{"id":1924,"date":"2010-04-22T00:01:46","date_gmt":"2010-04-22T06:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1924"},"modified":"2010-04-22T00:02:31","modified_gmt":"2010-04-22T06:02:31","slug":"shhhhhhh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1924","title":{"rendered":"Shhhhhhh…<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“Pretending you’re invisible quiet \/ Lollipop quiet”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread.)<\/center><\/p>\n

It’s hard to say why a book about the wildly different types of quiet that fill a child’s day is so hysterical to me and why it’s one of my favorite picture books I’ve seen all year. And that’s because it’s really the subtlety in both the writing and illustrations that gets me. And expert, comedically-timed subtlety is hard to describe to another. <\/p>\n

But let me back up a bit first and tell you what I’m talking about. I’m talking about Deborah Underwood’s<\/a><\/strong> The Quiet Book<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (released this month by Houghton Mifflin), illustrated by Canadian Renata Liwska<\/a><\/strong> and pictured here. Do you like how they’re being so quiet that they even have to whisper the author’s and illustrator’s name on the back cover (pictured at the bottom of this post)? And the book is exactly what I described above: A catalog of the many types of quiet in a wee one’s day, which Kirkus<\/em> has described as “soothing and layered,” Booklist<\/em> adding,
“{t}he most moving scenes leave space for imagining.” We all might expect “Sleeping sister quiet” and “Hide-and-seek quiet,” but it’s when Underwood and Liwska surprise us with something like this… <\/p>\n

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…that you might have heard me hooting from Tennessee. I’m sorry: That look on his face. Very funny. This is a quiet to which folks—and wood creatures—of all ages can appreciate. And did you really take a look at the spread opening this post? That’s probably my favorite, and it really resonated with my own two wee kids, who have tremendous needle-fears, as …well, all<\/em> kids do. And all the creatively-placed bandages on the creatures on the right side of the spread? Again, funny stuff. <\/p>\n

What Underwood has managed to do in this title, which is stuffed with charm and humor and good cheer, is really tap into the emotions of children. There’s some misbehaving, followed by remorse (“Thinking of a good reason you were drawing on the wall quiet”); some awkwardness and humiliation (“Others telling secrets quiet”); some ungainliness (“Jelly side down quiet,” as a distraught rabbit realizes he’s lost his only chance at his piece of toast); some hushed contemplation (“Don’t scare the robin quiet” and “Best friends don’t need to talk quiet”); and much more. I mean, really: The first spread in this post tells you everything you need to know about Underwood’s understanding of children. Don’t you know that lollipop at the doc’s makes it ALL BETTER? And, yes, there’s always a sort of hushed reverence and holiness swirling around the consumption of said lollipop. Especially after one’s skin has so impertinently been punctured with something so sharp.<\/p>\n

Speaking of hushing, I’m going to do that now and just let you take in some more art from the book. Enjoy. But be quiet about it already. …Oh, and a little birdy told me there may be The Loud Book<\/em> coming one day to a bookstore or library near you. This I look forward to. Underwood and Liwska make magic when they team up. (And—speaking of their magical powers of subtlety, as I did earlier—check out the background goings-on in the “Trying not to hiccup quiet” spread, pictured below.)<\/p>\n

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“Too many bubbles quiet \/ Story time quiet”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread.)<\/center><\/p>\n

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Book’s full dustjacket; Click to enlarge.<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

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What You’ll See If You Bother to Lift Up the Dustjacket; Click to enlarge.<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

* * * * * * *<\/center><\/p>\n

THE QUIET BOOK. Copyright \u00a9 2010 by Deborah Underwood. Illustration copyright \u00a9 2010 by Renata Liwska. Published by Houghton Mifflin, Boston, Mass. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Pretending you’re invisible quiet \/ Lollipop quiet”(Click to enlarge spread.) It’s hard to say why a book about the wildly different types of quiet that fill a child’s day is so hysterical to me and why it’s one of my favorite picture books I’ve seen all year. And that’s because it’s really the subtlety in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}