The Loud Book by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Renata Liwska (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
This small book is jam-packed with an assortment of adorable rabbits, bears, moose, lizards, and birds making or responding to an assortment of noises. As in the bestselling The Quiet Book, the text is spare, with pictures that play up the words or knock them in amusing directions. Several scenes take place at school, and there’s some emphasis on embarrassing kinds of louds, such as “oops louds,” “dropping your lunch tray loud,” or “spilling your marbles in the library loud.” There’s summer trouble and fun, ending with a campout and a bunny trying to sleep under a crescent moon when the world is “crickets loud.” I particularly like the variety of actions Renata Liwska packs in a crowd scene. In “crowded pool loud” we get lots of heads and tails, pink bathing caps and floaties. “Fireworks loud” is illustrated as if from overhead, and the view of wide-eyed faces evokes pure wonder. Another winner for this author-illustrator pair.
Pick up a copy of The Loud Book or read more Top of the Shelf book recommendations.
Tags: animals, cute, Deborah Underwood, loud, picture books, Renata Liwska, school, sounds