HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

The Cricket in Times Square (Chester Cricket…
Loading...

The Cricket in Times Square (Chester Cricket and His Friends, 1) (original 1960; edition 2008)

by George Selden (Author), Garth Williams (Illustrator)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
8,155761,054 (4)81
Charming and cute - I somehow missed reading this and my youth. Like the title implies this story is about a cricket who ends up in New York City after getting stuck in a picnic basket. A young boy who works at his family's newsstand has never seen a cricket before and rescues a scared and confused Chester Cricket. Chester starts to live a comfortable life at the newsstand and becomes friends with a mouse and a cat. Together the trio get into mischief and discover that Chester is very talented at making music. Soon big crowds begin to go to the newsstand to see cricket who can play symphonies and other musical acts. But what if fame isn't what Chester wants? A sweet story for young readers - a play on the country mouse/ city mouse trope. Lots of fun! ( )
  ecataldi | Dec 16, 2020 |
Showing 1-25 of 76 (next | show all)
Tucker is a streetwise city mouse. He thought he'd seen it all. But he's never met a cricket before, which really isn't surprising, because, along with his friend Harry Cat, Tucker lives in the very heart of New York City--the Times Square subway station. Chester Cricket never intended to leave his Connecticut meadow. He'd be there still if he hadn't followed the entrancing aroma of liverwurst right into someone's picnic basket. Now, like any tourist in the city, he wants to look around. And he could not have found two better guides--and friends--than Tucker and Harry. The trio have many adventures--from taking in the sights and sounds of Broadway to escaping a smoky fire.

Chester makes a third friend, too. It is a boy, Mario, who rescues Chester from a dusty corner of the subway station and brings him to live in the safety of his parents' newsstand. He hopes at first to keep Chester as a pet, but Mario soon understands that the cricket is more than that. Because Chester has a hidden talent and no one--not even Chester himself--realizes that the little country cricket may just be able to teach even the toughest New Yorkers a thing or two.
  PlumfieldCH | Mar 16, 2024 |
i don't rememer any details, just vibes ( )
  caedocyon | Mar 11, 2024 |
Lovely little book about Chester the country cricket and his city smart friends Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat. Poignant ending! ( )
  secondhandrose | Oct 31, 2023 |
Chester Cricket jumps into a picnic basket in his meadow in Connecticut and finds himself on a train to New York City - specifically, the Times Square subway station, where he meets Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat, and is adopted by Mario Bellini, whose family runs a newsstand. Mario ventures to Chinatown to find a cricket cage and learn what Chester likes to eat (mulberry leaves), and Chester wows the Bellinis and the subway crowds by giving concerts of songs he's heard on the radio. But Chester's concert schedule becomes exhausting, and he misses Connecticut, so Tucker and Harry help him come up with a plan to go home - and maybe to visit in the future. ( )
  JennyArch | Oct 11, 2023 |
Tucker is a streetwise city mouse. He thought he'd seen it all. But he's never met a cricket before, which really isn't surprising, because, along with his friend Harry Cat, Tucker lives in the very heart of New York City--the Times Square subway station. Chester Cricket never intended to leave his Connecticut meadow. He'd be there still if he hadn't followed the entrancing aroma of liverwurst right into someone's picnic basket. Now, like any tourist in the city, he wants to look around. And he could not have found two better guides--and friends--than Tucker and Harry. The trio have many adventures--from taking in the sights and sounds of Broadway to escaping a smoky fire.

Chester makes a third friend, too. It is a boy, Mario, who rescues Chester from a dusty corner of the subway station and brings him to live in the safety of his parents' newsstand. He hopes at first to keep Chester as a pet, but Mario soon understands that the cricket is more than that. Because Chester has a hidden talent and no one--not even Chester himself--realizes that the little country cricket may just be able to teach even the toughest New Yorkers a thing or two.
  PlumfieldCH | Sep 22, 2023 |
I do wish I had read this when I was a kid and not an old fuss budget - I was too distracted by the stereotyping and the dated scenario (kid working a newstand alone at night in Times Square) and most of all, the knowledge that a cricket life span is maybe a season long at most, and therefore Chester was doomed to die within moments of the story's end. That knowledge cast a pall over an otherwise charming tale I'll read to my great-niece, and recommend for children who demonstrate both blissful ignorance and a reasonably strong reading vocabulary. ( )
  Kim.Sasso | Aug 27, 2023 |
The boys really liked this one. I remember nothing about it although I know I read it as a child. A good book about friendship in unlikely places and learning to be true to yourself. Children have an extrememly large capacity for willing suspension of disbelief. This book play right into that ability. Just like the boy in the book, they can imagine that a cricket has intelligence and a soul. ( )
  Luziadovalongo | Jul 14, 2022 |
Utterly charming. I was drawn back to this one by the news of a new edition that will update some of the more, well, racist aspects of the book. Despite doing a whole unit on this book in early elementary school, I didn't remember the Chinese characters at all. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Tucker the mouse lives in the Times Square subway station, right across from a struggling newsstand near the Times Square-Union Station shuttle. Late one evening he hears a beautiful, strange sound...and so does Mario, the son of the Italian immigrants who own the newsstand. It's a cricket, whose love of liverwurst got him caught up in the basket of some New Yorkers picnicking in his meadow in Connecticut, and who is, like many out-of-towners, overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of the city. Mario takes him in as a pet on his mother's condition that the dirty bug lives in the newsstand, not their home. That night, Tucker and his friend Harry the cat quickly befriend Chester Cricket.

The book contains a series of adventures before settling into something like a plot: Chester and his friends feast, venture topside to Times Square, and earn a little money to make up for some that they lose; meanwhile, Mario ventures down to Chinatown with Chester to buy him a little cage, and they end up befriending a pair of Chinese immigrants who share cricket lore, care tips, and a delicious meal. After a night when the animals' antics go a bit too far and cause big trouble for Mario's family, they discover that Chester has a talent for music that even humans can love. With the support of an enthusiastic, music-loving customer, word spreads, attracting appreciative audiences who give the newsstand a boost. But fame is a tricky thing, and Chester misses his meadow. In the end, he must make a difficult decision, and is friends and owner must learn to respect his choice and say goodbye.

Selden published The Cricket in Times Square in 1960, so the book is full of glimpses of a bygone city: Italian immigrants abandoning their culture, Chinese immigrants maintaining traditions, a young child allowed to work a late-night newsstand and take the subway downtown on his own in order to learn about and appreciate the new and different; a Times Square full of neon lights instead of digital displays, a subway still divided between companies, and lunch counters in the station instead of cheap souvenir shops and chain stores.

As for the Chinese men, I get the sense (the unfounded hope?) that this was a case where the intention may have been good but the handling and knowledge weren't. Writing out dialect really shouldn't be done by someone who doesn't speak it (though another reviewer points out some unexpected linguistic accuracies); emotions shouldn't be associated with physical characteristics ("The old Chinese man...looked slyly out of the corner of his eyes" [p 45]); cultural signs of respect shouldn't be turned into a joke; and, um, kimonos are Japanese clothing, not Chinese. Still, Mario's overall appreciation of what he learns from the Chinese men--how to care for a cricket, how to use chopsticks instead of asking for a fork, that real Chinese food is delicious rather than strange, that clothes and plates and cricket cages are different but beautiful--struck me as much more inclusive than I would expect from a book written in the '50s, rather than completely othering.

I saw complaints about Sao Feng's sudden switch from suspicion to childlike delight when he learns that Mario has a cricket, but that does seem to jibe with the heightened and childlike emotions displayed by other adult characters, such as Mario's mother's disgust and distrust of an insect, and the music professor's snobby skepticism turning into worshipful awe of Chester's musical talent. This exaggeration is something that I see in many children's books, and I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, especially when characters who seem like caricatures at first develop more nuance later: Mario's mother gets teary when she hears an old Italian song and the professor shows up for all of Chester's performances. Look no further than Pixar's Inside Out for an illustration of how children feel big, simple emotions while developing more complex feelings, demonstrated by Mario's understanding and acceptance of Chester's ultimate decision. (If anything, Mario's mother's histrionics compared to her young son's level-headedness could be seen as sexist without other high-emotion (male) characters to keep her company.)

This review focuses on the humans because that's what gets the most attention in criticism these days, but the stars of the story are clearly Chester Cricket, Tucker Mouse, and Harry the Cat, three unlikely friends who support each other even when baffled by their preferences, who discuss difficult decisions and mistakes and then help each other follow through on resolutions and amends-making. Their oddball but genuine friendship is what truly gives this book its staying power.

The Cricket in Times Square is endearing, and there is an undercurrent of good feeling and themes of learning about and respecting strangers and people who are different from yourself. I'm hopeful that the forthcoming revised and updated edition will preserve these elements and enhance the charm by revising the parts that we now recognize as less than charming. Hopefully this will allow a new generation of children to love Chester, Tucker, Harry, and Mario, and enjoy their adventures without feeling belittled by or internalizing harmful stereotypes.

Quotes

p. 6) Now Tucker Mouse had heard almost all the sounds that can be heard in New York City. He had heard the rumble of the subway trains and the shriek their iron wheels make when they go around a corner. From above, through the iron grills that open onto the streets, he had heard the thrumming of the rubber tires of automobiles, and the hooting of their horns, and the howling of their brakes. And he had heard the babble of voices when the station was full of human beings, and the barking of the dogs that some of them had on leashes. Birds, the pigeons of New York, and cats, and even the high purring of airplanes above the city Tucker had heard. But in all his days, and on all his journeys through the greatest city in the world, Tucker had never heard a sound quite like this one.

p. 8) Mario heard the sound too. . . . If a leaf in a green forest far from New York had fallen at midnight through the darkness into a thicket, it might have sounded like that.

p. 102) Just as I wondered about whether the Chinese was accurate, I wondered whether the Italian was as well. Still, this scene where Chester softens Mama Bellini's hard heart by playing, at Tucker's encouragement, a song that turns out to be her favorite, with an accompanying description of her memories of young love in Italy, was heartwarming.

Disclaimer: While I work for the parent company of the imprint that publishes this book (now--I read an edition published by Dell/Yearling), my opinions are entirely my own and do not reflect those of the publisher. ( )
  books-n-pickles | Mar 26, 2022 |
A little dated, but still a cute story for younger readers. ( )
  bookwyrmm | Nov 15, 2021 |
A sweet, delightful, _innocent_ children's book, from a more innocent time. I wish I'd read this as a child, but it still put a smile on my face when I read it as an adult. ( )
  JohnNienart | Jul 11, 2021 |
Charming and cute - I somehow missed reading this and my youth. Like the title implies this story is about a cricket who ends up in New York City after getting stuck in a picnic basket. A young boy who works at his family's newsstand has never seen a cricket before and rescues a scared and confused Chester Cricket. Chester starts to live a comfortable life at the newsstand and becomes friends with a mouse and a cat. Together the trio get into mischief and discover that Chester is very talented at making music. Soon big crowds begin to go to the newsstand to see cricket who can play symphonies and other musical acts. But what if fame isn't what Chester wants? A sweet story for young readers - a play on the country mouse/ city mouse trope. Lots of fun! ( )
  ecataldi | Dec 16, 2020 |
This is the story of Chester Cricket, who arrives from Connecticut, in the Times Square subway station. Chester is found by Mario Bellini, a boy whose family runs a newsstand. Mario adopts Chester and gives him a place to live at the newsstand. Mario’s mother isn’t too keen on it, but his father sees no harm.

While Chester is living there, he meets a mouse named Tucker and Harry the Cat. The two new friends live across from the newsstand, and help Chester adjust to life in New York.

The tale tells of the friendship between Chester and Mario and how they appreciate each other, even though they can’t speak. It is also of the friendship between Chester, Tucker and Harry…and they can communicate. Chester shares adventures with Mario and then also with Tucker and Harry.

Mario’s family’s newsstand isn’t doing well, but Tucker, Chester and Harry come up with a plan that helps the Bellini’s business improve. Chester also learns more about himself and what it is that is important to him and his life.

It is a book for kids, but I think adults can enjoy it too. Sometimes a story where the character care about helping each other, and others that may not know these friends exist, can be a good read. Something that is positive in outlook.

There are also illustrations in the edition I read. The illustrator also did “Charlotte’s Web.” ( )
  ChazziFrazz | Sep 29, 2020 |
This is such a cute little story. It’s a short and fun read for kids. I like Tucker and Harry, they make a great duo. Then there Mario who take good care of Chester and lets him go in the end.
This a rag to richest story that has heart and teach a good lesson in the end. I remember reading part of this book in fifth grade. I don’t what part of the story it was, just that it has a picture of a mouse, a cat, and a cricket in Time Square. ( )
  KSnapdragon | Sep 15, 2020 |
00014459
  lcslibrarian | Aug 13, 2020 |
00008937
  lcslibrarian | Aug 13, 2020 |
00008936
  lcslibrarian | Aug 13, 2020 |
Chester, a cricket from Connecticut, ends up in New York City, where he meets two friends, Harry the cat and Tucker the mouse. He grows to depend on his friends. They have many adventures and then the two friends help Chester get back home to Connecticut. This is a great book, especially for kids who love animals. ( )
  KristinaGr | Feb 13, 2020 |
This book had my daughter trying to catch grasshoppers after we finished reading it. ( )
  Sparrowgirl | Dec 21, 2019 |
Lovely little story about Chester Cricket, Tucker the Mouse and Harry the Cat. Beautifully illustrated by Garth Williams. ( )
  DebbieMcCauley | Dec 6, 2019 |
Chester Cricket from Connecticut inadvertently ends up getting on a train to New York City and is deposited in the Times Square subway station. There he becomes the pet of Mario, the son of Italian-American newspaper stand owners, and Chester soon develops a friendship with Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat, who also live in the subway station. In addition to his sweet disposition, Chester wins hearts with the beautiful music he makes with his wings.

This book is line with other classics like Charlotte's Web. As it was published in the early 1960s, it definitely shows its age with dated references and some less-than-stellar representations of diversity. However, the overall themes of friendship and doing right by others help tip the scales in favor of this book. I've read it before, but this time I listened to the audiobook read aloud by Tony Shalhoub, who was absolutely fabulous at bringing the characters to life. ( )
  sweetiegherkin | May 9, 2019 |
A simple, charming story. Chester Cricket after becoming trapped beneath roast beef sandwiches in a picnic basket finds himself stranded in the station below Times Square. This is where Mario Belini, a struggling newspaper vendor's son, finds and adopts him. Out of gratitude and after an unfortunate string of events, Chester decides to help the Belinis somehow.

This was, if not a favorite, a well-liked story from my childhood. Chester, Tucker Mouse, and Harry Cat are a great trio and Garth Williams' illustrations are just as wonderful today as they ever were. I don't have much to say about this one, but it was good to revisit. ( )
  ManWithAnAgenda | Feb 18, 2019 |
One of my all-time favorites...the pictures are some of the best, and goes far past the "oh look at the cute talking animals!" genre. ( )
  inescapableabby | Nov 28, 2018 |
I do wish I had read this when I was a kid and not an old fuss budget - I was too distracted by the stereotyping and the dated scenario (kid working a newstand alone at night in Times Square) and most of all, the knowledge that a cricket life span is maybe a season long at most, and therefore Chester was doomed to die within moments of the story's end. That knowledge cast a pall over an otherwise charming tale I'll read to my great-niece, and recommend for children who demonstrate both blissful ignorance and a reasonably strong reading vocabulary. ( )
  Kim_Sasso | Mar 14, 2018 |
Very sweet little book, with nothing scary or traumatic for the littler ones. The papa occasionally smokes a pipe, but that is the only thing I can imagine anyone would want to skip for a little one. ( )
  eslee | Apr 29, 2017 |
Simple, gentle, kind ( )
  IC_School | Mar 17, 2017 |
Showing 1-25 of 76 (next | show all)

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (4)
0.5 1
1 7
1.5 2
2 32
2.5 2
3 162
3.5 31
4 319
4.5 33
5 256

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,203,010 books! | Top bar: Always visible