The Very Quiet Cricket

Product Information

From bestselling author and illustrator Eric Carle, the creator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, comes another classic tale about one very quiet cricket. The Very Quiet Cricket is about a quiet cricket who dreams of rubbing his wings together so he can talk to other animals but he cant talk to them yet and he does not know why. At the end of the book, the little cricket comes across another cricket that is very quiet, a girl cricket.

While it's kind of cute and pleasant for the first loop, after that it really becomes grating and I found it distracting. This possibly makes him The Speechless or Cute Mute throughout the story, though he's definitely this at the beginning of the story.As children turn the page on this wonderful moment, they are greeted with a surprise—an actual chirp! For yes and honestly, if I had encountered the presented narrative of The Very Quiet Cricket as a child, in other words when I was the age of Eric Carle’s intended audience, I would almost certainly be totally wondering why if ALL of the other insects (and the worm) are able to make sounds, are able to converse with and greet the young cricket (including an older cricket, including a member of the young cricket’s own species), why is the young cricket then not able to respond, why is the cricket not able to make any kind of sound at all until at the very end of The Very Quiet Cricket (when the very quiet cricket meets another similarly aged cricket and starts chirping).

With themes of individuality, this The Very Quiet Cricket picture book by Eric Carle is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. But albeit that Eric Carle’s illustrations have certainly and also most definitely been a total visual delight for my eyes and for my aesthetics, the text for The Very Quiet Cricket is in my humble opinion rather potentially majorly confusing for younger readers or listeners.

One day, a cricket is born, and he goes out into the world, meeting new insects who all make noises in greeting to him. The quiet cricket then makes his way into the world, meeting one insect after another, each of whom greets the little cricket with a cheery hello–the hum of a bee, the whirr of a dragonfly, the whisper of a praying mantis. His technique of decorating the paper he uses for his collages is so distinctive and beautiful that you wouldn’t think he needed any gimmicks; but when you get to the last page, be prepared for a chirpy surprise.