The Cricket in Times Square
Series: The Cricket in Times Square, Book 1
By: George Selden, Stacey Lee / Narrated By: Vikas Adam
Length: 3 hrs and 18 mins
Hmmm… was a favorite, is still cute, but—
I hate to admit it, cuz I do love him so, but? Vikas Adam ain’t no Master of Voices. From the get-go, I was kinda sorta rather indeed appalled. Because, you see, The Cricket in Times Square opens with one of our main characters, the worldly Tucker mouse surveying his kingdom: Er, that is, watching young boy Mario as Mario works yet another slow night selling papers and magazines at his father’s newsstand.
Awwww, he thinks to himself: Poor kid, yet another night stuck in the booth all alone.
And I wanted to ram an ice pick in m’ ears.
Vikas Adam used a truly saccharine-pitched voice for Tucker, and then he goes on to show that his choices for the other characters ain’t all that either. Harry Cat? Sounds kinda slow and dopey. Chester, our Cricket Hero, is s’posed to have a lilting and musical voice, but he just sounds normal, earning no special considerations, despite the fact that he will be turning into a musical star during the story. Mario? Just sounds desperate. And as the story progresses, Adam misses, like, practically Every. Single. Dialogue cue stated. Tucker is supposed to moan with dread? Why, he comes off sounding like he’s complaining and whining. Tucker is supposed to encourage Chester? He comes off sounding officious and DESperately unlikable.
Okay, so maybe I’ll cut Adam some slack and just funnel it down into: Tucker, the cutest mouse I ever aDOREd during my kiddyhood, is absolutely unLISTENable here. So Boooo!!!
Okay, onto the story, if you’ve not had the great good fortune to have read it: Chester the cricket, he who sang on his beloved tree stump in a meadow in Connecticut, got caught up in a picnic basket and found himself, much to his dismay, in New York City. He’s much relieved to make friends with Tucker and Harry Cat, and he allows himself to be owned by young Mario who’s always longed for a pet.
Mario constantly reminds his reluctant mother, who sees Chester as just a dirty bug, that crickets are good luck. But what follows Chester, is anything BUT good luck. He accidentally eats a $2 bill, and a shindig in the newsstand at night has Tucker getting overly excited and starting a fire, nearly burning up the family’s livelihood. Somewhat dolefully, Chester begins playing out his woes, as crickets will do, an Italian song that brings back memories to Mario’s mom and makes her suddenly more charitable, no longer shouting that Chester Must GO! Cuz o’ that fire, the last straw.
Soon, Chester is playing concerts, and he has the entire city in a tizzy, coming from far and wide to listen to him, as Mario’s mom works the crowd, selling oodles of newspapers. But is Chester happy doing this? Is he happy in the city even? I like that author George Selden weaves in threads of happiness vs. mere contentment, of freedom vs. well-intentioned duty, throughout the story.
And when all was said and done? Charming story of friendship and wanting the best for those you love. It’s just that whole Wanting To Throttle Tucker thing.
On a final note: Expect this to be a miiiiiinor revised work of the original. In the original work, Selden had Mario’s trip to Chinatown to find a cricket cage peopled with subservient individuals, much bowing submissively, and plenty of broken English. This new revised work has been derided as Woke (And WHAT is wrong with waking up to learn about how actions cause others pain?!?) since it makes the bestower of the pagoda cage an intelligent Chinese man who neither bows nor scrapes. If that’s a dealbreaker for you and you feel you MUST have stereotypes, I b’lieve there’s an earlier non-revised version that was available eeeeons ago. I have it, natch! but while my personal belief is that an opportunity for a discussion about historical racism was lost, hey!
What’s wrong with a story that flows smoothly and hurts no one?
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