Fern hears something nobody else does — a tiny cricket, hidden under the very reeds the friends are about to clear for a big building project. The cricket can't talk; it can only chirp. Fern noticed it, but she is too shy to speak up while Bongo, Garingo, and Zippy boom ahead with the plan. As the work rushes toward the cricket's hiding place, Fern has to choose: stay quiet and safe, or open her mouth for the one small voice that can't speak for itself. A first-solo-lead courage-of-conscience story about being an upstander, not a bystander — using your voice for someone who can't use theirs. Anchored in a line a mother once taught her son, who grew up to be a king, written down in the Bible to this day: open your mouth for the mute, in the cause of all who are left desolate. With Professor Hoot's Totally True Facts on the meerkat sentinel — the one small lookout who calls out for the whole family — and a Mudpuppy Minutes that explains, gloriously and confidently wrong, why crickets chirp at night. For kids ages 4-12. Stories of courage and kindness from Old Timber and the friends at Shiloh Creek.