The Quiet Woman has a Noisy Dog, which might sound like a recipe for disaster in itself, but all is fine and dandy until she meets a Noisy Woman with a Quiet Dog. A spatter of mud in the park, and the scene is set for confusion.

Review This is a Noisy Book about Quiet and Noisy Dogs and Women, but Noisy seems to win, at least in the joyfully crowded and happy design. Words are big and noisy or small and quiet, bustling all over the place and breaking out of straight lines, making the pages busy and lively. There are no quiet pages – I feel a bit sorry for the Quiet Woman and the Quiet Dog as they are so outnumbered. The two women and their dogs may seem ill-suited, but each dog-woman combo is happy and loving. Straightening them out – Quiet Dog with Quiet Woman, Noisy Dog with Noisy Woman - really couldn’t work. Yet their encounter brings a happy mingling of noise and quietness that enriches them all. It’s a delightful and reassuring tale about being loved for yourself and true to your own nature, and yet embracing differences and taking something from others. Their adventure shows what we can gain from people (or dogs) who are not like us.

 It is all presented so beautifully in a lilting, bouncy narrative that there is no hint of ‘issues’ here. It’s a lovely book to share, with bold, busy pictures offering lots of chances for small readers to pick out noise-words and follow the size cues to make loud and quiet noises. It could be used in class, gently introducing a chat about differences between people and we can all get along, or as easily just read as a simple, happy story.

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2009-02-21