Read Aloud Thursday // The Cricket in Times Square

We finished The Cricket in Times Square today at lunch and I gave a great sigh of enjoyment at the end of this one. Such a fun trip down memory lane, reading this one to the girls.

This is the delightful story of Chester Cricket, who inadvertently finds himself transported to New York City (Grand Central Station, no less!) smushed underneath some sandwiches in a picnic basket. He is found by Mario, a young boy who’s parents own a newspaper stand in the station. Mario’s mama is sure that the cricket is going to bring the bad luck, and while a few unfortunate incidents do happen, all ends well for the cricket and the family. Chester is befriended by a street-wise mouse named Tucker and a gentle cat named Harry (maybe my favorite character besides Chester, of course). : )

This is the first read-aloud we finished in my attempt to bring back chapter book reading to our lunchtimes. The boy is now old enough that he can manage his lunch on his own (provided he doesn’t start one of his favorite tricks of throwing food which I’m trying to nip in the bud!) This leaves my hands free to read to the girls while they eat and we’ve all enjoyed adding this back into our noon routine. The chapters in this are short enough that I could generally read two in one sitting before lunches were finished and littlest girls were ready to be excused and run around the house a few laps to get some wiggles out.

Two thumbs up from our crew on this one! For more read-aloud inspiration, visit Amy at Hope is the Word!