Books published by publisher Cricket Books

Sarah Tufts is en route to the colonies with her father when pirates swarm their ship. In the melee, Sarah tumbles overboard and washes ashore on an island ruled by the wicked Mr. Grim, who sends his pirate son Black Tooth out to steal babies and then raises these hapless tykes to become Woolies, weavers of fine rugs. Chased by Mr. Grim, Sarah stumbles into the enclosure known as Woolie World and meets Freck, a timid five-year-old dressed head to toe in a fuzzy white garment. Sarah quickly discovers the marvels of a world populated by singing, dancing Woolies. But she also sees a darker side. Failed Woolies are turned into “Worms,” exiles who live in underground tunnels and scrounge for food. Sarah befriends Mr. Grim’s twitchy but kind-hearted son Nigel and joins forces with Thomas, the 12-year-old Woolie leader. Will they be able to outwit Mr. Grim and rescue Woolies and Worms from servitude? This unique fantasy adventure sparkles with wit and wordplay, harrowing adventure, and heartfelt emotion.

Fourteen-year-old Afton is alienated from her mother, who is the perfect wife when her sailor husband is home, but emotionally distant when he is away. When her mother’s brother, Bailey, turns up — an uncle Afton never knew existed — Afton begins to wonder who her mother really is. With quiet determination, Afton sets out to uncover Bailey’s secret, and along the way she learns the price that a family pays for letting the past fester unresolved. In a style richly evocative of small-town southern life in the 1940s, Scorpio’s Child shows Kezi Matthews at her best. The characters that populate this poignant coming-of-age novel are as unusual and complicated as the situations that bind them. Matthews’s straightforward handling of difficult themes creates a depth of feeling that will leave a lasting impression.

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a short story by Washington Irving contained in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., written while he was living in Birmingham, England, and first published in 1820. With Irving's companion piece "Rip Van Winkle", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is among the earliest examples of American fiction still read today.The story is set circa 1790 in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. It tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a sycophantic, lean, lanky, and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer, Baltus Van Tassel. As Crane leaves a party he attended at the Van Tassel home on an autumn night, he is pursued by the Headless Horseman, who is supposedly the ghost of a Hessian trooper who had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during "some nameless battle" of the American Revolutionary War, and who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head".Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Sleepy_Hollow

This edition of Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen is part of The Jane Austen Collection offered by Cricket House Books. The collection includes Sense and Sensibility/1935814311, Pride and Prejudice/193581432X, Mansfield Park/1935814338, Emma/1935814346, Northanger Abbey/1935814354, and Persuasion/1935814362.________________________________Northanger Abbey follows seventeen-year-old Gothic novel aficionado Catherine Morland and family friends Mr. and Mrs. Allen as they visit Bath. It is Catherine's first visit there. She meets her friends, such as Isabella Thorpe, and goes to balls. Catherine finds herself pursued by Isabella's brother, the rather rough-mannered, slovenly John Thorpe, and by her real love interest, Henry Tilney. She also becomes friends with Eleanor Tilney, Henry's younger sister. Henry captivates her with his view on novels and his knowledge of history and the world. General Tilney (Henry and Eleanor's father) invites Catherine to visit their estate, Northanger Abbey, which, from her reading of Ann Radcliffe's gothic novel The Mysteries of Udolpho, she expects to be dark, ancient and full of Gothic horrors and fantastical mystery.Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, though she had previously made a start on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. According to Cassandra Austen's Memorandum, Susan (as it was first called) was written approximately during 1798–99. It was revised by Austen for the press in 1803, and sold in the same year for £10 to a London bookseller, Crosby & Co., who decided against publishing. In 1817, the bookseller was content to sell it back to the novelist's brother, Henry Austen, for the exact sum — £10 — that he had paid for it at the beginning, not knowing that the writer was by then the author of four popular novels. The novel was further revised before being brought out posthumously in late December 1817, as the first two volumes of a four-volume set with Persuasion.Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northanger_Abbey

This tantalizing volume collects creepy stories from around the globe, nine first published in the award-winning children's magazine Cricket, and four previously unpublished. If you dare, turn off all the lights and take the plunge into darkness and terror. You never know when you might run into a ghost, or host of ghosts! It could be on the side of a desolate country road, underwater in a crowded public swimming pool, or behind the windswept dunes on a sunny stretch of beach. From haunted Scottish bagpipes to the terrifying Weeping Woman of Mexican folklore to a vengeful clan of Japanese ghouls, these spine-tingling tales depict spirits from many diverse cultures. Among the 13 stories guaranteed to chill your soul, stop your heart, and send you shivering under the covers are: "A Place of Haunts" by Robert Culp; "The Mysterious Girl at the Pool" by Juanita Havill; "Bones" by Frank Dodge; "Triple Anchovies" by Marion Dane Bauer; and "The Airi" by Deepa Agarwal.

The Underground Railroad was meant to be a set of secret pathways, and its traces have been obscured by time. But Joyce Hansen and Gary McGowan, who won a Coretta Scott King Honor for their previous book, show how archaeologists and historians sift through corn cobs and root cellars, study songs and quilts, and use the latest technology to reconstruct those heroic journeys. Freedom Roads offers both a fresh look at the escape routes from slavery and an introduction to the tools, methods, and insights of archaeology, anthropology, and historical conservation. Here is a modern-day detective story that uncovers the traces of a time in American history when courageous slaves and idealistic abolitionists defied the law and saved lives.