The Christmas Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Renata Liwska (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012)
I loved The Quiet Book, which was also written and illustrated by this team, but the idea of a holiday follow-up didn’t charm me. So I’m glad that my local librarian gushed about this, and when I shrugged, left her desk to seek it out. A few pages through, we were smiling and reading favorite pages aloud to each other. How could that little bit of Grinch in me last while looking at three contented bears enjoying “Cocoa quiet,” or on the opposite page “Nutcracker quiet,” which showed an audience on red chairs including a proud mother rabbit, dozing bears, and a bored little moose. As in the other collaborations, the words are sparse and perfect. The animals are painted with textures that bring out their cuddliness, and expressive eyes that pull you right into an episode such as “hoping for a snow day quiet” or “shattered ornament quiet.” This is exactly the kind of book that will make you want to leave a desk to share it, or better yet, pore over before a sparkling tree on long nights that might include “listening for sleigh bells quiet” and “trying to stay awake quiet.”
Tags: christmas, Deborah Underwood, holiday, Renata Liwska, The Christmas Quiet Book