“There are many kinds of quiet: “First one awake quiet/ Jelly side down quiet/ Don’t scare the robin quiet/ Others telling secrets quiet …” So begins The Quiet Book, which was short-listed for the 2010 Governor-General’s Award for Children’s Literature – Illustration.
Its charming, coloured pencil “quiet” drawings, of mostly mole-brown-hued creatures – wispy porcupines, fuzzy moose and lop-eared rabbits – more or less guarantee that this is not a noisy book, but that doesn’t mean it’s a dull one.
A droll and quirky sense of visual humour will elicit giggles of recognition from small fry who make the connection between the caption, “colouring in between the lines quiet,” and a small brown creature’s illicit portrait drawn (and coloured between the lines) on the living room wall.
Other kinds of quiet are “top of the roller coaster quiet,” and that last bedtime kiss before the light is turned off quiet. “Surprise visit from Aunt Tillie quiet,” is wondrous strange: standing on the doorstep is Aunt T, a well-dressed, bespectacled rabbit with a pet iguana on a leash. “Do iguanas bite?” is the follow-up question, and another example of quiet.
