Chatterbox: Chirp at Cricket

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Cricket News

May 1st 2016

By Bibliophile*


 

*If you want to join me in doing this, let me know!

The First Issue!

 So I think I’m going to start making this every other week. It might come out on Fridays. If you want to help with this, let me know! Also, if you want to make any corrections (on my spelling, the quotes won’t be changed), or if I made any spelling mistakes, just comment on it. PLEASE NOTE: THIS WAS ROSEBUD’S AWESOME IDEA.

What’s new in: Down to Earth

About this section: I’m going to highlight one or two threads in this section. The threads will be all from one section, CaC, BaB, DtE, PP, This Month, or Inkwell.

On April 28, The Bookish Texan (our new, awesome CBer) created a thread about homeschooling (http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/downtoearth/node/215889 , or look at the thread called “Who else here” on DtE). So far, it’s being used as a space to talk about people’s experiences with homeschooling. “I'M HOMESCHOOLED, AND I LOVE IT!!!! Even if I actually am unsocialized. I have a total of four friends in real life. I get to see two of them at least twice a month, and the another one (ElmoDaisy)... like once every three to four months.

And my last friend/uncle (Cron) I see roughly once a year for a couple days. I do get to skype with him, though! :)))

AND I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN HOMESCHOOLED, AND I WILL CONTINUE TO BE UNTIL MY MOTHER NO LONGER UNDERSTANDS MY MATH!!!”

There’s another thread on DtE by Mei-xue called “Piano playing” where you talk to other pianists about what pieces you like to play. Scylla says “I love piano! I don't go to a piano school, whatever that is. I just play. I improvise pretty well, and if the Admins can get the Webmaster to install a video/sound recording feature (good idea!), I could show you. I'm level seven probably and play the following: Invention in F Major by Bach, Dark Horse by David Lanz, Prelude to the Dance by David Lanz, Deep Blue Sea by Daniel Hill, Waltz in A minor by Chopin, Moonlight Sonata Movement One by Beethoven.”

Quote of the every-other week:

“Be somebody that makes everyone else feel like a somebody.” -Unknown

RP of the every-other week: Evil’s Revenge:

About this section: I’ll alternate between featuring an SI, RP, or Ski-lodge in this section!

The RP has been going on since July 25, which is a really, really long time for an RP! Here’s a quote: Cammwren~ Madison drives us back home, along with May, whom Marica is glaring at.  The sun is coming up over the buildings as she leaves me at my house. We didn't talk much, with May being there, but we had most everything figured out anyways.

The van zooms out of sight and l enter back into the house. Everyone who lives here wakes up late, so l've got nothing to fear.  Not like l've never sneaked out of here before. l past though the house to the stairs. Then turn back.

Something is wrong. Someone has been here. l can almost feel it in the air. Things nudged here and there. Whoever they were, they were pretty good, at breaking and entering. But l, as a former agent of Evil, was better. l follow their footsteps in the carpet, around the house, and then finely up stairs.

l hear a whisper of feet. They are still here.  l dig around in my pockets until l find a small dart gun. The kind that we always had at the AYA incase of emerncy and slowly climb the stairs....

~~~~~~~

Book Review

About this section: I’m going to make a book review based on a thread.

St. Owl created a thread on April 30th about The Book Thief, a novel about a german foster child, Liesel, in the Holocaust-you know what, I’ll just give you a google summary, because I’m struggling here. “In 1938, young orphan Liesel (Sophie Nélisse) arrives at the home of her new foster parents, Hans (Geoffrey Rush) and Rosa (Emily Watson). When Hans, a kindly housepainter, learns that Liesel cannot read, he teaches the child the wonders of the written language. Liesel grows to love books, even rescuing one from a Nazi bonfire. Though Liesel's new family barely scrape by, their situation becomes even more precarious when they secretly shelter a Jewish boy whose father once saved Hans' life.”

It’s a mind blowing, amazing book. St. Owl commented “you can tell how much work went into this book. It's not a first draft you're holding in your hands. Every sentence was whittled to perfection, which not even JK Rowling or Suzanne Collins can best. You can simply feel the effort that went in to giving each line the perfect tone, that would make it run smoothly, advanced yet simple, and a read that doesn't leave any stray, loose-ended sentences tugging at your mind.” That’s really wonderfully put, St.!  Warning: this is a dark book, and may not be appropriate for the CB’s younger readers. According to Bluebird, “ it’s realistic...there’s a war going on, and some people are going to die.”

To new CBers:

Here’s the guide thread link: http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/chirpatcricket/node/204967

Random fact of the day:

Odontophobia is the fear of teeth.

Congratulations to:

Butterfly, who won 3rd place in the Poetry Contest!

(I’d mention those who got 1st and 2nd but I can’t find the thread- can someone show me the link?)

Please comment if you have anything to add, or section ideas! I want to make letters to the editor section, like the letterbox in Cricket mag, but I need comments!

 

Link to Cricket League winners: cricketmagkids.com/contests

Admin

submitted by Bibliophile
(May 1, 2016 - 2:17 pm)

Wow, this is so cool! I can tell you put a lot of work in to it, and I really like the quotes from other CBers! I also think it would be fun to add in a riddle or a puzzle or something like that (you can probably tell from my name that I love riddles.) 

Another random fact that has to do with phobias:

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is the fear of long words, which I think is kind of cruel to anyone who has it because they would be scared of even the name of the condition itself. 

submitted by The Riddler
(May 1, 2016 - 3:19 pm)

Thanks! I like the riddle idea. The fear of long-words thing is really sad. If you have the fear, you can't even list the scientific term. Although, maybe it's to help people get over their fear!

submitted by Bibliophile
(May 2, 2016 - 5:40 pm)

Awesome! Rosebud's CB News was great and I'm really glad that you're bringing it back. One suggestion I have is that you let people submit short stories, poems, and artwork to go into the news, and you pick the best ones to put in. It's just a suggestion, but Rosebud had it in her version, and I really liked it. I really like how you're featuring certain parts of the CB and things that CBers have said. Keep up the good work! TOP

submitted by Dragonrider
(May 1, 2016 - 4:21 pm)

This is awesome! Can I help with it? Also, I like Dragonrider's idea to have stories/poems/art in it. 

submitted by Abigail S., age 11, Nose in a Book
(May 1, 2016 - 10:58 pm)

Sure! Let me know which week you want to do it, and whether you want to do just a section or more.

submitted by Bibliophile
(May 2, 2016 - 5:48 pm)

Can I do the featured threads from a certain section? We should have an employee thread, where we post the parts we are submitting/writing, and then a publishing thread, where we publish the final product every other week. That way, if people only want to read the finished thing they can.

submitted by Abigail S., age 11, Nose in a Book
(May 2, 2016 - 10:30 pm)

I'm thinking about making an article for all sections, although maybe Kyngdom and This Month should switch off, because there isn't a ton on This Month (correct me if I'm wrong), and Kyngdom isn't really the CB.

If you want to pick an area of the CB or two to write about, that's fine with me. I can make the employee thread -- maybe the publishing thread can just be this thread? 

submitted by Bibliophile
(May 3, 2016 - 6:53 pm)

Yes, let's do the article for all sections, but maybe only feature 1 thread per section if we do. I'd like to do CaC and Pudding's Place. And Inkwell is kind of the featured RP. I think we should leave Kyngdom to its own devices. This Month maybe, but it's true that it's fairly, uh, empty. Let's keep this as the publishing thread. Oh! And on the employee thread, people could submit writing and art to go in. This will be fun! 

submitted by Abigail S., age 11, Nose in a Book
(May 3, 2016 - 7:37 pm)

Ok! I want to definately do Down to Earth and can do the rest for now- if anyone else wants to join, we can give them other sections.

submitted by Bibliophile
(May 4, 2016 - 9:40 am)

Nice! 

l would really like to write a letter to the editor. Is there a certain subject for letters, or is it simply anything at all? 

submitted by Shadow Dragon, age Infinity, Loch Ness
(May 1, 2016 - 11:22 pm)

You can write about the topics in the News. If you want to write an article, though, let me know.

submitted by Bibliophile
(May 2, 2016 - 5:34 pm)

Hrm......l was thinking more of an article, l have a few ideas for it, but if you want me to write it on a certain subject, that's fine. 

submitted by Shadow Dragon
(May 3, 2016 - 9:13 pm)

Abigal and I are going to create a employee thread, which you can join!

@Abigal: Is this okay with you? 

submitted by Bibiliophile
(May 4, 2016 - 9:26 am)

Wow, this is awesome! And... really in depth! Nice work, Bibliophile!

 

submitted by hotairballoon
(May 2, 2016 - 7:18 am)

Thanks HAB!

submitted by Biblio
(May 2, 2016 - 5:35 pm)