This book is about a country cricket named Chester who gets accidentally carried to NYC in a picnic basket. He meets up with a little boy, Mario, who keeps him as a pet, and with two city-toughened friends, Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat. The three animals (or, more accurately, non-humans) take up a mission – to help Mario’s family, who run a fairly unsuccessful newsstand in the Times Square subway station. So the animals scheme, and I have to say the end was almost touching, in a very young way.

So it’s definitely a kid’s book, but I don’t regret reading it. It was light, simple, and there’s really not much else to say about it. The only thing I didn’t really like was the stereotyped Chinese men, but the book was published in 1960, so I can understand even if I don’t particularly like Selden’s characterization. But overall, this was fun, and I think Morrigan (and maybe Ambrose, too) is going to read it next.