Indholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2025 i Cricket Magazine Fiction and Non-Fiction Stories for Children and Young Teens

“Shorebirds”mixed media and collage In my kindergarten class in Brooklyn, New York, my teacher gave us an assignment to use the milk cartons from our snack time in an art project. We could do anything. There were no rules—just a milk carton, glue, and a piece of paper. I remember drawing a woman with a pearl necklace and using the milk carton as her outfit. My teacher made a big fuss about my piece and hung it in the hallway outside our classroom. I guess you could say it was my first art exhibit. It was a thrilling feeling. I have always loved color. I used to arrange my box of sixty-four crayons according to my favorite colors. My two favorites were periwinkle and melon, and my two least favorites…

A STORY MAY begin in many ways. This one starts with a song. . . . Early one morning, a queen was riding through the woods some distance from her palace. As the sun painted the eastern sky with shades of pink, birdsong filled the air. To the keen-eared queen, one of these songs stood out from the rest, the notes soaring high and sweet with cheer. Halting her horse, the queen whispered, “Never have I heard such a melody. I shall not rest until I make that bird my own.” Dismounting, the queen scanned the branches until she discovered the starling whose voice she so admired. His dark-blue plumage shaded into vivid purple around his neck. She set a snare, which she baited with a sliced mango—a rare treat…

According to some classic lore, the raven utters “nevermore.” But this is nothing more than fable. (I hardly think a raven’s able!) “When will we get to the cave?” I look up at Manuelo. “Wait.” Manuelo puts a finger to his lips. I think I know what he means. In the rainforest you really should not speak. You look and you listen. We have been walking for a very long time. The path is dropping sharply now. I hear water gurgling. I want to race ahead, but I don’t. Manuelo peers through the trees. He walks a short distance into the forest and then comes back to the path. He once told me that if you hurry in the rainforest, you could miss something very interesting and very beautiful. And…

Across 1. “As the _______ flies”4. North American thrush with a chestnut-red breast7. Scratch an ______8. Sodium for seasoning food10. Bird home13. What ducks and swans do on water14. Large flightless Australian birds that resemble ostriches15. This large bird is said to hide its head in the sand19. A ruler is sometimes called a straight_______20. Lucky _______22. Small branch used by a bird to build its nest25. Bird food: bird________27. Alone28. What a bird uses to fly29. The bill of a bird Down 1. Farm egg-layer2. Exclamation of pain3. _______ jay5. Barn hooter6. Not far8. Street (abbreviation)9. “Shake your _____ feathers”11. A gray-brown songbird12. Orbiting Solar Observatory (abbreviation)16. A female domestic fowl17. Bird with tail feathers that spread like a fan18. Unnecessary excitement21. Sharp, curved nail of a bird22. Short…

THE BIRD OF PARADISE lives in New Guinea. It got its name because of its graceful, many-colored tail feathers. The ruthless quest for these feathers, which were considered valuable hat adornments, brought the bird to the brink of extinction. Now it is a protected species, but you can create a paper version of this lovely bird to adorn your living space! What You’ll Need: poster board in different colorswrapping paperrulerpencilscissorsstaplergluealuminum foilhole puncherstring What to Do: 1. Cut your poster board into three 20-inch-long and 1-inch-wide strips. 2. Take a strip and, beginning with the head, form your bird’s body by bending the strip like shown in the red line and pinching the strip to form the angles (beak and tail). For the eye, wrap the last 4 inches tightly around…

THE CORNER of 71st Street and Prospect is my corner. Nobody else seems to want it, anyway. Most folks look at it and say there’s nothin’ there, just an empty lot. But they’re not lookin’ hard enough. My corner is like a wide-open treasure box, but folks pass by all day long and never take the time to peek inside. My name is Tia. I live on the third floor of the apartment building next door. Some days, when my sisters are chasing each other, and my brothers are yelling, and I feel like the walls of our apartment are about to burst, I run down to my corner. My sneakers pound the pavement, then they take me on a flying leap into a sea of green. I wade through…

WE LIVE IN a house with a red door and green shutters on the edge of a rainforest on the island of Trinidad. There are lots of pots of flowers on our porch. My father manages a cocoa and coffee plantation, and my mother was a schoolteacher at one time, but now she’s at home taking care of my two little brothers and two little sisters. And me. Manuelo, my oldest brother, is seventeen. He is studying to be a rainforest guide so that he’ll be able to show all the people who come from all over the world the wonderful plants and animals and birds in our forest. I’m nine years old today, and Manuelo has a surprise for me. “Happy birthday, Carla,” he calls when he sees me.…

THE PILOT COULDN’T believe what he was seeing. Flying his small plane at full throttle near Charlotte, North Carolina, he watched a large bird pull away from him. Checking his speed, the pilot figured the bird was going about 100 miles per hour (mph). Hard to believe, right? But this was no ordinary bird. It was a loon. Loons live in the uppermost part of the Northern Hemisphere. You might see them on lakes in states such as Maine, Michigan, and Minnesota. Loons cruise at an average speed of 60 mph and up to 108 mph with the help of tailwinds. Radar has indicated that they can fly as high as 7,000 feet, more than a mile overhead! But, amazingly enough, loons are not “built” primarily for flying. They have…