Grab your gondola for a cruise with Cricket!

It’s not always smooth sailing on the canals of Venice. In dramatic historical fiction, young Marco Polo flees a street gang along the Venetian docks, and on Murano a loyal apprentice prevents the theft of Venice’s most precious secret—how to make glass. You’ll marvel at the innovative technique of the Italian artist Giotto; laugh as two girls battle a houseful of gremlins; puzzle over a troubled friendship at school; and be inspired by the powerful history of how enslaved people sailed to freedom in the British Bahamas. There’s also a Crossbird puzzle, a new story contest, and the bugs express their inner Giotto by painting the schoolhouse wall. Ciao!