Chester Cricket's Pigeon Ride by George Selden

Chester Cricket's Pigeon Ride by George Selden

Chester Cricket--the famous cricket in Times Square--is homesick. When his friend Mario takes him to a sky show at the Planetarium, Chester realizes how much he misses seeing real stars at night.

Happily, he finds his way out of the subway into Times Square, where he meets a new friend, Lulu Pigeon. Lulu takes him on a trip beyond his wildest dreams. From Central Park to the top of the Empire State Building, from the Statue of Liberty and back to Times Square, Chester sees Manhattan in style--and even finds a little bit of country in the city!

George Selden (1929-1989) was the author of A Cricket in Times Square, a timeless children's classic that won the Newbery Honor in 1961. Selden was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and obtained his B.A. from Yale University. He received his bachelor's degree from Yale, where he was a member of the Elizabethan Club and wrote to the literary magazine. He attended Columbia University for three summer sessions and received a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Rome for a year after graduation. Selden was frequently asked where he got the concept for The Cricket in Times Square.

I was riding the train home one night and heard a cricket chirp in the Times Square subway station. Within minutes, the story began to emerge in my imagination. Minutes like this are extremely valuable to an author, despite the fact that they occur far too infrequently. Tucker's Countryside and The Old Meadow are two of the seven novels in the popular Cricket series.

The Cricket in Times Square was adapted into an animated feature in 1973. Selden published around fifteen books and two plays during his lifetime. His stories combine the fantastic with everyday life, and he felt it was critical that his animal characters express genuine emotions and feelings.