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

cricket

COVER AND BORDER by Emily Fiegenschuh “Witches’ Brew” gouache on watercolor paper From a young age Emily Fiegenschuh has been bringing fantasy worlds to life with her pencil. A graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design, Emily has illustrated for many clients including Wizards of the Coast, Inhabit Media, and Llewellyn Worldwide. Her art has appeared in the New York Times Children’s Best Sellers List A Practical Guide to Dragons and A Practical Guide to Monsters and has been featured in the fantastic art annuals Spectrum 9 and Spectrum 19. Emily is the author and illustrator of The Explorer’s Guide to Drawing Fantasy Creatures, a how-to-draw book for creature enthusiasts of all ages. Emily prefers the feeling of putting pencil or brush to paper and draws and paints the majority of her work…

the letter box

Hey, Everybuggy, I’m fairly new to Cricket and I love it! The reason I love Cricket so much is because there are so many new stories to read in every issue, and reading is something I love to do. Life without a good book is just boring for me. The Letterbox is my favorite section in your magazine. The cartoons are so funny! Ladybug is my favorite character. My absolute favorite book is Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger. When I find books, video games, etc., that I enjoy a lot, I like to create and draw new characters to add to the story line. When I am older, I really want to be an artist. My favorite hobbies are drawing, reading manga/fantasy (and Cricket), playing video games, and watching anime.…

craters

AS HER NEW teacher began talking her class through the coming semester, Rin was far too excited to pay any attention. She stared out the window to the blackness of the skies, a single blue orb visible in the distance. When she had seen the name Laila Langin on the class roster that morning, her mind had been transported to her childhood in Houston. She remembered humid air and the itch of freshly mowed grass on her skin as she and Laila raced around their favorite softball field. After years on Lunar Base 5, Rin had gotten used to seeing gray rock instead of green grass, but the separation from her best friend still stung. It was then that she felt the familiar tug on her ponytail, and she knew the wait…

cricket readers recommend

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman This book is about a boy named Bod (short for Nobody), who is protected by dead people in a graveyard from a bad man named Jack, who killed his family. As Bod grows up in the graveyard he has many adventures, like when he got captured by ghouls, saved by a Hound of God, and faced the Sleeer with his friend Scarlett. Will Bod get his revenge? It held me in suspense. Philip Padilla, age 10 Birmingham, Alabama A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness Conor O’Malley is angry because his mum is dying of cancer. A yew tree on a hill turns into a monster. The monster tells three stories to Conor. Conor has to tell the fourth story to the monster. It has to be the truth about his nightmare…

aunt maud’s secret

Martin Phelps is looking forward to spending his fall break playing Warlocks, his favorite online game, with his friends Jiang and Robert. But when his mom tells him that eighty-year-old Aunt Maude is coming for a visit and will be staying in his room, where the computer is, he realizes that his gaming time will be seriously limited. After Aunt Maud arrives with her dog, Sir Puff, Martin is sleeping on the living room couch when he awakens in the middle of the night to see a weird green light and wisps of smoke coming from his bedroom door. He hears three tremendous thumps, and when he creeps down the hall to investigate, he hears Aunt Maud mumbling, “Fool, fool! You confounded fool!” As he tiptoes back to the living…

ghost in the house

BY THE TIME Asher heard the piano playing, he was already freaked out. So many creepy things had happened the last few days that he didn’t need any more convincing the house was haunted. But why him? Why did it seem he was being singled out, and not his parents? It started soon after they moved in. Asher’s parents had always dreamed of owning an old house. “They have so much character,” his mother would say. And so, after endless hunting with a real estate agent, they found one: a five-bedroom Victorian built nearly ninety years ago by a woman who once ran a candy company. It had everything people love about old houses, like a big staircase, fancy woodwork, and lots of fireplaces. It was a short walk to school, the…