Tony Shalhoub Does Times Square’s Smallest Citizen

I love a good city mouse/country mouse story. Even when it’s more of a city mouse/country cricket story.

With families gearing up for road trips this summer, I’ve been packing up on audiobooks that are good for the whole family – city or country. And when I heard Tony Shalhoub had signed on to read one of my old favorites, George Selden’s The Cricket in Times Square, I had to give it a listen.

Good news: it’s Tony Shalhoub as Chester Cricket and Tucker Mouse, not Tony Shalhoub as kooky detective (as much as we love him). So your kids will fall in love with the Times Square tourist and his streetwise new friends rather than feeling like they need to wash their hands six times (the same exact way each time, natch) after hearing this story. Shalhoub takes you – and Chester – to old Broadway and back to the little newsstand where a cricket learns to hold his own in the big city.

The 1960 novel has stood the test of time, although all the print is dead talk of late means you might want to play this for your kids NOW so you can explain what a newsstand is and actually show them a real life example.

Get it from Amazon.

Image: Yahoo

And check out more music goodies:

7 Days of Dad: Music to his Ears

Play Miffy for Me