Can You Hear Me Now? The Loud Book by Deborah Underwood

THERE ARE LOTS OF LOUDS.

BURP DURING QUIET TIME LOUD

The publication of Deborah Underwood's 2010 The Quiet Bookcame out with a bang. A New York Times Best-Seller, a Publishers Weekly Notable Children's Books 2010, Junior Literary Guild Best Books, 2010, and a place among the coveted American Library Association's Notable Children's Books 2010, the little book, which celebrates life's pleasant (and not-so-pleasant) moments of silence, now has a companion book, Underwood's forthcoming The Loud Book! (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011), also charmingly illustrated by Renata Liwska.

There are life's joyful LOUD moments...

HOME RUN LOUD

FIREWORKS LOUD

and then there are those Oh, n-o-o-o-o! LOUD moments that resound down the halls of memory:

DROPPING YOUR LUNCH TRAY LOUD

Liwska's soft-focus illustrations, which alternate between brown and gray figures against a white background and full color pages, add to the understated humor of belly-flopping into a crowded pool, spilling a bag of clattering marbles in the Shhhh! silence of the library, and even the metaphorically loud glare of an offended movie goer at the crinkly crackle of a candy wrapper during a big scene. These two books go together like a pair of fraternal twins, alike and different in ways that set off each other. The Loud Book!belongs on every early childhood bookshelf.