Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2020 i Spider Magazine Stories, Games, Activites and Puzzles for Children and Kids

“LET’S GET OUT of here fast!” Doodlebug Pinkley said as he, his sister Dandelion, his classmate Sherwin Winsher, and their friend Bog left the Pine Nut Elementary School auditorium. “Sherwin and I need to get to Tom Thumb Hobbies and pick out stuff for our new costumes.” “We’re not dressing as Vikings anymore,” added Sherwin. “We want a new look.” “And I need more decorations for our party tonight,” Dandelion added. School had just been dismissed after a Friday afternoon all-school assembly about Pine Nut’s new Hall of Past Principals exhibit. Everyone was eager to leave for the weekend because the following night was Halloween. Now the whole student population was clogging up the school’s main exit. In the crowd, the four kids came across the Pinkleys’ cousin Rudyard and…

AMBROSIA (serves 4) What You’ll Need: 4 dessert bowls, the fancier the better 9 ounces ricotta cheese or plain Greek yogurt 4 tablespoons honey 1 cup dried figs, sliced* ½ cup unsalted pistachios (optional) *Ask an adult to do this. What to Do: 1. Spoon an equal amount of ricotta or yogurt into each dessert bowl. 2. Divide the figs evenly between the bowls. 3. Sprinkle with pistachio nuts, if using. Drizzle with honey. 4. Use your best dessert spoon to feast on the food of the gods. NECTAR (serves more) What You’ll Need:  ancient Greek krater (a punch bowl will do) 1 quart sparkling water 1 quart red grape juice 1 quart white grape juice 2 cups pomegranate juice 6 fresh plums, diced* small bunch of seedless grapes, sliced*…

The Floppygoth is hungry and It’s you he wants to eat, From the jelly on your fingers to The crusties on your feet. He’ll slurp your innards through a straw, Like crackers, snap your bones. Perhaps he’ll chew on gizzard stew Then dine on eyes-cream cones. So run before he catches you—Quick, hide behind the drapes! Or else he’ll feast on finger fries And pluck your toes like grapes!…

A CIPHER HAS numbers or symbols in the place of each letter in a secret message. Old Polybius—a famous Greek historian—made up this cipher to send secret messages when he was captured by soldiers in 168 b.c. The letter that each pair of numbers represents lies at the intersection of those two numbers on the cipher square. The first number in the pair is the vertical number, and the second number is the horizontal number. Using the square, can you figure out the answer to the riddle below? Who adds, subtracts, multiplies, and bumps into light bulbs?…

Dear Spider, I live in a small town with my family: my sister, my mom, my dad, and my dog. Her name is Baby. I love your comics, especially the Halloween ones. I also like “The Epic World of Puppet Theater” (October 2019). I love Halloween. Please write more. Lily Myrkle, age 7 Charlotte, Michigan Dear Spider, Would you like to adopt my dragon, Light Fury from How to Train Your Dragon? She has a little baby dragon. She eats chocolate-covered fish. Zoe, age 8 Beaverton, Oregon Dear Spider, I like your magazines very much. Here is a joke: Why didn’t the skeleton go to the dance? He had no body to go with. Lily Wright, age 8 Sioux Falls, South Dakota Hello, Spider, I love your magazine. You should…

T HE HEAVY GATE slammed shut, blocking out the cruel cackle of King Minos. Alone, Theseus squinted into the silent darkness, the blood and braveness draining from his face. Why had he volunteered to be a hero? His father, King Aegeus, had tried to talk him out of it. The prince could be home in Athens right now, lounging in his palace and feasting on figs. Instead, Theseus had set sail for the most feared place in all of Greece: the island of Crete, ruled by the wicked King Minos. Now the prince was locked in an endless labyrinth with more twists and turns than any maze in history. But being lost in the labyrinth forever was not what scared Theseus the most. What lurked deep in the underground tunnels…

Write a poem about trees. Here are the only rules: 1. Your entry must be signed by a parent or legal guardian, authorizing its publication in print and/or online and saying it’s your own idea. 2. Be sure to include your complete name, age, and address. 3. Your entry must arrive by October 25, 2020. We will publish our favorites in the February 2021 issue of Spider. Email your entry to spider@cricketmedia.com, or send it to Spider’s Corner, P.O. Box 300, Peru, IL 61354.…

DON’T BE SCARED. This Halloween domino card game is a treat to play! What You’ll Need: scissors two or more players What to Do: Cut domino cards apart along orange dotted lines and place face down. Turn 1 card face up in the center of the table. Each player takes 7 cards. Each player takes a turn adding a card from their hand with a matching end to either end of the first card. If you don’t have a matching card, draw from the facedown cards. The first player to run out of dominoes wins!…