Rating: Not for me

Reading Level: Early Elementary


I wanted to read The Cricket in Times Square because it is an old classic and our children’s librarian recommended it to us. The story is overall quite lovely about a cricket who helps a family in a NY subway by playing beautiful music. Although there are some sweet themes about love, sacrifice, loyalty, the fleeting and unfulfilling nature of fame, I would not let this book live in my home. 

Concerns:

  • Idols, Eastern Gods, Paganism. Statues of goddesses smile at the main character, and he comments that it looks like they know a secret. He has trouble looking away. Second, there is mention of “nature” giving the cricket his chirp, and I prefer to attribute that to the creator God. Third, as with many kids stories, there is mention of luck in a few places.  Finally, a major chunk of the book is a Chinese storekeeper telling a legend about how crickets began. He says crickets weren’t around initially but there was a man who knew all truth & spoke the truth & pleased the gods. When evil men didn’t like what he had to say, they planned to hurt him; the gods spared him by turning him into a cricket.
  • Kid safety. The boy travels to Chinatown by himself.

There are some good themes:

  • Fame does not satisfy. The cricket longs for home & gives up his burgeoning fame to return to the country.
  • Sacrificial love. The boy shows true (sacrificial) love when he supports the cricket leaving even when he prefers he stay.

I might check it out from the library and read it out loud to my kiddos & sensor the parts mentioned above so as to talk about what fulfills us and what true love looks like. Some families may like to spin some of these issues into conversations about culture and folklore. I might read it out loud and skip the parts that seemed extra pagan.