Books published by publisher Cricket Books/Marcato

From John Updike’s “Player Piano” to Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing,” from Lucille Clifton’s “the earth is a living thing” to Gelett Burgess’s “The Purple Cow,” these poems tumble from children’s tongues and dance with their tapping toes. Whether joyous, rhythmic, solemn, or simple silly fun, poetry learned by heart has a lasting claim on children’s affections and a permanent home in their hearts. The introduction includes tips for teaching kids how to memorize poems. Vecchione presents a selection of verses with rhythms, themes, and wordplay that especially appeal to middle graders.

What should the music of America sound like? At the end of the nineteenth century, no one was sure ? should we imitate Europe, or find our own voice? But what would that be? When the great Czech composer Antonin Dvorak came here, he found the answer in the ?sorrow songs? of his African-American student, Henry Burleigh, in the rhythms of the Indian drums, in the church tunes of Spillville, Iowa. Author, critic, and music-educator Joe Horowitz vividly captures the America Dvorak visited, and the brilliant New World Symphony he created. Through the story of one classical composition, Horowitz reveals the many ways in which all Americans have shaped our culture.

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.

Ancient Egypt is one of the most evocative cultures for young readers. This book shows them what their lives would have been like there. There was no school, since most people couldn’t read or write, and no need to worry about fashion, because children didn’t wear clothes! Rich or poor, their houses would have been made of mud bricks. If I Were a Kid in Ancient Egypt takes readers through daily life in a vibrant culture that pioneered paper, linen, irrigation, medicine, and much more, and shows how these inventions came about and how they affected the culture’s younger citizens.

This groundbreaking bilingual anthology, carefully designed for middle readers, is a mosaic of voices demonstrating the energy, creativity, and diversity of the fastest-growing minority group in America. Wachale! (Spanglish for “watch out!”) includes folk tales, stories, and poems in both English and Spanish, and brief autobiographical essays by both well-established and emerging writers representing all shades of Latinos, such as Chicanos in the Southwest, Puerto Ricans in New York, and Cubans in Florida, as well as Dominicans, Guatemalans, and other subgroups. Geared toward ten- to thirteen-year-olds, this is a window to Latino experiences north of the Rio Grande.

Flip Schulke has photographed Elvis Presley, Mohammed Ali, Martin Luther King, Fidel Castro, John F. Kennedy, and the early astronauts of the American space program. He has shot film underwater with Jacques Cousteau, and in the path of racecars. During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Schulke?s images stunned American magazine readers, helping to change public opinion and influence the course of history. In this heartfelt and revealing profile, Schulke recounts how he built a career out of his passion for documenting social change.

Clements, Maddox, Koufax, Gibson? who is baseball's greatest pitcher? All across America, in school cafeterias, on ball-fields, in front of TVs, and while clicking digital games, fans battle over eras and strike outs, winning percentages and perfect games. Finally here is the book that will --- give them more fuel for their debates. At the same time it teaches how to make historical comparisons, and shows how the game has changed over the years. Journalist and sportswriter Jeff Kisseloff gives readers the facts on 37 of baseball's best, along with an introduction that discusses the importance of control, balls & strikes, the mound, delivery, the zone, the baseball, types of pitchers, relief pitchers, and the designated hitter. Statistics are given for each pitcher's record, including Won/Lost, complete games, innings pitched, strikeouts vs. bats on balls, hits & runs, shutouts, MVPs and Cy Young awards.

?Los Angeles! City of tanned shoulders! Smog-spewing, pay-per-viewing, sit-com maker for the world!?Del?s put in 17 years there, bouncing among foster homes. Smart, sharp-tongued, a master mimic, she?s fed up with her world and with being Del. So she?s faked her own death and is leaving both herself and L.A. behind?until her escape lands her in an all-day traffic jam.Fast-forward eight years. It?s opening night for the one-woman play she?s written and is starring in?a show called Breakout, about a Los Angeles traffic jam. Wildly funny, she seems to be skewering workaholics, road ragers, pickup artists, and car culture in general. But readers will see what her audience can?t?that the show is a portrait of herself, of her hunger for her mother and her terror of rejection, her free-floating identity and yearning for connection.Flashing between Del?s present and future, Breakout gives us a backstage pass into a young playwright?s psyche, letting us watch her life being transformed into a art, heartache into comedy, solitude into community, and anger gradually giving way to acceptance.

Mystery Box is the story of Franklin Dixon and Carolyn Keene, authors of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries. It?s true that these two never actually lived in the real world, but the mystery of their identities has intrigued readers for years. Gordon McAlpine here imagines the lives behind these two well-loved American names.Following parallel escapes from awkward situations at home, Frank and Carolyn both find themselves in Paris in the 1920s, among the glittering expatriate literary circles. Frank, who initially made the trip overseas in search of his lost brother Joe, now runs his own detective agency and frequents the parlor of Gertrude Stein. Carolyn, who left River Heights when her young stepmother made her feel unneeded, has befriended Hemingway and Fitzgerald is trying to craft her own writing style. At the same time, though, Frank and Carolyn each pursue personal mysteries, deeper than those ever undertaken by their youthful characters. the world is full of betrayal and disillusionment. To find themselves, they must find each other?and the truths contained in their soon-to-be written fictions.

"Easy there," came the voice. "If you’re fixin’ to throw somethin’, at least let me get my mitt on." CHIEF SUNRISE, JOHN McGRAW, AND ME is a middle-grade baseball story featuring an all-American kid head-over-heels in love with the game. On the run from his abusive dad, Hank joins forces with an ace Seminole Indian pitcher who’s determined to break into the big leagues. Together they go in search of the big time: playing for the New York Giants during their 1919 season. The pair’s picaresque adventures take them from Florida to New York, where nineteen-year-old Chief makes a believer of the Giants’ famed manager, John McGraw, and Hank gets to experience life as a bat boy.

One of the greatest legends in the world is brought to life in ODYSSEUS, the first book of the four-volume HEROES series. Author Geraldine McCaughrean's taught prose brings a modern, thriller-like immediacy to the ancient story, while still retaining the characters, details and even some of the rhythms of the epic poem.Odysseus and his loyal troops narrowly escape being eaten by the Cyclops, shipwrecked by Scylla and Charybdis, and turned into pigs by the beautiful Circe. The company must travel to Hell (or Hades) and back, dodge the constant pursuit of the vengeful Poseidon, and row across oceans in order to get back home where Odysseus' wife, Penelope fends off a gaggle of greedy suitors bent on taking Odysseus' throne.Filled with excitement and romance, ODYSSEUS makes a perfect sequel for any young readers interested in learning more about the Greek heroes portrayed in the summer 2004 blockbuster, TROY.