Cricket Magazine Fiction and Non-Fiction Stories for Children and Young Teens May/June 2015

Hallo, Everybuggy! I live in Virginia Beach, Virginia. My house is only a block from the beach, and when it’s warm we go swimming or look for treasures at the high tide line. I love playing outside, roller-skating, biking, swimming, hiking, baseball, animals, nature, and almost anything to do with the outdoors. I’m afraid of bugs and the dark. I love books and writing (well, I think anyone who reads Cricket does) and I highly recommend the following books: anything by Kate DiCamillo, Inside Out and Back Again, The Raft, and the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Kate DiCamillo is my all-time favorite author. I write my own stories. My mom read Cricket when she was my age, so she got Cricket for me a few years ago. She…

“LAST CALL, CALLIE!” Gram jangles her keys as she heads out to the carport. “Coming!” I yell, tossing off the covers. Outside my window the sky is awash with a predawn glow. The trouble with tracking sea turtles is you have to get up early, every day. Today is my twenty-fifth day on patrol, which Gram says is probably a record for a twelve-year-old. When Dad dropped me off at Gram’s here in Florida two days after school got out, who knew I would morph from a Cincinnati city kid into a turtle-obsessed beach volunteer? If I’m not out on the beach, I’m watching turtle videos or reading turtle books. I pull on cargo shorts and my blue T-shirt, the one with baby turtles scrambling up the front and over…

After about fifty-six days underground, loggerhead sea turtle eggs hatch. The hatchlings pile on top of each other, working as a team to dig out of the nest. The turtles on top loosen the sand overhead with their front flippers, while the ones on the bottom rock their bodies back and forth to pack the trickling sand down, slowly raising the floor of the nest until the turtles on top pop out. Then all the two-inch-long turtles make a frenzied scramble to the sea, usually under the cover of darkness to elude hungry predators such as sand crabs, seagulls, and frigate birds. Once in the water, the tiny turtles swim for days until they reach floating masses of seaweed. They will hide out in the seaweed for years, eating tiny…

“WAKE UP, ASEF,” my mother says. “It is time to eat suhoor.” I wonder why the sky is still dark. Then I remember. Today is the first day of the holy month of Ramadan. We eat suhoor, the morning meal, and recite the fajr prayers before sunrise. This year I will fast like my big brother, Yaseen, and the grownups. That means we won’t eat or drink from sunrise to sunset. Yaseen and I wash and dress. Today Yaseen will stay at home and read the Qur’an, the book of Islam, with our father. Not me. I have to go to summer school. “Why can’t I fast at home with you and Dad?” Yaseen shrugs. “Dad says you have to go.” “It’s going to be crazy hot in the classroom.”…

THESE PAN CAKES are a popular Ramadan dish served at suhoor, the predawn meal. Qatayef are made in a variety of ways. This recipe calls for apples and sweet potatoes. What You’ll Need: For the Topping 1 cup peeled and cored apples, chopped into bite-sized pieces 1 cup pitted dates, chopped 1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped 1/2 cup water 3 tablespoons honey or maple syrup 1/4 teaspoon each cinnamon, nutmeg, and/or cardamom 1 cup sour cream or yogurt For the Pancakes 1 cup mashed sweet potatoes (about 2 medium-size fresh or canned sweet potatoes, cooked, peeled, and mashed) 2 eggs, beaten 1/3 cup whole wheat flour 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 2 tablespoons butter, melted 1/2 cup milk What to Do: 1. Combine apples, dates, and…

FABLE THATCHER scrambled from Jonah’s boat onto the dock. Araceli Luminè already stood beside her, hand on her sword’s hilt. Above them, the crumbling remains of a stairway led up along the wall to the chin of the huge, ornamental full moon set within the bricks. Fable studied the staircase. It was more of a ramp, many stones missing, its steps muddy shelves of toadstools and moss. “Not many people come this way.” “Of course not,” said Luminè. “Whoever remembers there’s a doorway here also knows where it leads.” “Khaos must not use it, either,” said Fable. Luminè hoisted her pack. “I think he has easier ways to come and go—magical ways.” Jonah leaned on his pole, his green eyes narrow. “We may not be able to open it.” He…