Make a New Year’s resolution to read this month’s artistic Cricket.

“Zafarin’s Challenge” by Aleesah Darlison—Apprentice actor Zafarin must play the role of his life to break the spell of the evil wizard Wrindarn.

“How to Disguise a Nobel Prize” by Pamela Love—As the Nazis march into Denmark in 1941, physicist Niels Bohr relies on a secret formula of medieval alchemists to hide two Nobel Prize medals that would incriminate his refugee colleagues.

“The Dancers” by Tina Grimberg—In Part 1 of this memoir of a young girl growing up in the former Soviet Union, Tina plans a romantic New Year’s Eve dance with her very serious friend Boris.

“Honey Is Made How?” by Sara C. Thornton—Find out the startling and amazing facts of how bees make honey.

“I Am Marc Chagall” by Bimba Landmann—An inspiring story offers about the world-famous artist who painted flying goats and green-faced fiddlers perched on roofs.

“Shnook the Peddler” by Maxine Rose Schur—In the final part of the story, Leibush returns the stolen dreidel to the peddler Shnook, whom he discovers is not foolish but very wise.

“Blizzard” by Patricia Baehr—A boy overcomes his fear of the city’s crowded tenements to deliver coal during the New York blizzard of 1888.

Old Cricket Says—Old Cricket reflects on the haiku poetry of Chiyo-ni, one of the first female practitioners of this ancient Japanese art form.

You’ll also enjoy:

Poetry by Barbara Juster Esbensen and Susan Gundlach.

Ugly Bird’s New Year’s Crossbird Puzzle.