Monday, May 3, 2010

Review #67: The Quiet Book

Gracie (age 9):  I can't see the book!  Your head is too big.
Isaac (age 11):  Shh!  It's "The Quiet Book."  You have to be quiet.
Dad:  Two people worked on "The Quiet Book"...
Lily (age 7):  Deborah Underwood and Renata Liwska.
Isaac:  People should know -- if you are reading this book to kids, it is not going to be a very quiet book.
Dad:  And why is that?
Isaac:  You are going to find yourself actually laughing.  Everyone here just kept laughing.
Dad:  So, what is the book about?
Lily:  "The Quiet Book" is about people being quiet.
Dad:  People?
Lily:  No.  Animals.
Gracie:  Cute animal characters.
Isaac:  Fluffy.
Gracie:  Cute.
Isaac:  And some have bad haircuts.
Dad:  Why was it so funny?
Isaac:  The pictures are really funny.  And sometimes the words help a picture to be funny.  If you just saw the picture by itself you would think, "Oh that's kind of sad."  But with the words it's really funny.
Dad:  The book lists many different kinds of quiet.  What were some examples?
Lily:  "Looking at your horrible new hairdo quiet."  And "underwater quiet."  And "I don't have a flashlight quiet."
Isaac:  And "trying not to hiccup quiet."  A bear is just holding this bunny up by his legs, dangling him down!
Lily:  There are tons of characters.  My favorite character is a porcupine.  Because he has an awesome hairdo.
Isaac:  Ha ha!  It's freaky.
Gracie:  It looks horrible.  He has the worst hairdo in the whole world!
Isaac:  I want that porcupine to come back.  He's funny!  He does not have very good luck.  Everything that has to do with that porcupine is hilarious.
Gracie:  Look at the kid in the background!  She's trying to get away from the barber!
Dad:  She doesn't want to end up like the porcupine...
Isaac:  Hi, little freaky hair dude!
Lily:  I like quiet.  I also like loud.  Crazy loud.
Dad:  What are some times that you guys are quiet?  Gracie, are you ever quiet?
Gracie:  Nope!
Isaac:  I like "trying to sleep quiet."  Or "getting out of bed quiet."
Gracie:  I like "first bite of cake quiet."
Dad:  Does the first bite of cake make you quiet?  Really?  Of course not long after, the sugar winds you up.
Lily:  I don't like "Daddy taking an hour on the phone quiet."
Dad:  Yeah, sometimes you guys have to settle down while I'm on the phone.
Lily:  I hate it.
Isaac:  One kind I don't like is "Being sent to my room quiet."  But nobody likes that.
Gracie:  Actually, if I was in trouble, I would like that.  Quiet means I wouldn't be getting yelled at.
Isaac:  (yawn)
Dad:  Talking about all this "quiet" made Isaac yawn.
Gracie:  (yawn)
Dad:  Now Gracie is yawning too!  We should save this book for before bed.
Isaac:  (yawn)  Agh - I keep yawning.
Lily:  (yawn)
Gracie:  That was a big yawn.
Dad:  Do you recognize the style of the drawings in this book?
Gracie:  "Little Panda."
Dad:  That's one of our favorite books by one of our favorite artists.
Gracie:  In "The Quiet Book" there is a clue that Renata Liwska also made "Little Panda."  In one of the pictures there is a "Little Panda" book on a shelf.
Isaac:  Her books have really good artwork.
Gracie:  She draws sketchy and cute.
Isaac:  Very sketchy.  Scribbly.  But amazingly cool.
Gracie:  The pictures have dull colors.  But that matches the book.
Dad:  Does that mean it's a dull book?
Gracie:  No!  It's hilarious.  But if the pages had bright purple or neon pink, that would wreck the book.  It's a quiet book, so it needs quiet colors.
Dad:  That's pretty clever of Mrs. Liwska, huh?
Lily:  She's one of our favorites.
Isaac:  She's going to get that medal thingie someday probably.
Gracie:  The Caldecott.
Isaac:  Yeah.  The Caldecott.  The drawing just looks so good.

picking a flower quiet, by Gracie

sneaking up on a duck quiet, by Lily

sailing through space quiet, by Isaac


Author: Deborah Underwood
Illustrator: Renata Liwska
Published, 2010: Houghton Mifflin
Like it?  Find it

10 comments:

Rebecca Gomez said...

That book sounds adorable!

I like "curled-up-on-the-couch-reading" quiet.

jenn said...

Another enjoyable review! The Quiet Book is a new favorite of mine but after reading your review I had to pick it up and look through it again because you made so many great observations I hadn't noticed yet! The author has two other new picture books that I'd also recommend: GRANNY GOMEZ & JIGSAW and A BALLOON FOR ISABEL.

And how about "reading Bookie Woogie reviews" quiet? I like that kind of quiet. :)

Renata said...

Thank you all for the lovely review! Your drawings are amazing as always, it is a wonderful thing you do here at Bookie Woogie.

All the best!

Z-Kids said...

Thanks for the comments Rebecca and Jenn! The book IS adorable. And we picked up Deborah Underwood's "Pirate Mom" book at Christmas time, and enjoy it. We'll look out for her others as well...

And hello Renata Liwska! Thanks for stopping by! I should point out to other folks that Isaac's Bunny/Carrot-Rocket picture was inspired by a great little image tucked away in the background of one of your illustrations. We all thought that would make a SUPER idea for its own story! We love all the little humor sprinkled around your art.

Thanks as always for visiting, everyone!
Z-Dad

ElizT said...

I like cat's-just-been-fed-and-has-shut-up-quiet.

Deborah Underwood said...

Ditto Renata's thanks for the great review--posted on my birthday, no less! You have some very talented budding illustrators there.

Lily, "Mommy talking on the phone quiet" was one of the quiets that annoyed me the MOST when I was a kid. Isaac, I hated going to my room too, except when my sister got sent to hers as well and we ended up passing messages back and forth. And Gracie, I'm with you on first bite of cake quiet!

Cheers,
Deborah Underwood

Z-Kids said...

Happy Birthday, Deborah Underwood! Enjoy your quiet first bite of birthday cake!
Z-Dad

Heather Zundel said...

This book looks so cute! And great review as always, Z-kids.

Playing by the book said...

I like "we're enjoying delicious food"-quiet in our home - a really happy sort of quiet! I really like this bit of the interview:
Isaac: People should know -- if you are reading this book to kids, it is not going to be a very quiet book.
Dad: And why is that?
Isaac: You are going to find yourself actually laughing. Everyone here just kept laughing

Thanks for keeping me laughing and smiling!

Book Review Help said...

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