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CRICKET AND SPARROW by Edward Bartholic

CRICKET AND SPARROW

By

Pub Date: April 30th, 1979
Publisher: Collins

In the first of these four little episodes, Cricket dissuades Sparrow from eating him by scratching Sparrow's back; that makes them friends. Then, with much repetition of phrases for novice readers, Sparrow looks and looks for Cricket and finds him at the mountain top trying to gather cotton from the clouds. Says Sparrow to cheer him, ""Let's pretend the clouds are made of cotton. . . . It's all right to pretend if we don't try to fool people."" Next, Cricket decides to visit Sparrow in his thicket, and his presence there prompts more rhymes--about a toad in the road, a mouse in the house, and a fly in the sky. Conventionally, the book ends with a ""wonderful"" picnic, for which Cricket forgets to buy his ingredients but provides the music instead. Tame and true to formula, with nostalgic decorations that discourage participation.