THE LOUD BOOK!

For each kind of quiet found in Underwood and Liwska’s Quiet Book (2010) there are now just as many kinds of LOUD! Written with the same grace and economy, the short glimpses of “louds” range from good to bad and every clanging in between. The day starts with “alarm clock loud,” showing little rabbit desperately trying to muffle the sound with a pillow wrapped round his ears. There is also the embarrassing “dropping your lunch tray loud” and the ever-agonizing “candy wrapper loud” (in a quiet theater, of course). But surprisingly, some louds have no sound at all, like the “deafening silence loud” of getting caught doing something wrong. Eschewing noise lines and other dramatic visuals—save for the title and copyright page where the words burst forth at sharp, diagonal angles—Liwska instead shows mouths open in loud roars, boisterous crowds and hands over tortured ears. The text, written in all caps, doesn’t necessarily shout, but it does sneak in an urgent edge. The overall format of fuzzy illustrations and sweet simplicity of moments suited its quiet predecessor a bit better, but the collaborators have created a worthy companion to their previous success. (Picture book. 4-8)