Indholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2023 i Cricket Magazine Fiction and Non-Fiction Stories for Children and Young Teens

NED WAS A knight, big and brawny and burly, but . . . as timid as a kitten. Whenever he saw a spider or a bee or anything that scuttled or bumbled or buzzed, he shivered and shook and trembled from helmet to heel. Whenever he heard the crash of thunder or the clash of swords, his teeth chattered, his skin sprouted goose bumps, and he turned as white as his horse, Snowball. So much did he quiver and quake and quail that everyone in the castle called him Ned the Knock-Kneed Knight. Every morning Ned stood at the castle gates with his friend Morgan, the minstrel, watching the knights riding off with heads held high. “There they go, off on their knightly deeds,” wailed Ned. “How I wish I…

Story Thieves (Story Thieves, Book 1) by James Riley A half-fictional girl named Bethany has the ability to jump into books and is a hybrid of a fictional character and a nonfictional person. Owen, her classmate, finds out about her ability when he catches her climbing out of a book in the library. Then Bethany and Owen travel into a book, and Owen gets trapped. The story is suspenseful, highly detailed, and exceedingly entertaining. The main conflict is captivating. Sylvette T., age 10 cricketmagkids.com/books Gone-Away Lake and Return to Gone-Away by Elizabeth Enright These books from the 1950s are about two kids who live in the countryside and have all sorts of adventures, like discovering an abandoned ghost town where two people still live. They’re really well written and absorbing,…

CAROL F. HARPOOLE wrote to tell me about an unusual heroine who helped rescue motherless animals when a hurricane roared across New England in the summer of 1991. The hurricane winds knocked down power lines, leaving people without electricity, telephones, or running water. The high winds also sent trees crashing to the ground, and baby birds, squirrels, raccoons, rabbits, and chipmunks were left orphaned and homeless. Luckily, Cape Cod had a special animal rehabilitation center called Orenda, which means “protected place” in the Seneca language. After the hurricane, Renee and Jean at Orenda were swamped with all the baby orphans people brought in. There were hundreds of them! “The tiny creatures were like little ice cubes,” Renee said. “They’d been away from their mothers too long and needed to be…

Happy 50th Anniversary, Everybody! This is my first time writing to the Letterbox, but about a year or so ago I was at my grandma’s house searching through her old books and I found two very old issues of Cricket magazine! One issue had a painting of a crow on the cover. Does anybuggy know which issue and/or volume that one was in? I think they were made sometime in the 1970s. The illustrations were only colored in black, gray, and yellow. I think the stories were all pirate themed. The whole gang was there, but they were all drawn differently. Anyway, as far as I know, the magazines are still sitting in that house telling stories of their glory days. Thank you lots to Marianne Carus. Iris, age 13…

BILLY TRIED TO hold back the tears. A kid of thirteen shouldn’t cry, he told himself, even though leaving Doc and Angus and the medicine show would be the saddest thing he’d ever done. But he had to do it . . . tonight. He wiped the tears with his sleeve and peeked out from behind the curtain. Under the stars, the stage was aglow with light from the tall kerosene torches flanking the platform and the row of oil lamps across the front. The side of their big medicine-show wagon formed the back of the stage, and the lamplight lit up the gaudy red-and-gold lettering that ran across it: DOCTOR C. F. NOBLE, DISCOVERER OF THE ELIXIR OF THE INCAS! AN ANCIENT AND AMAZING CURE FOR AILMENTS THAT PLAGUE…

EMMA STOPPED BY the wetlands on her way to town. She wrapped her cloak tightly against the chill air. Early morning sun sparkled on the marsh, the water glinting as the light touched it. Ducks flying overhead honked a far-off greeting as they arrowed through the sky. An elegant crane waded through the water, daintily picking up its long legs. Loneliness and grief swept over Emma in equal measure as she stood in the damp air. Only a year ago, she and her mother had stood on this very spot watching the birds. “Look, a crane!” her mother had pointed out. “Our namesake!” Now she, Emma Crane, stood alone. Her heart thumped when she remembered that her mother was gone. Emma swallowed. It’s up to me now, she thought. Determination…

SQUEEZING HER BINOCULARS, Corinne groaned as her sister carefully inched into the parking space. “Don’t be so impatient,” Eva said, then opened the door to check that she was now perfectly between the lines. “Those stupid birds aren’t going anywhere.” Corinne winced but kept her peace. The last thing she needed was a full-blown argument cutting into her precious birding time. She had less than an hour and a half at Fielder Park before they had to return home—barely enough time to reach her goal: spot at least ten different bird species and at least two she’d never seen before. “I’m so glad this is the last weekend of the contest,” Eva continued, no doubt angry that their mom had made her drive Corinne to the park. “And I’m really…

First prize 10 and under Tang Li, age 10 Palmetto Bay, FL Robin First prize 11 and up Eila Friel, age 15 Hudson, OH First prize 11 and up Jaslene Kwack, age 13 Lisle, IL Songs of Hope Second prize 10 and under Katherine Wang, age 10 Tucson, AZ Pagoda in the Sky Second prize 11 and up Anderson Whitaker, age 12 Cleveland, OH Fuchsia in the Backyard Second prize 11 and up Anna Uszok, age 14 Pensacola Beach, FL Somebody’s Watching Me Third prize 10 and under Ava Smith, age 9 Valley, AL Sunset Dolphin Beach Third prize 11 and up Gray, age 12 Old Chatham, NY Asphenfur Third prize 11 and up Gabriella Miele, age 12 Swampscott, MA Honorable Mention Priscilla Chow, age 9, Palmetto Bay, FLToryn Cianci,…