This time of year, we always find a few crickets in the house. Here are two great classic picture books for read aloud enjoyment.
Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood is one of those books you will find in a lot of preschool and kindergarten classrooms. It recently came out in a board book edition for the youngest readers. In the book a young child pretends to be all sorts of animals. The illustrations by Don Wood are silly and imaginative. The child is shown hiding in a seashell, and leading a tiger in the dark. The text has a simple rhythm “I’m as quick as a cricket”, “I’m as slow as a snail”. The repetition in the text also makes this a great book for beginning readers. And it’s a great introduction of the concept of opposites. At the end of the book the child is looking at pictures of all the different animals. The child proclaims, “Put it all together and you’ve got me”.
You will also find The Very Quiet Cricket and other Eric Carle books in classrooms. Carle is known for his unique illustrations. He paints tissue paper, then creates collage from those painted papers and more paint. In The Very Quiet, a little cricket is born. A big cricket rubs his wings together and tells him “Welcome!”. The little cricket wants to answer, but when he rubs his wings together, nothing happens. A locust greets him, and the little cricket tries to answer. But again, his wings make no sound. Many other insects greet him through the day, a spittlebug, a cicada, a dragonfly, mosquitoes, and more. It’s not until the end of the book, when our very quiet cricket meets another very quiet cricket that his wings make a beautiful sound. What’s so magical about this book is that it has a small device that actually makes a cricket chirping sound as the child turns that last page over! I’ve never seen a small child yet who wasn’t enchanted with this book.
Also See:
“From Head To Toe” by Eric Carle
Top 10 Read-Alouds for Infants and Toddlers
The Napping House – Audrey Wood
Top Ten Picture Books for Preschoolers