'LEAVE THAT CRICKET BE, ALAN LEE'

Like Barbara Dugan's (above), a book that asks the question: ``Can an insect find happiness in a jar?'' (and from the same publisher, yet). When he hears a cricket chirping, Alan Lee is determined to catch it—especially after great-uncle Clem tells him about making cricket cages as a boy in China, and that ``It's a lucky house that has crickets.'' Despite his reservations (see title), Dad helps Alan Lee fix up a jar; but when he finally catches the cricket, it doesn't take long for its silence and evident unhappiness to make the boy let it go, so that it sings once more. Porte's rather long narrative, propelled by plenty of lively realistic dialogue, artfully reveals a lot about this nice family's interaction; Ruff's tall, slim, beautifully composed illustrations, rendered in pastels and colored pencils, make an admirably warm complement to a story that's as well told as Dugan's, and more appealingly illustrated. (Picture book. 4-8)