Customer Reviews

Quick As a Cricket (Child's Play Library)

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a primary school teacher, and Audry Wood's "Quick as a Cricket" has been a long time favorite of mine to read with my students. I ordered the board book format for my 10 month old as a stocking stuffer. I was surprised to find that this is an "abridged" version of the story. Some of the pages are missing, and half the artwork has been excluded to squeeze the story onto as few pages as possible. One of my favorite activities to do with this book is to find all the objects in the little boy's room that he refers to throughout the story (the stuffed animals, photos, etc.) and of course the children always love to see their own reflection on the last page. These pages have both been excluded in the board book. Such a shame, so much of the charm of this book and the beautiful artwork is lost in this abbreviated version. I am sure my little one, who is a junior bibliophile already, will love the book, but I will have to buy a complete version for our lap-time reading.

Don't waste your money- get the full version in hardback or paper book!

This lovely book has won the heart of my 2 year old daughter. She requests the "cricket book" perhaps a little too often :-). I do really enjoy reading the quick paced, bouncy rhyming style of Audrey Wood. She is one of my favorite children's authors and with her husband Don Wood, they have created beautifully illustrated pages to go along with it. It is colorful, fun, interesting, and predictable enough so that the toddler can help you finish the sentences and join in the story FUN!

My son eyes new books suspiciously - almost like I was trying to sneak a new child into the house without checking with him first. His books are a closed circle of friends and he loves the familiar, well worn pages that he can rattle off by heart. So I was amazed when he took to this book immediately and with gusto, rattling off the animal names within days. Quick as a cricket, slow as a snail, small as an ant, large as a whale, ...there are sad bassetts, happy larks, tame poodles, busy bees, lazy lizards, tough rhinos...you name it. This books has the essential ingredients for every toddler book - beautiful artwork, rhyme and rhythm to the words, and interesting characters to capture little imaginations. I love the Woods but not all their books are for tots this age since they can get a little bizarre sometimes. This ranks right up there in the book world the way Raffi does in the music world of toddlers!

I love this book. My boys love this book. We read it on a daily basis multiple times. My 3 year old can practically read it to his little brother. I actually went to a short literacy class on books for children and they read this one as an example of a good selection. It is very simple with large pictures, but is great for introducing comparisons and adjectives. ("I'm as quick as a cricket") It's simplicity is appealing yet it also uses words that are a little less common in a preschooler's vocabulary. All around one of our favorites!

Don and Audrey Wood are quickly becoming my favorite creators of picture books for toddlers. "The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear" has been a must-read since the day my 3-year old daughter found it at the bookstore; when we went looking for more, we found "Quick as a Cricket." My daughter made me read it to her six times before she let me up from the bookstore bench to go buy it for her. The intense likeability of the Little Mouse style has been taken up a notch into a wide variety of animals, as the boy of the story changes and shifts to match each new companion. The words are simple, but rhythmic and rhyming. While it's not as funny as "Little Mouse," the rapture of reading it with my daughter has not faded. "Quick as a Cricket" is a definite classic, and one that will last the decades.

This book reminds me of some of the books that I loved as a child. Books where an adult finally "gets it" and understands that sometimes I'm as loud as a lion and sometimes I'm as shy as a shrimp. Books where the words are good but the pictures can be even better. The pictures can stimulate the imagination in so many ways.

Quick as a Cricket is well loved by my Cousin's one year old little girl. It is one of the few books that she brings to me to read on a regular basis. Other books she loses interest in after a few pages but this one we read three and four times in a row.

Kids love this book because the pictures are so captivating.
Adults love this book because the words just ROLL off of your tongue, and the pictures are so capivating.
Teachers love this book because the vocabulary is predictable, yet challenging. It is a great book for teaching early readers. And then there are those illustrations......

This book teaches, entertains, AND put the reader in awe. It is a gorgeous piece of work!

My kids enjoyed this book and, as a speech therapist, I love using this book for language lessons for ages 3-7. The younger ones enjoy the story and get in some practice using opposites. With the older ones, I have them practice using comparisons (I'm as ___ as a ____)after hearing the story. I've even used it in a K-1 Sunday School class for teaching the idea of how a person feels differently at different times.

This was the book that I grew up with and learned to read by. It's a great book for children because of the repetitions and cute illustrations. Children who can't even read can look at the pictures and recite the book for you. A definate must.

I got this book for my son, when he was three years old. And it's been his favorite book ever since. At age 5, he still asks for it at least once a week.

The pictures are great and the child is drawn in a gender-neutral way that lets each child relate to the story as they want. I've given this one as a gift several times, and the boys always assume the character is a boy and the girls see a girl.

The story reinforces the concept that we can all be different ways at the same time -- and that ability is to be celebrated.