Crickets in the Kitchen

We are having a home invasion of crickets. During the day, they are quiet, but every night is a raucous cricket symphony. They especially love the kitchen. The crickets remind me of summer breezes and cool evening walks, except I can sit right here in my office and experience a full range of cricket harmonies. There are no "Quiet Cricket" relatives living in this house! They have all found their wings.

The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle is one of my children's favorite books. The story is as follows:

One warm day a little cricket is born. He is welcomed by a very big cricket who is trying to teach the little cricket to say hello. The little cricket tries to rub his wings together, but nothing happens, not one little sound.

He is greeted throughout the day by various other insects. A locust whizzes by, then a praying mantis. But even though the little cricket tries to answer them, he can never make a sound. Next he comes upon a worm, a spittlebug and a cicada. Each of them greets the tiny little cricket. The little cricket really wants to say hello, but he just can't get the sound to come out. He is not discouraged. The little cricket keeps practicing all day long to say hello to each different insect that he meets.

The little cricket is enjoying the silence that the night brings when a luna moth sails quietly by. Then he sees another cricket, who is also a very quiet little cricket just like him. This time all of his practice pays off. When he rubs his wings together, he begins to chirp! It is the most beautiful sound the other little cricket had ever heard.

Eric Carle has illustrated the insects to be very realistic looking. At the end of the book, there is a mechanism that makes the cricket chirp. It sounds exactly like an actual cricket.

This is a beautiful book and a great summer read for preschool age children, or you could always just stop by my house and enjoy a noisy summer cricket serenade!