Cricket Magazine Fiction and Non-Fiction Stories for Children and Young Teens

cover and border

“The Shackleton Expedition: Endurance” photograph When explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton set off on his ill-fated expedition to Antarctica in 1914, he took along with him Australian photographer Frank Hurley to document the astonishing adventure. For nearly two years, Hurley shared the extreme hardships of the stranded crew when Shackleton’s ship Endurance became trapped in the ice. The men said he was like “a warrior with his camera”— climbing the mast for a self-portrait, using flash powder to photograph the frozen ship in the endless darkness, diving into the icy water to rescue his films when the Endurance sank, and living on penguin and seal meat. Left behind on Elephant Island, he photographed Shackleton’s departure and the unbelievable moment when the rescue ship appeared on the horizon four months later. One hundred…

cricket us

CRICKET STAFF Lonnie Plecha Editor Anna Lender Art Director Patrick Murray Designer Carolyn Digby Conahan Staff Artist Deborah Vetter Senior Contributing Editor Julie Peterson Copyeditor Emily Cambias Assistant Editor Adrienne Matzen Permissions Specialist CRICKET ADVISORY BOARD Marianne Carus Founder and Editor-in-Chief from 1972–2012 Kieran Egan Professor of Education, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver Betsy Hearne Professor, University of Illinois, Champaign; Critic, Author Sybille Jagusch Children’s Literature Specialist Linda Sue Park Author Katherine Paterson Author Barbara Scharioth Former Director of the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany Anita Silvey Author, Critic Sandra Stotsky Professor of Education Reform, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Roger Sutton Editor-in-Chief of The Horn Book Magazine, Critic Ann Thwaite Author, Critic…

the letter box

Dear Cricket, I have read your magazine many times and I love it! It makes me happy when it comes in the mail. I am legally blind and cannot see as well as others, but that’s OK, because I am still very smart. My type of blindness is caused by albinism. Everyone is jealous of my hair, because it is beautiful white. I have two kittens, Mittens and Muffins. When we went to the vet, Muffins turned out to be a boy, so we call him Muffin Man. My grandma has chickens and cows. I can look forward to scrambled eggs, chicken noodle soup, and prime rib. Yum! I love the names Muffin and Pussywillow, because they remind me of my cats. William, age 12 Fort Rucker, Alabama Dear Cricket, I have two dogs. One is named…

the girl in the windmill

MAARTJE VAN DIJK lived in a windmill. At the age of ten, her vater and moeder perished at sea, and she was sent to live with her Opa on the coast. Despite her grief she grew to love him, and he taught her all about how to grind the village’s grains and tend the enormous sails and gears that made the mill run. Her Opa hadn’t always run the mill, though. Each evening, by firelight, he would show Maartje the amazing feats of transformation that he used to perform all over the world. “Oh, please do the mouse again,” Maartje would plead, and Opa would smile broadly at his one-person audience and twitch his nose. His thick, white mustache would grow thinner and wispier, and his ears would grow larger and fold inward.…

be careful what you fish for (you might get it)

Cautiously, Prince Bernard lifted his saddle from the wall. Just a buckle’s jingle or the straw crackling beneath his boots might give him away. “Good afternoon, Your Highness. Are you taking Bright Star for a ride?” Would he never escape? Suppressing a groan, the prince said, “Shh! Yes, but please don’t tell anyone you saw me.” Paul Lebrun had been working in the royal stable since the king was Bernard’s age and had taught the young prince all he knew about riding and caring for horses. Chuckling, he reached for Bright Star’s bridle. “Let me guess. Are you dodging Signor Romano?” Placing the saddle on his horse, the prince rolled his eyes as he adjusted its girth. “Four hours I spent standing as still as a statue for that artist. ‘Your Highness must stop…

three impossible tasks a tale from old china

THE SHOPS OF Hepu were filled with fresh goods. Trees were trimmed, streets swept. City gates were refurbished. Why? The new governor general and his family were soon to take up residence in the city. Hepu’s Buddhist temple, especially popular for its lovely statue of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, was also being refurbished. Guanyin radiated all that was gentle, graceful, and compassionate. People prayed to her and left offerings and donations, which the monks used to keep the temple in good repair. With the impending arrival of the governor general, the monks hired a young artist to decorate the temple’s wooden beams and repaint the chipped and faded artwork. Pei was overjoyed to have gotten the job, his first major commission. Once well along in his work, he noticed a group…