Get the New Year off to a flying start with this month’s birdbrainy Cricket!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be able to talk to animals? In the sci-fi story “The Penguin Whisperer,” Dejario’s special way of communicating with the waddling birds in the Penguin Research Lab saves his and Candace’s lives on space station Courage. Closer to home, a boy who can barely speak learns the language of mute swans in “The Cygnet.”And in the “The Children of Lir,” the children of the king are turned into swans by the jealous queen, until a whale named Jasconius figures out how to break the spell.

In part 2 of “Golden Windows,” Pnina returns to the shop of the witchlike sisters and learns a sad secret in their past. And in the climax of the medieval fantasy “Ren and the Shadow Imps,” Ren defeats not only the creepy Shadow Imps of the Ogre King but also the Ubacanth, a serpent that swims in the great sea inside the Moon.

There’s also a Crossbird puzzle, a new poetry contest about whispering to an animal, lots of letters from Cricket readers, and a few final words of wisdom about wise crows from Old Cricket. Caw!