Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2024 i Cricket Magazine Fiction and Non-Fiction Stories for Children and Young Teens

“ASHLEY! OUR SANDY is singing again!” The stage manager called to me, and I moved to the wings to watch. While our star, Kayla, was belting out “Tomorrow,” the hound sitting next to her had decided to chime in as well, his earsplitting a-roooo echoing Kayla’s emotional high notes. “Knock it off!” Kayla shouted at the dog, breaking character. She motioned for the orchestra to stop. “This isn’t working! I can’t sing this song until we find a decent Sandy!” She stormed off the stage. I walked onstage to clip the leash onto Baily, the foxhound who had wanted a duet. Sandy is supposed to be merely a supporting role in Annie, our school’s musical about a Depression-era orphan and the stray dog she rescues. But Baily clearly thought otherwise.…

ONCE, LONG AGO, the great herds of buffalo were in a place deep under the earth. People were there, too, and antelope, and wolves, and deer, and rabbits—even the little bird that sings the tear-tear song. All the earth’s creatures waited underground as if they were sleeping. Then the one called Buffalo Woman awoke. She stretched her arms. She rose to her feet. Buffalo Woman was beautiful. She walked in the good way. She walked among the buffalo herds. She walked past the antelope, the wolves, the deer, and the rabbits. She walked past the little tear-tear bird. As she passed, the creatures opened their eyes. Slowly, they awakened and looked about them. Buffalo Woman walked past the last buffalo and her sleeping yellow calf. On and on she walked…

Dear Pussywillow, You’re my favorite. I love cats of all kinds (and horses)! To Hermione the Unicorn (February 2024), I love The Land of Stories, too! My favorite characters are Alex and Goldilocks. I also like Harry Potter—my favorites of those characters are Hermione, Ginny, and Dobby. Does anyone else read Phoebe and Her Unicorn graphic novels? They are my all-time favorite series. My favorite characters are Phoebe, Marigold, Dakota (sort of), and pretty much all the rest, including Max. And my fave books are . . . well, all of them, but especially Phoebe and Her Unicorn in Unicorn Theater and Unicornado. Pussywillow, what are your favorite songs? Mine are “In the Starlight,” “Prairie Spring,” “Country Road,” and “Ventura Highway.” Ladybug, I think you’d get along better with others…

LUCY LARCOM WAS once one of the most famous and beloved poets in America. Today she is best remembered for her autobiography, A New England Girlhood, which tells about her growing-up years as a mill girl, toiling in the dusty and noisy cotton mills of Lowell, Massachusetts. Lucy was born in 1824, in the peaceful seaside village of Beverly, Massachusetts. She was the ninth of her family’s ten children, which included eight girls and two boys. As a young girl she enjoyed exploring the meadows and woods near her house and playing with her brothers and sisters. When Lucy was seven years old, her father died unexpectedly, changing her life forever. Lucy’s mother struggled to find the money to feed and clothe her big family. Not many jobs were open…

WINNERS APRIL 2024 STORY CONTEST Open Theme First prize 10 and under Cara C., age 9Shaker Heights, OH The Misplaced Slippers Cara was excited to use her new ballet slippers. Ballet lessons were in thirty minutes, but she couldn’t find her slippers anywhere. She’d left them outside her ballet bag, but they were gone! “Mom, have you seen my ballet slippers?” Cara asked her mom, whose attention was fixed on the wall. “Sorry, honey,” said her mom, distracted. “Your sister managed to put this sticker on the wallpaper. I haven’t seen your ballet slippers. Did you check your bedroom?” Cara set off upstairs thinking, I don’t remember bringing my ballet slippers to my room, but I’ll check. She looked under her bed, in her closet, and in every drawer. No…

THAT TUESDAY STARTED out just like any other summer day. Mom dropped me off with Gram and Gramps just before seven so she could make her breakfast shift at the diner. The morning was already as steamy and sticky as hot caramel. My shirt was damp against my back, and my hair clung to my neck and temples like moss to a tree. For the millionth time I wished Gram and Gramps had air conditioning. But if I complained, Gram would just poke out her chin and say, “Nonsense to pay an arm and leg for something people have survived thousands of years without.” “I’m burning up,” I moaned, swiping the back of my hand over my slick forehead. Gram stood at the sink looking cool as a cucumber as…

“CROSS TO DOWNSTAGE right from upstage center, and don’t turn your back.” If your first thought is “Huh?” it’s time you learned about stage directions. Stage directions are instructions an actor follows in performing a play. They help the director tell the actors where to go on the stage. Imagine a stage divided, like a tic-tac-toe board, into nine different sections. These sections are the basic areas where actors can position themselves onstage. Center stage is in the middle. Stage right and stage left are always to the actor’s right and left when facing the audience. Stage right, for instance, is to the actor’s right, which is the audience’s left. Upstage is the back section of the stage farthest from the audience. Downstage is the front part closest to the…

IT’S A MAGIC moment. A hush comes over the theater audience, the lights go down, the curtain goes up. Comedy or tragedy, opening night on Broadway or the class play in your school auditorium—there’s no business like show business. But who began it? In Western culture, “modern” drama probably started over two thousand years ago, thanks to a brilliant young Greek: Thespis. In Athens, Thespis was a superstar: actor, singer, writer, producer, director. Until then, Greek theater was more like an opera chorus than a play. Thespis introduced something brand new and exciting: individual actors speaking individual parts. A small improvement? Yes, but the most electrifying thing to happen in early drama. And it opened the way for new stage techniques and for the playwrights that followed him, right down…