The Quiet Book & The Loud Book!

The Quiet Book, by Deborah Underwood, illustrations by Renata Liwska, Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (April 2010)


First of all I must say that I've been following Renata Liwska's work for quite some time now: since when, just for a fortunate chance, I bumped into her blog and fell in love with her illustrations. Her way of portraying animals has a certain nostalgic and retrò style, a soothed sweetness that recalls to mind the scent of long gone moments. Memories of precious instants, connected more to senses than to precise reminiscences, come to mind: like when you walk along a road and, suddenly, your nostrils open wide up, fatally attracted by that one smell, the one you hadn't been smelling for ages but that, in one second, brings back to your mind all you thought you had forgotten!

The author of this book started with a simply brilliant idea: how many sorts of silence do we know? True there are many kinds: there's a delicate one, a threatening one, a sweet and intimate one, one that makes you fall asleep...

Well, not only this fantastic book has reached position number five in the New York Times Children's Books Bests-selling List, but soon there will be a sequel titled

THE LOUD BOOK!

I can't wait to see it!

If you are curious now, here is a list of reviews on THE QUIET BOOK:

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast - http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1924 where you can as well take a look at some spreads from the book, a NOT TO BE MISSED one: as usual Jules is incomparable!

Bookie Woogie - http://bookiewoogie.blogspot.com/2010/05/review-67-quiet-book.html real fun!

The Picture Book Junkies - http://pbjunkies.blogspot.com/2010/04/quiet-book.html

Kidoinfo - http://kidoinfo.com/ri/the-quiet-book-is-a-new-classic-for-bedtime/

Lesa's Book Critiques - http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com/2010/06/quiet-book-by-deborah-underwood.html

Fizzwhizzing Flushbunker - http://fizzwhizzingflushbunker.blogspot.com/2010/05/get-this-book.html

Books for Kids - http://booksforkidsblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/softly-softly-quiet-book-by-deborah.html

 
 
Let me signal as well:

Renata Liwska's blog, the illustrator: http://renataliwska.blogspot.com/
 
and Deborah Underwood's website, the author: http://www.deborahunderwoodbooks.com/