Beauty is in the eye of the beholder in this month’s monstrously beautiful Cricket.

In “Three Aunties,” a modern retelling of a classic folk tale from Norway, a princess’s encounter with three troll-wives enables her to rule happily with her husband, despite the machinations of his queenly mother.

In “Skin Deep,” the first part of a two-part serial by Vivian Vande Velde, plain-looking Ardda, a girl with magical powers, reads the mind of a horse whose master is injured and lost in the snow. Will she cast a “glamour” over her face to make herself appear beautiful before the prince she rescues?

Charles Steinmetz, a hump-backed man afflicted with hereditary dwarfism, was the “Master of Electricity” and one of the giants of the electrical age. A genius with a big heart and warm personality, he impressed Thomas Edison with his machine that threw lightning bolts.  

How do you become a famous composer? All poverty-stricken Johann Sebastian Bach needed was “The Chance.” In this anecdote about the life of Bach—a story with two morals—you’ll learn how a small act of kindness changed the world by giving the struggling young musician his start.  

In the humorous and touching “My Greatest Ambition,” a boy with a skeptical father and a burning ambition to be a comic-strip artist gets his big break—an interview with Boy Magazine. 

Have you ever lost a pet? “A Boy and His Dog,” by Martha Brooks, captures the pathos, and love, of the parting of two lifelong friends.

You’ll also enjoy part 2 of the mulish antics of “Scooter,” a new poetry contest, and the latest adventures of the bugs who embark on a crazy rescue mission when they get an email that Muffin has lost her money and ID and is stranded in Yellowstone. Mewy-scam!