Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2020 i Cricket Magazine Fiction and Non-Fiction Stories for Children and Young Teens

Dear Cricket magazine, I have a few questions: How do you get the stories and poems for your amazing magazines? Do authors just send them in and you accept or reject them? Or do you hire authors to write them? And do you get the artwork in the stories from the authors who write them? What is the process? Mary Clare Draganowski, age 13 St. Paul, Minnesota Dear Mary Clare, Authors from all over the world email us stories and poems. We choose the very best ones for our magazines. We also reprint some things from library books. After a story or poem is selected for an issue, Cricket’s art director asks an artist to illustrate it. Our art department has files of art samples from hundreds of artists with…

THE FEEDER THROWS a dew drop to the striker. The striker swings a flat wooden paddle and slams the horsehide to the outfield, but the hand doesn’t make the catch. The striker legs it past first base and continues legging it to second. The hand hurls the horsehide at the runner, trying to soak him, but it misses and is picked up by the feeder. The runner continues to third base as the feeder tries to plug him dead, but the pill sails harmlessly into the outfield. As the runner rounds third base and legs it toward the plate, a hand whips the horsehide to the behind. But he’s too late. The runner steps on the plate, and the cranks go wild! The runner’s club nine yells and cheers! The…

Alaric the fool visits Lake Heavensdrop in the dead of winter in hopes of winning the king’s reward for capturing the magical fish that live in it. Instead he finds that the fish are actually the king and his son and daughter, imprisoned in the lake by an evil witch-king in disguise who has taken control of the kingdom. The royal family tells Alaric of a protective magic sword that prevents anyone from murdering for the throne. By offering a reward for the fish, the witch-king will keep his hands free of their blood. The beautiful princess Elsiminy hatches a risky plan to foil the evil king, and Alaric takes his leave, telling no one of his adventure. He returns in the spring with Flint, the best fisherman in their…

“THE MOTHER ORCA, Tahlequah, has been carrying her dead calf for days over hundreds of miles of ocean,” said the reporter. Zara tried to tune the TV out, running the faucet and humming a song she was working on. The nightly news, it seemed, was never good news. Zara generally avoided it entirely. But when it was her night to do the dishes, she couldn’t help but hear the television blasting from the living room. “Tahlequah just does not want to let her little one go,” the reporter continued. “She lifts her calf up out of the water, as if she wants to help it breathe.” I give in, Zara thought, drying her hands. The dishes can wait. In the doorway, she collided with her brother Ethan, who was most…

First prize 10 and under Oona Druker, age 10 Head of St. Margaret’s Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada A Cat A hiss,a purr,a flash of fur,a gleam of green,as it zooms past.I see the tail,a twist,a flick,the body moves,and with a lick . . .it’s gone.What’s that?A cat. First prize 11 and up Avah Dodson, age 11 Lafayette, CA The Master of Laziness Curled up in a fuzzy heap,A tiny lion is fast asleep.Trying to wake him is sure to failFor nothing can move that head or tail.Pet him, poke him, scratch his ear,Ruffle his fur, yell and jeer.Nothing can rouse this cat from sleep;Inside his head, he’s chasing sheep.The only thing that I can doIs curl up beside that puddle of ooze.Amidst a dream his whiskers perk . . .Wait,…

A PENQUIN LIVING at the equator? A seabird that can’t fly? A prickly pear cactus thirty feet tall? The Galápagos Islands, off the west coast of South America, are home to a diversity of unique species that helped inspire Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection—and also, these poems. GALÁPAGOS TORTOISE FIGHT A tortoise fight is won by height. It doesn’t matter who is right. Being short is, for the tortoise, like our losing at a sport is. Tallest tortoise wins the day. Shortest tortoise walks away. A FLAW? PSHAW! Why call the flightless cormorantThe flightless cormorant? Why drawAll of our attention toA single, wingy flaw?Why point at what it cannot do?A flaw? Pshaw! I’m telling you,If birds came from the dinos, thenI think that you’ll forgive me whenI…

DO YOU KNOW what “noodling” is? I didn’t either, until my friend Jack D. Remington—Grandpa Jack—wrote me this letter. “Noodling has nothing to do with the noodles that you like to eat. In the Midwest and southern United States, noodling is a kind of fishing where you just use your hands. Most of the fish caught by noodlers are catfish, which like to hide under overhanging banks. They think their enemies can’t see them, so they’re safe. But they’re not! Noodlers feel around under the stream bank, grab resting catfish, and pull them out of the water. Once in a while a noodler finds a big, ugly snapping turtle instead of a fish! That’s how some people get nicknamed Three-Fingered Jack or Two-Fingered Tony. “I learned about noodling when I…