This Valentine’s Day you’re sure to fall in love--with the stories in Cricket!

From the robo-valentines on our cover to a scrumptious cookie recipe sealed with a kiss, love is in the air in this month’s Cricket. In Cricket Country, you’ll go on a comical quest with Brave Sir Cricket to rescue a fair damsel in distress (guess who) from ye old Ugly Dragon. Forsooth! In the story of another exciting romantic quest, “The Red String,” the Chinese legend of how each person is tied to his or her true love by an invisible string will tug at your heart--and even your foot. In “Chura and Marwe,” a folk tale from Africa, an ugly boy and a beautiful girl who are close friends as children must undergo fantastic trials before they can find each other again.

And if love isn’t your passion, what about money? How would you like a job as a pet-sitter? Doesn’t sound too hard, unless the pet turns out to be a circus tiger, as in “Leaping Lena, Old Otis, and Me.” (You might want a raise.) Or learn how to earn a slick hundred dollars in “Change,” a “porch lie” about a hilariously likeable trickster.

Make Cricket your own personal valentine this month, and you’ll read the true story of why Abraham Lincoln grew his beard and discover what happens to Everest when his mom cleans out the garage in “A Boy Called Everest.” You can almost hear the fair damsel Ladybug shout to you from the top of her castle tower, Be mine!