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    The Cricket in Times Square
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    The Cricket in Times Square
    Unavailable
    The Cricket in Times Square
    Ebook133 pages1 hour

    The Cricket in Times Square

    By George Selden and Garth Williams

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    After Chester lands, in the Times Square subway station, he makes himself comfortable in a nearby newsstand. There, he has the good fortune to make three new friends: Mario, a little boy whose parents run the falling newsstand, Tucker, a fast-talking Broadway mouse, and Tucker's sidekick, Harry the Cat. The escapades of these four friends in bustling New York City makes for lively listening and humorous entertainment. And somehow, they manage to bring a taste of success to the nearly bankrupt newsstand.

    Join Chester Cricket and his friends in this classic children's book by George Selden, with illustrations by Garth Williams. The Cricket in Times Square is a 1961 Newbery Honor Book.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateFeb 25, 2014
    ISBN9781466863620
    Unavailable
    The Cricket in Times Square
    Author

    George Selden

    George Selden (1929-1989) was the author of A Cricket in Times Square, winner of the 1961 Newbery Honor and a timeless children's classic. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Selden received his B.A. from Yale, where he was a member of the Elizabethan Club and contributed to the literary magazine. He spent three summer sessions at Columbia University and, after college, studied for a year in Rome on a Fulbright Scholarship. People often asked Selden how he got the idea for The Cricket in Times Square. "One night I was coming home on the subway, and I did hear a cricket chirp in the Times Square subway station. The story formed in my mind within minutes. An author is very thankful for minutes like those, although they happen all too infrequently." The popular Cricket series grew to seven titles, including Tucker's Countryside and The Old Meadow. In 1973, The Cricket in Times Square was made into an animated film. Selden wrote more than fifteen books, as well as two plays. His storytelling blends the marvelous with the commonplace realities of life, and it was essential to him that his animal characters display true emotions and feelings.

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    Reviews for The Cricket in Times Square

    4/5

    851 ratings39 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 5/5
      Another childhood favorite.
    • 5/5
      A great story, I enjoyed the imagination included in the authors words, and I was very interested in the background story of Chester cricket.
    • 4/5
      I read this book aloud to my daughters. It won the Newbery Honor in 1961 and the Massachusetts Children's Book Award in 1976. I am sure that I read this as a young girl, but I did not remember it.We all loved the book! The displaced cricket, Chester, from Connecticut is found in Grand Central Station in New York by a little boy named Mario, who takes Chester to his family's newspaper stand and builds a bed for him. Chester befriends two other creatures in Grand Central Station: a cat named Harry and a mouse named Tucker. The unlikely trio has several adventures, and they band together to help keep Mario's family from going bankrupt.There are six other books in this series, and we intend to continue reading about the adventures of Chester Cricket and his friends!
    • 4/5
      Second Time as Good as the First!

      I decided to revisit various Newbery Award winners and Honors... This was a good revisit!!
    • 4/5
      Really good book about becoming friends with those who are different. Setting took place in the City of New York.
    • 4/5
      Good early read aloud. Yet another book where I cried at the end and my 5 year old consoled me. I am a sap!

      The book had some slow parts but picked up mind-way through and I loved the ending. It was an enjoyable book for both the parent reader and the child listener. There were some plot twists that kept the story engaging.
    • 5/5
      First read this in 1990 for school, and I still think it is super cute. A great readalike for Charlotte's Webb.
    • 4/5
      Chester Cricket, lured by the smell of liverwurst, is accidentally trapped inside a picnic basket on a lovely day in Connecticut. After a long train ride, he escapes in Grand Central Station, and meets up with Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat who show him the ropes as he gets used to his new home. He is adopted by a young boy, Mario Bellini, whose prents own a newspaper stand in the train terminal. Chester Cricket has many adventures, but his claim to fame begins when his wonderful musical talent is discovered. Alas though, even in being a star, Chester still misses the quiet of the country side and decides he needs to get back home again. This charming classic is still quite enjoyable and will work well for a book discussion for kids ages 9-12, or a little younger with families.
    • 4/5
      I read this because I enjoyed Harry Cat's Pet Puppy so much; this was nice, but the relationship between Harry Cat and Tucker Mouse was not as much fun here.
    • 5/5
      This was one of my favorite "chapter" books when I was growing up. It's an adorable tale about a cat and a mouse who become friends (if I remember correctly -- I'm getting old, which means both that it's been a long time since I've read it, and that my memory is failing).
    • 5/5
      The kids loved it - I liked it, too.The following is part of the review I posted on my blog, A Sea of Books.Since New York City figures so prominately in the book world this weekend, it seems an appropriate time to post my review of this children's classic. I read it to my niece and nephew over a couple of weeks, reading a chapter or two in the evenings. My nephew is 8 and my niece is 5. This is the first long book that has held both of their interests, and they eagerly looked forward to each session. My niece would often ask during the day if we'd be reading "the cricket book" that night.Believe it or not, I had never read THE CRICKET IN TIMES SQUARE before, and I found myself reading ahead after the kids went to sleep because I just had to find out what happened! And why not? This is a charming story full of adventure, friendships, and whimsy. I don't think anything I say would improve on the abundance of accolades showered on this book through the decades since it was first published in 1960. All I'm going to do is give it a big thumbs up and encourage anyone who hasn't read it, to do so -- with or without a kid at your side! It's thoroughly enjoyable!
    • 4/5
      Chester Cricket, a native of Connecticut, gets stuck in a picnic basket and is eventually found and taken in by a young boy, Mario, whose parents own a newstand in the subway. Chester is befriended by two other denizens of the subway station, Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat.

      Lots of depth can be found in this small book about Chester Cricket and his summer spent in the Times Square subway station. I particularly like that Tucker Mouse is left to be a less than perfect character. He never learns a "lesson" that changes him into a paragon; he remains a real, fully-fleshed out character with plenty of faults. I also found the exploration of the effects fame can have on a performer to be quite interesting, particularly in light of the current fishbowl climate celebrities live in.

      Listened to the Recorded Books Playaway narrated by Barbara Caruso. The depiction of the Chinese man Mario goes to see for cricket advice made me uncomfortable, but I wonder if the accent was an audio production decision or written into the book. If it was written into the book, I think it would make me less uncomfortable because the book was written in the early 1960s before political awareness was as common. If it was an audio production decision or Barbara Caruso's choice, I'd find that less acceptable since the audio was produced in 1994. Maybe it shouldn't bother me at all, but it just seemed to be in slightly poor taste. I also would love to hear an audio production that incorporated some of the classical music mentioned within the story. What a great way that would be to introduce that music to children and to deepen the impact of the story. I believe my parents read this aloud to us as children, but I didn't remember it at all so maybe I'm wrong.
    • 5/5
      As far as I am concerned, this book should have won the Newbery Award.Chester Cricket finds himself miles from his Connecticut meadow home, deep in the bowels of NYC 's subway stations, and underneath Times Square. How he makes a difference in the lives of those around him, Harry the cat, Tucker the mouse, Mario and the great teeming crowds of the subway station, is not just charming or delightful, but so much more. "The Cricket in Times Square" is a children's book that should also speak to adults, to that inner child in each of us.
    • 3/5
      This 1961 Newbery Honor winner is delightful, charming, witty and funny. When Conneticut living Chester the cricket is inadvertently trapped in a picket basket and travels via train to the Times Square subway station in New York City, he meets up with a host of lively, lovely characters.Late at night while young Mario Bellini is taking care of his family newsstand , he hears an unusual sound from a stack of papers. Rescuing Chester, he convinces his parents to allow him to keep Chester as a pet.When subway-drain-living Tucker the mouse befriends the cricket, Tucker's humorous opera loving friend Harry the Cat joins the mayhem.Together the cricket, mouse and cat help to rescue the financially troubled Bellini business by having Chester perform operatic concerts. Chester has an ear for music and his cricket chirps soon become exquisite sound.The interplay between the critters is charming. While there isn't a lot of substance, still, I recommend this book for many reasons, including the wonderful illustrations by Garth Williams, the laugh out loud moments created by Tucker the mouse and Harry the cat, and the way in which the author captured New York City.
    • 5/5
      As a young reader, I absolutely loved this book. One of these, I look forward to reading it again.
    • 4/5
      I have read this book several times now and I still get a little teary-eyed at the end. A warm, gentle story that entertains kids and adults. My 7yo enjoyed the book though it is not a page-turner but more a slow-paced, heart-warming book. One where the characters become your friends. The language is wonderfully descriptive and memorable. Every time I pick this book up I start to remember the scenes of the old Chinese man at the store in China Town. I can't talk about the book without mentioning the illustrations. Written in a time when children's novels were always illustrated, Garth Williams pictures are fabulous. He is one of my favourite illustrators and I'm very likely to read a book simple because he's done the illustrations. Selden went on to write several sequels to this novel, of which I've only read one other "Chester Cricket's Pigeon Ride". My son and I look forward to reading some of the others and meeting up with these friends again.
    • 3/5
      I did not read this as a kid, though I did often see it displayed at whichever library happened to be "my" library at the time. Not sure why I never picked it up. Well, anyway, now I have. I enjoyed it. It's a sweet book, and it's nice to read a book about friendship and problems that arise randomly and how the three friends deal with them. They are honorable characters. I hadn't realized there were sequels, but I have already checked out the next one.
    • 3/5
      My kids enjoyed the book quite a bit. Me? I thought it was ok, but nothing really outstanding. Still, it's an interesting look back at what writing styles used to be like.
    • 3/5
      Cute. Read it as a kid and didn't remember the story.
    • 3/5
      I read this book for the first time this week and I'm 21. If I had read it when I was younger I think I would have liked it more. It was still a very cute book and I enjoyed reading it. It's a really quick and easy read, but it still contains an important moral.
    • 4/5
      This book was very realistic because the author used personification to rat, cat, cricket also other animals. This book is very impressive.
    • 4/5
      I loved this story, with all its wonderful New York characters and the cricket who brought hope to a huge city (and who loved him some liverwurst!)
    • 4/5
      I loved this book as a kid. It is great!
    • 5/5
      I'd been meaning to read The Cricket in Times Square for some time now. So, when I was browsing through available audiobooks for a recent trip, I was pleased to come across this -- and not only was it a book I had been meaning to read, but it was narrated by Tony Shaloub!Mario's family owns a newsstand in the Times Square subway station. One day, while minding the stand, Mario hears a sound one doesn't usually hear in New York City: the soft chirping of a cricket. The cricket in question is Chester, who inadvertently caught a ride in from Connecticut in a picnic basket. Mario is fascinated by the small creature and makes a pet of him -- albeit one that lives at the newsstand, since his mother will not allow the insect into her house. At the newsstand, Chester is soon befriended by Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat, two street-smart city dwellers who appreciate Chester's friendly personality and musical ability. Chester enjoys life with his new friends, but then, disaster strikes, and it is at least partially Chester's fault. Can he find a way to make up for it to his benefactors -- and will he ever find his way back home to Connecticut?I'm not sure how I missed out on this book as a kid, since it's just the sort of thing I would have liked. I enjoyed it now, of course, though it is a little dated in spots (Mario visits Chinatown and the depictions of his visit there don't sit as well with a modern audience as they may have in the past). Unsurprisingly, Shaloub's narration is excellent and contributed to my enjoyment of the story.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful tale about a country cricket who ends up in the subway station at Times Square in New York City. He learns that crickets are lucky and that his musical talents could make him famous.A great story illustrating the similarities and differences between country and city life. Also good for showing the stresses of fame and how important one's actual home is.
    • 4/5
      A country cricket finds himself in the subway of Times Square in New York. He befriends a mouse and a cat and a young boy whose family runs a newsstand and takes him as a pet. The cricket at first seems to be a jinx to the newsstand until the cricket discovers that he can chirp most any song and becomes a star over night. However, fame is not what the cricket wants, he longs for his country life and decides to give up all in order to return. A cute award winning tale for young readers.
    • 5/5
      This book is about the magic of animals, even though there isn't really any magic involved at all. The author has managed to include each character's back story without taking anything from the plot itself and has a natural way of moving along in from page to page that is just perfect and quite possibly deserving of more than just the Newbery Honor. It is a perfect story for young readers and it is a heartwarming reread for adults, who just might rediscover some faith in humanity as they go from cover to cover. A Cricket in Times Square is one of those charming classics that everyone should read.
    • 5/5
      It very heart warming for a book i would share this
    • 5/5
      Very good book- just as I remember reading it in school. I am rereading it in preparation for an upcoming trip to NYC
    • 4/5
      Chester Cricket has always lived in a Connecticut meadow, but his curiosity about a picnic basket results in his winding up in the Times Square subway station. This is where Mario Bellini, son of the owners of a struggling newsstand, finds Chester and takes him in. Tucker the mouse and Harry the cat also befriend Chester. Their adventures, disasters, and triumphs form the basis of a wonderful friendship.This book is utterly delightful. It demonstrates the value of true friendship, loyalty, and compassion, and teaches us about responsibility and obligation to do the right thing. Chester’s story makes my heart sing, just as his playing affected the passersby in the subway. Garth Williams’s illustrations are perfectly detailed and a wonderful addition to the story.