Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2021 i Cricket Magazine Fiction and Non-Fiction Stories for Children and Young Teens

Fruit fools are popular English desserts that date back to the sixteenth century. Traditionally, fools are made with tart berries like gooseberries, raspberries, blueberries, or strawberries. The fruit is pureed or mashed, sweetened with sugar, and chilled, then folded into stiffly beaten whipped cream and chilled again. Why this dessert is called a fool is a mystery. Some think the name comes from the French fouler, meaning to crush. Or it may have been borrowed from the Arabic dish known as a ful or foul, which is made from softened and mashed beans. But perhaps it was just named after people who acted like mad fools for this delicious dessert. What You’ll Need: 1 pint of fresh strawberries 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar 1 pint heavy whipping cream, chilled…

First prize 10 and under Mary Grace Durrance, age 9 Lake Wales, FL Feathers and Fur Gazing through my cage’s bars, I saw leaves hanging like emeralds on the tree outside. Underneath it sat the fat, fluffy cat, Jane. She always got to stroll in the backyard while I was stuck in this cage, looking at where I should be. “I try to be friendly by singing,” I tweeted to myself, “but she only wants to lie in the sun. She’s so stuck up!” Then I heard Clementine, my owner, come into the kitchen. “No time to chat, Amber; I’m late,” she said. She opened the cage door to feed me; I knew this was my chance to escape! Christopher entered, calling for Jane, who came running. Clementine looked at…

Dear Cricket, Ladybug, Pussywillow, and Zoot, How is everyone in Cricket Country? Did you know that BOTH my parents had Cricket when they were my age? Well, it’s true! We found some old ones, and I can’t stop reading! Cricket, sometimes I can hear crickets in the yard in the evening. I wonder if you know them. Ladybug, I like you! I think you would be fun to hang around! Pussywillow, you are so cute! I think I might die of a cuteness overload! Zoot, my sister, Greta, is in love with you! She is six and wants a magazine starring you! I think that would be fun. Inez Gerbeck, age 9 Bainbridge Island, Washington Dear Everybuggy, I’ve enjoyed Cricket ever since the mag was released. I’ve collected Cricket mags…

ONE MORE OUT and we would win the game, thanks to my home run. One more hit and we would lose, because of the error I had just made at first base. After only two weeks at my new school, I would be a hero or a goat. I knew which story I wanted to tell my dad when he picked me up on Saturday morning. I used my toe to draw a lucky horseshoe in the dirt as our pitcher delivered. Whack! My head snapped around as a line drive shot toward left field. But Jamie at shortstop timed his leap perfectly. He speared it in the webbing of his glove, then crashed to the ground. I raced across the diamond as my teammates whooped for joy. I helped…

SOME PEOPLE THINK being in the ensemble of a play is boring. I disagree. To me, any chance to stand onstage is a thrill. And sometimes ensemble members do cool stuff. For instance, in Mayflower Middle School’s upcoming production of The Legendary Cowherd, eight of us play a sixteen-legged dragon, with me bringing up the rear. As Team Dragon waits for our cue at dress rehearsal, I swing our tail, enjoying the swish of its Mylar streamers. We might be unrecognizable beneath the glitter-draped framework, but it’s still fun bringing a fantastical creature to life. A shout rings from the stage. “I will defend this realm!” The stagehand signals us, and Team Dragon files onstage only to be blocked by Vijay, the lead actor. “Halt!” he cries. Where there’s a…

The year is 1911, and three Chinese boys—Gan, Feng, and Thomas—are on their way to America to join their fathers. To enter the country, they must first pass through the immigration station on Angel Island in San Francisco. There, they face intense questioning by immigration officers, nicknamed “angels” by the Chinese, who are eager to find any reason to keep Chinese immigrants from entering America. In the mid-1800s, many Chinese came to America in the wake of the California Gold Rush and building of the Transcontinental Railroad. Although they faced discrimination—Gan remembers how his grandfather returned to China after his store in America was burned—many stayed, only occasionally returning to China to visit their families. But in 1882, the harsh Chinese Exclusion Act banned all new Chinese immigrants from entering…

Katerina is the beautiful and sensitive daughter of a Russian landowner. She meets and falls in love with Phenist the Bright Falcon, a prince who has been cursed by an evil, vindictive czar to roam the world by day as a falcon, returning to his manly form only after dark until he finds a maiden willing to love him despite his accursed state. Fate—in the form of her two meanspirited sisters—intervenes, and Phenist is shunned, erroneously believing that his beloved Katerina has refused his marriage proposal. Katerina then embarks on a difficult journey to find Phenist and reclaim her love. She encounters two wise women called Baba Yagas, who aid her in her search. She is on her way to meet a third. . . . KATERINA FOLLOWED THE azure…

ISRAEL IS CALLED the “land of milk and honey” in the Bible. According to my friend Allison Ofanansky, the “honey” came, not from bees, but from the fruit of the Judean date palm. In Biblical times, forests of date palms flourished in the Jordan River valley between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea in Israel. The palm’s dark, nutritious fruit was often made into a sweet syrup, or “honey.” The dates were also used in medicines. Unripe, green dates were smashed into a paste to put on wounds. But war with the Romans led to the destruction of the date palm plantations. Eventually, the Judean date palm became extinct. In the 1970s, archaeologists excavating the ruins of Masada, a mountaintop fortress that was destroyed by the Romans in…