Snoutz Adventures

Sophies’s second favorite book that takes place in New York City, after From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler—which takes place in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden and Garth Williams (illustrator). You can figure out where that one takes place! She tells Mitzi all about her book selections, and she borrowed it from the library and loved it too. Read Amazon’s blurb here. One night, the sounds of New York City—the rumbling of subway trains, thrumming of automobile tires, hooting of horns, howling of brakes, and the babbling of voices is interrupted by a sound that even Tucker Mouse, a jaded inhabitant of Times Square, has never heard before. Mario, the son of Mama and Papa Bellini, proprietors of the subway station newsstand, had only heard the sound once. What was this new, strangely musical chirping? None other than the mellifluous leg-rubbing of the somewhat disoriented Chester Cricket from Connecticut. Attracted by the irresistible smell of liverwurst, Chester had foolishly jumped into the picnic basket of some unsuspecting New Yorkers on a junket to the country. Despite the insect’s wurst intentions he ends up in a pile of dirt in Times Square. Mario is elated to find Chester. He begs his parents to let him keep the shiny insect in the newsstand, assuring his bug-fearing mother than crickets are harmless, maybe even good luck. What ensues is an altogether captivating spin on thr city mouse/country mouse story, as Chester adjusts to the bustle of the big city. Despite the cricket’s comfortable matchbox bed (with Kleenex sheets); the fancy, seven-tiered pagoda cricket cage from Sai Fong’s novelty shop; tasty mulberry leaves; the jolly company of Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat; and even his new-found fame as “the most famous musician in New York City,” Chester begins to miss his peaceful life in the Connecticut countryside. The Cricket in Times Square—a Newbery Award runner-up in 1961—is charmingly illustrated by the well-loved Garth Williams, and the tiniest details of this elegantly spun, vividly told, surprisingly suspenseful tale will stick with children for years and years. Make sure this classic sits on the shelf of your favorite child, right next to The Wind in the Willow (ages 9 to 12). …And Sophie adds, next to Pipper’s Secret Ingredient!

Can you recommend a children’s book that takes place in New York City? Please share your book selections in our comments.

When Pipper told Sophie all about her trip on the New York City Metro’s #6 subway to Katz’s Deli and her experience in New York, Sophie thought of two of her favorite books that take place in the Big Apple. The first book is From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg, which takes place in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Sophie said her book group at the library raved about it and made it one of their official book selections. This book gets 5 stars from Sophie! Here’s what Amazon says about it. …  When suburban Claudia Kincaid decides to run away, she knows she doesn’t just want to run from somewhere she wants to run to somewhere—to a place that is comfortable, beautiful, and preferably elegant. She chooses the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. She invites her younger brother Jamie along (he’s got the cash). Once settled into the museum, Claudia and Jamie find themselves caught up in the mystery of an angel statue that the museum purchased at an auction for a bargain price of $250. The statue is possibly an early work of the Renaissance master Michelangelo, and therefore worth millions. Is it? Or isn’t it? Claudia is determined to find out. This quest leads Claudia to Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the remarkable old woman who sold the statue.

Do you have any books to recommend about The Metropolitan Museum or about particular works of art? Please share in our comments.