Celebrate Cricket: 30 Years of Stories and Art

Cricket magazine marks a publishing milestone with Celebrate Cricket: 30 Years of Stories and Art, ed. by Cricket's founder and editor-in-chief, Marianne Carus. This attractive volume includes writers such as Lloyd Alexander, who published an essay about meeting Gertrude Stein in 1945 Paris (in the January 1977 issue); Walter Dean Myers, whose ""The Cub"" is about a grandfather and grandson's attempt to free a trapped cub (and sidestep its mother); and Jane Yolen, who pens several poems. David McPhail's artwork brings to life a translation of Isaac Bashevis Singer's ""The Fools of Chelm and the Stupid Carp""; Quentin Blake's spot illustrations chart the transformation of ""The Cat Who Became a Poet"" by Margaret Mahy; and the frogs in David Wiesner's March 1989 Cricket cover illustration, ""Air Raid,"" bears a striking likeness to the stars of his Caldecott medal-winning Tuesday (in an essay, Wiesner credits the cover as the book's inspiration). Brief biographies of authors and artists, and reminiscences from the magazine's editors and art directors round out this overview history, and a 16-page color insert depicts some favorite magazine covers.