Reviews for The Cricket in Times Square

The average rating for The Cricket in Times Square based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-04-11 00:00:00 Garry Smith All of us writers have so much to learn from this book. If you are not a writer, skip this paragraph. If you are, or aspire to be, a writer, try this exercise: 1. Type out the first few paragraphs of A Cricket in Times Square as you read them. Feel the music in your fingers. Feel the light quickness of the sentences. 2. Turn to the end of the book (if you have read it before!), and type out the last few paragraphs. Take a moment to feel it again. You have just felt in your own fingers a little bit of magic. I tried this exercise myself. As an author who previously wrote for adults, I had to learn how to capture the special voice-on-the-wind style that speaks so well for children. There is no better teacher than George Selden. A cat, a mouse, and a cricket. All of them living in a nook at a newspaper stand in Times Square. This book speaks to us on so many levels. Cricket speaks to the child in us, the child that finds the most delight in the little things. (Read this book to a second grader—any second grader—and you’ll see!) Cricket also speaks to the forests and rivers and natural wonders that we carry inside us no matter where we are. Even on the platform of one of the busiest subway stations in the world. Yet the book also speaks to we lovers of cities, with its great mix of cultures (a cat, a mouse, a cricket, all friends? Only in New York.) At last, the book has a lot to say about music. If a child you know is interested in music, give this book to them, and I guarantee a raise of spirits! Indeed, Selden writes so well, that if you listen, you can nearly hear the songs.

Review # 2 was written on 2007-10-21 00:00:00 Jason Swedin I remember my third grade teacher reading this book aloud to us every day after lunch, and I remember really enjoying it, but I could barely remember the main characters when I recently picked it up again! I fell in love with it while reading it this time, it's such a charming story. I love this kind of children's book - a self-contained book with appealing characters you root for, amusing escapades, a unique and distinct setting that you grow to know and understand, and an overarching plot that keeps you hooked. This plot keeps the stories tied together, but the escapades are as intriguing and could be just as easily read on their own. In the vein of "Stuart Little," "The Wind in the Willows," "Ellen Tebbits," or the Ramona series.