Hehe, I don´t know how it felt to hold the mantis in the hand but my sister has held a lot of different animals in her hands so I guess it was nothing special for her :) Plus she already saw some mantises before, unlike me...
Well, chirping sound... I don´t know. Here in my country, it´s just the crickets and the cicadas who make some chirping sounds in the night but who knows, maybe the mantises can join the concert too :D :)