Maw Books

Maw Books – book reviews, book recommendations, book lists, author interviews and more!

The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood and illustrated by Reneta Liwska is a beautiful book.  I had to stop myself from typing out instead – a beautiful, quiet book.  But The Quiet Book is just that.  Quiet.  A book meant to be read in hushed whispers and soft voices. The perfect book to read to small ones in bed too, that’s right, quietly usher them to sleep.

There are many different kinds of quiet that one will experience throughout the day.  A few of those are first awake quiet, others telling secrets quiet, color in the lines quiet, hide-and-seek quiet, sleeping sister quiet, car ride at night quiet, bedtime kiss quiet, and also sound asleep quiet.

The simple text is multi-layered.   “Thinking of a good reason you were drawing on the wall quiet” will surely have children reflecting on their own experiences.

The illustrations by Reneta Liwska are soft.  Gorgeous.  The many different type of quiet are portrayed by different forest animals – bear, rabbit, moose, mouse, porcupine, owl to name a few. When one thinks of how many different ways an illustrator can take the text of a book and choose to interpret it, The Quiet Book feels as though the text and illustration were made for each other.  It simply wouldn’t work any other way.  It’s perfectly done.

The Quiet Book is one of those books that when you have it in your hands and even before opening that first page, you know it’s special.  It feels special.  I love books like that.


Links of interest: Deborah Underwood website, Reneta Liwska blog, more book blogger reviews.
Genre: Fiction picture book. Approx ages 4-8.
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children.  April 12, 2010.
Hardcover, 32 pages. ISBN 0547215673
Source: Review copy sent from the author.
The Quiet Book is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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