Where the Crickets Sing

Where the Crickets Sing is an engaging read-aloud for the whole family. Enjoy the fun, adventures and dramas of a modern day ‘pioneering’ family as they make their home in a 90-year-old barn and begin home-steading in rural N.Z.

Going on the pony trek to the beach is a dream come true for twelve-year-old Milly— trekking over high hills, swimming Peony in the sea, galloping along the beach. But when tragedy strikes, the excitement turns to tears.

Adventures, dramas, laughter and some tears are all part of the rich tapestry of the Boom family’s third year of living in their ninety-year-old barn. Milly’s days are full to the brim as she cares for her animals, milks her cow, enjoys adventures with her brothers and sisters, and helps Mum and Dad build the new family home. She is as happy as a cricket. But that doesn’t stop her lying awake at night, dreaming of hitching Peony to a wagon, climbing into the high wagon seat and picking up the reins…

Where the Crickets Sing, the third book in The Barn Chronicles series, invites the reader to join the Boom family in another year of homesteading in rural New Zealand.
The first book in the series, Where Lions Roar at Night, won the 2010 CALEB prize for Best Children’s Book, and the sequel, Where Arrows Fly was awarded the same prize in 2011.

“The Barn Chronicles are the best books I have ever read! They are full of fun, adventures, celebrations, broken legs, and heaps more! I would love to live in a barn like that and live on that property with a river, animals, swings, eels and everything else!” Maria (10)

“There is something about reading about life in the Boom’s barn that creates the warmest of family bonds. I can’t really describe it, but it’s there.” Veronica (mother)