SIGNED BY ERIC CARLE WITH A DRAWING OF A CRICKET

CARLE, Eric. The Very Quiet Cricket. New York: Philomel, (1990). Oblong quarto, original pictorial boards. $950.

"Scholastic Book Club Edition," later printing, signed on the title page by Carle with a drawing of a cricket.

A charming, wonderfully illustrated fable of a cricket's search for his chirp. "A small cricket hatches 'one warm day,' and the other insects greet him. Though the little guy wants very much to respond, nothing happens when he rubs his wings together. Finally, as night falls, he spies another cricket and attempts to greet her. 'And this time . . . he chirped the most beautiful sound that she had ever heard.' As usual, Carle's art is lovely and his story is simple and satisfying"(Publishers Weekly). Turning the last page once activated a chirping microchip, but—thirty-five years later—many of the chips, like this one, have become quite, quite quiet.

A few spots of mild soiling to text, boards with wear along front spine fold. An extremely good copy.