crawl around on its favorite food without being detected by enemies. Sea slugs also have other ways of protecting themselves. Many species secrete a slimy mucus that smells and tastes horrible; in these cases, the slugs’ bright coloration warns enemies…