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The Cricket Winter
Simms Silvanus is nine years old and enormously wise. He knows more about volcanoes than his father knows about business, and more about electromagnetic fields than anyone in his class. His ideas to improve things are amazing! Yet nobody -- not even his parents -- will listen to him.
A cricket is living a solitary life beneath the floorboards in Simms' room. His bride-to-be has left him after a fight, and in his loneliness he turns for companionship to the other creatures who live underground. Soon he finds himself involved in their struggle for survival.
Everything changes one winter day when Simms and Cricket discover they can communicate with each other. Through Morse code, the two tell of their troubles, listen to each other's ideas and together learn that it's sometimes difficult to do the right thing.
Reissued with charming new illustrations, this beloved classic is sure to delight a new generation of readers.
~ from hardcover dustjacket
A cricket is living a solitary life beneath the floorboards in Simms' room. His bride-to-be has left him after a fight, and in his loneliness he turns for companionship to the other creatures who live underground. Soon he finds himself involved in their struggle for survival.
Everything changes one winter day when Simms and Cricket discover they can communicate with each other. Through Morse code, the two tell of their troubles, listen to each other's ideas and together learn that it's sometimes difficult to do the right thing.
Reissued with charming new illustrations, this beloved classic is sure to delight a new generation of readers.
~ from hardcover dustjacket
91 pages, Hardcover
First published November 30, 1966
3 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
About the author
Felice Holman
39 books6 followersFelice Holman was born October 24, 1919, in New York City. She graduated from Syracuse University in 1941 and later worked as an advertising copywriter. She married Herbert Valen in 1941 and some of the experiences of their daughter, Nanine Elisabeth Valen, would serve as the model for her first book, Elisabeth, The Bird Watcher, which was published in 1963.
During the 1960s, she published two more "Elisabeth" stories and wrote some humorous books for children. In 1970, she published her first book of poetry for children: At the Top of My Voice. Critics praised the poems for their "originality, humor, and point." She continued to write humorous stories for young readers, including The Escape of the Giant Hogstalk (1974) that critics called filled "with giggles interspersed with horse laughs all the way."
In the 1970s, she also began writing realistic fiction for young adults. Her book Slake's Limbo (1974), the story of a boy who lives in a cave below Grand Central Station, was lauded for its "authenticity of detail" and as "remarkably taut" and "convincing." In 1975, she co-wrote The Drac: French Tales of Dragons and Demons, a collection of French legends with her daughter, Nanine Valen.
Throughout her long and prolific career, Felice Holman has received several honors, including a Lewis Carroll Shelf Award for young adult's literature and an American Library Association notable book citation for Slake's Limbo in 1978. Felice lives in California.
During the 1960s, she published two more "Elisabeth" stories and wrote some humorous books for children. In 1970, she published her first book of poetry for children: At the Top of My Voice. Critics praised the poems for their "originality, humor, and point." She continued to write humorous stories for young readers, including The Escape of the Giant Hogstalk (1974) that critics called filled "with giggles interspersed with horse laughs all the way."
In the 1970s, she also began writing realistic fiction for young adults. Her book Slake's Limbo (1974), the story of a boy who lives in a cave below Grand Central Station, was lauded for its "authenticity of detail" and as "remarkably taut" and "convincing." In 1975, she co-wrote The Drac: French Tales of Dragons and Demons, a collection of French legends with her daughter, Nanine Valen.
Throughout her long and prolific career, Felice Holman has received several honors, including a Lewis Carroll Shelf Award for young adult's literature and an American Library Association notable book citation for Slake's Limbo in 1978. Felice lives in California.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 10, 2019
Simms Silvanus is a 9 year old genius who often feels overlooked by his parents. Meanwhile, in the crawlspace of Simms' home lives a cricket and his new bride. The newlyweds get in a heated debate one night when the topic of how to raise their future children comes up. The cricket's wife runs back to her parents' house (all the way up in the attic LOL). Hurting and lonely, the cricket gets the idea to explore the crawlspace further. There he discovers other critters -- mice, spiders, ants -- who also habitate part of the Silvanus home. Around this time, Cricket also finds that he and Simms have a way to communicate, using the system of Morse code.
Not only do the two begin to converse in Morse regarding their unique emotional stressors, but Cricket realizes he can also enlist Simms' help with a problem plaguing his new crawlspace friends --- the rat, Hostis, who also lives under the house who keeps raiding the winter food supplies of the others!
The story itself is cute -- the animals have some funny convos -- but in the end just kind of okay. This is one you check out mainly for the adorable illustrations done by Robyn Thomas. On that note though, if you are reading this with really little ones about, the illustrations could possibly be minorly disturbing if your wee one is especially sensitive to images / sketches of rodents or creepy-crawlies.
Not only do the two begin to converse in Morse regarding their unique emotional stressors, but Cricket realizes he can also enlist Simms' help with a problem plaguing his new crawlspace friends --- the rat, Hostis, who also lives under the house who keeps raiding the winter food supplies of the others!
The story itself is cute -- the animals have some funny convos -- but in the end just kind of okay. This is one you check out mainly for the adorable illustrations done by Robyn Thomas. On that note though, if you are reading this with really little ones about, the illustrations could possibly be minorly disturbing if your wee one is especially sensitive to images / sketches of rodents or creepy-crawlies.
December 15, 2020
I begin to think of Felice Holman, a fairly newly discovered author for me, as a bookend for Dodie Smith, the creator of '101 Dalmatians.' Holman too has that unique gift for creating imaginary animal viewpoints--in this case that of a cricket--without making them sound cutesy, maudlin or trite. This is a superlative little story of the micro-community of animals within a house's foundation, of a very clever nine-year-old boy, and how cricket and boy manage to communicate and save the day. And this is a relatively new edition, copyrighted 2003, with updated illustrations. I've never been sure how much I care for pointillism (i.e. the use of dots to form artistic images), but illustrator Robyn Thomas does manage to create two or three pictures that appeal to me.
November 28, 2024
I loved so much of this book. The illustrations are lovely. However, the resolution to the problem seemed cruel, especially for children just starting chapter books.
Not a complete fail, just one I won't recommend or read to my grandchildren.
Not a complete fail, just one I won't recommend or read to my grandchildren.
March 21, 2023
I'd heard Holman considered this her favorite book of hers. Love that idea — definitely comes through in gentle, loving writing.
April 1, 2015
The Cricket Winter is a quaint tale of a cricket that communicates with a boy through Morse code, and the story is an odd, yet imaginative tale of a cricket, mouse family, mole, spider, rat and boy that share a living space.
Each character was supplied a unique voice. The group of animals faces the dilemma of what to do about a greedy and insensitive rat. The animals try to ostracize the rat, but he could care less. The creatures have a meeting. The mice face starvation if a solution to the problem is not found. There is little debate over the solution. The rat must die. The only thing hindering them is an inability to discover a method that will work.
Horrified at the idea of killing the rat, the cricket comes to terms with the proposed solution. He collaborates with the boy to kill the rat. If the boy succeeds in setting a trap to kill the rat, he hopes his father will be sufficiently impressed to listen to the boy’s intellectual musings, and the cricket would save his friends.
The story is fairly sedate. I am disturbed at the solution. The book is targeted at children in grades 3-6. It proposes killing the antagonist with little consideration or moral qualms. I do not recommend this book.
Each character was supplied a unique voice. The group of animals faces the dilemma of what to do about a greedy and insensitive rat. The animals try to ostracize the rat, but he could care less. The creatures have a meeting. The mice face starvation if a solution to the problem is not found. There is little debate over the solution. The rat must die. The only thing hindering them is an inability to discover a method that will work.
Horrified at the idea of killing the rat, the cricket comes to terms with the proposed solution. He collaborates with the boy to kill the rat. If the boy succeeds in setting a trap to kill the rat, he hopes his father will be sufficiently impressed to listen to the boy’s intellectual musings, and the cricket would save his friends.
The story is fairly sedate. I am disturbed at the solution. The book is targeted at children in grades 3-6. It proposes killing the antagonist with little consideration or moral qualms. I do not recommend this book.
November 23, 2011
In the beginning this is a sweet story about a nine year old boy who learns how to communicate with a cricket via morse code. The plot takes a dark turn when the cricket and his friends decide to murder their housemate, a rat. The rat has been eating more than his fair share of the food supply, and his furry housemates worry they will die of starvation. The book's message is disturbing, especially because the characters who arrange the murder are all adorable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 3, 2015
Cute. I can see young boys trying to learn Morse code to speak with their local crickets!
March 11, 2008
A sweet story about love and the power of communication.
June 1, 2009
this book is about a boy and under his house live a bunch of animals and insects who learn to communicate with him by mourse code
August 18, 2016
I literally found this on my bookshelf just now... will give it a look-see...
February 9, 2015
a heart warming little book
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews