The Quiet Book [Hardcover]

Amazon Best Books of the Month, April 2010: Give Goodnight Moon and Goodnight Gorilla  the night off and pick up this new bedtime classic. This pitch-perfect picture book by Deborah Underwood and illustrator Renata Liwska will quell the pre-bedtime crazies. With the softest of opening salvos--"There are many kinds of quiet"--the story reflects all the different peaceful moments during the day, like "Coloring in the lines quiet," "Hide and seek quiet," and of course "Bedtime kiss quiet." The repetitive pattern of the text paired with softly colored illustrations of adorable stuffed animals is better than a lullaby. --Lauren Nemroff


Starred Review. Kindergarten-Grade 1—This gentle picture book subtly explores the many different kinds of "quiet." Bears, rabbits, porcupines, mice, owls, moose, and wombats are depicted in situations that effectuate the notion of quiet throughout the daily life of a young child. For example, the "first one awake quiet" shows a rabbit doing his morning stretches. In "Right before you yell, 'SURPRISE!' quiet," three animal friends crouch behind a couch. "Making a wish quiet" presents a contemplative porcupine sitting on a stool wearing a party hat. A bear and a rabbit playing tag with the waves at the beach symbolize, "Best friends don't need to talk quiet." The soft, matte feel of the illustrations, created with pencil, are digitally enhanced, and are priceless. The animals' facial expressions and body language are endearing. White space is used creatively to emphasize the mostly gray or brown palette. All of the scenarios are child-centric and realistic. A delightful and enchanting choice for storytime or sharing one-on-one.—Anne Beier, Hendrick Hudson Free Library, Montrose, NY
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This review is from: The Quiet Book (Hardcover)

The Quiet Book is a precious collection of *different kinds of quiet* such as coloring-in-the-lines-quiet and trying-not-to-hiccup-quiet. The illustrations are a soft palate of earthy pastels and the child-animals are absolutely adorable. There are a couple of reasons why I truly love this book and would highly recommend. 1) It's an entertaining way to help children notice when quiet arises naturally. 2) This book encourages children to discover the emotions behind different kinds of quiet - be it contentment or nervousness, excitement or silent awe. It also makes a perfect gift for the friend in your life (no matter how old) who might need a meditation on quiet and where it can be found. In a world of ever-increasing noise and stimulus, this book is a very special one.

This review is from: The Quiet Book (Hardcover)

This is a wondrous book about all the different kinds of quiet there are for kids. Happy quiets and worried quiets, scared quiets and "was I being naughty?" quiets.

I have to declare an interest, since I am Deborah Underwood's brother in law. Which means I have had the privilege of knowing the book for many years in draft form (you have NO idea how long it takes for children's picture books to come out.)

The book has always been brilliant but I didn't imagine how great the pictures would be to go with it.

In short I think this is a great book and I don't think you or your children will be disappointed