The Quiet Book

How many different quiets can there be?

Underwood, Deborah.
The Quiet Book.
April 2010.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Review copy provided courtesy of publisher.

Have you ever stopped and wondered just how many "quiet" activities you might be able to get your child to undertake in one day? In The Quiet Book, Underwood addresses just that, sharing with readers all of the quiet moments a child is likely to experience in one day's time - from just crawling out of bed, until they are sound asleep at night. It's really very interesting when you think of all of the reasons for silence in a child's daily life.

Thinking of a good reason you were drawing on the wall quiet
Hide-and-seek quiet
Last one to get picked up from school quiet
Swimming underwater quiet
Pretending you're invisible quiet
Lollipop quiet

I don't know who will delight in this story more - children or their parents! As I was reading the book (silently, to myself, of course), I found myself imagining that I would almost read this book in a very soft, quiet, almost-whisper of a voice to give children the true effect of quiet. The illustrations are rather quite simple, almost as if to not elicit a great deal of chatter during the reading! I try to envision using this with my preschoolers, and I think it would probably be most effective during letter Qq week, or as a read aloud prior to rest-time!

Learning/Reading Activity:

• It will probably be somewhat difficult for children, but with the help of an adult, I'm sure they could pull off making a list of all of the times in which they are quiet - perhaps starting with "listening to a story" quiet. I'm sure together, you'll be able to brainstorm quite a list!
  

If you're interested in finding out more information about any of the books reviewed or if you'd like to purchase the books, click the cover image for a link to Amazon.com. I am an Amazon Affiliate, so any purchases you make after clicking these images will result in my receiving a small percentage of the sale price!