This black and white picture book is an interesting visual journey of silence, and the ways it presents itself in the everyday.

'Silence,' by Lena Shamshurina invites young children to discover is silence really silent? Enhanced with black and white graphic images it is sure to interest and entertain.

This book was cute but not for the classroom. While it explained there is noise all around if you take the time to listen, young elementary are just learning what silence means and this could be misleading. There were also many pages with hardly any illustrations on them and the illustrations were very minimalistic.
Cute to read at home to talk about sounds we can hear everywhere but not for the classroom.

Where can we go to find silence? Not just a place of quiet, but true silence? This storybook explores all the places where we can look for silence, but also finds joy in all the sounds we find along the way.

I am huge fan of this style of artwork, the black and white muted images perfectly reflect the over all tone of this story. I would definitely recommend this one as a new bedtime book.

4/5

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Annick Press LTD for the opportunity to read and review this title, releasing on September 27, 2022!

Lena Shamshurina’s “Silence” is an imaginative exploration of sound and silence. Taking the reader on a journey to find silence, children are encouraged to imagine different spaces and the sounds they might hear. This is a great pre-school and primary read for developing listening and imagination as children learn about the qualities of sound and silence. Beautifully illustrated in black, white, and grey, there are a lot of textures and patterns and images to pull out and spark responses in a read aloud.

Teacher Tips

* Discuss why people look for quiet places and what places they seek out for quiet.

* Even if places that are quiet aren’t truly silent, how does the quality of sounds differ from other environments?

* How might a classroom be a quiet place? When might we want it to be quiet?

* Pick one of the environments from the book and make your own grey-scale, textured paintings to show what makes noises in that space.

I like the way the text of 'Silence' speaks directly to the reader, drawing them into the search for silence. the book isn't exactly what I expected--a good thing--as it discovers that there are sounds everywhere on earth, even inside our own bodies. The text is brief but highly suggestive and the voice friendly. I found that the two-dimensional illustrations reminded me of several illustrators and styles, from Jon Klassen to 1950s advertising style. While some pages are very busy and evoke noise, others suggest, if not silence, at least a welcome hush quality. And a small, occasional figure seems to represent the reader, a nice touch. This is a book that will make children think about their surroundings and themselves.

An odd book, with an interesting premise but just not very appealing in its execution. The book explores the idea that "silence" really isn't so silent, highlighting the many subtle noises around us (and even inside us!) that we often don't pay attention to. The greyscale illustrations have a creepy vibe, and the text is a mix of metaphorical language (e.g. "silence is hiding") and slightly jarring factual information ("Space is a kind of vacuum. A vacuum is a place without air where sound does not travel."). I did enjoy all the creative ways that sounds were depicted, with onomatopoeias written in varied shapes, sizes, and styles.

The book tries to be interactive, asking readers to listen for sounds in the various environments explored (e.g. "Everybody is sleeping. Can you hear anything?") but for a very literal young child, this is likely to prompt discussion about the sounds in their actual environment rather than the location of the narrator in the book. The only place I felt like the interactivity really worked nicely was the page that invites readers to trace a line on the page with their finger and notice the "shhhh" sound it creates. The book ends by inviting the reader to "keep searching on your own" for more sounds, but the two examples shown on the page are rather strange choices (blowing bubbles through a straw and a ladybug flying away).

Overall, an interesting idea but there are better books out there for mindful explorations of sound and silence.

Silence asks the reader if they can ever really hear silence. The onomatopoeia that hides in the illustrations is fun for children to discover as they read through the book. The color scheme of the illustrations also ties in well to the theme of what silence would look like. A great book for bedtime, but also for a science unit on sound.

An enchanting, poetic contemplation of and search for silence. Lovely illustrations and inviting text.

This picture book is beautifully illustrated. The black and white images help to draw attention to basic shapes and subjects much the same way that the book encourages silence to examine the sounds already made by the surrounding world. It provides a way to introduce inquisitive nature within young readers by inviting the reader to sit back and listen.

Story: 10
Illustration: 10

I absolutely loved this book. It is so different and original. The images are stunning, and I cannot wait to read this book with my students and see where they will take it.

Silence really is underrated.

** Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review. **

In this book, we search everywhere for silence but can't seem to find it. Even when we plug our ears, we can still hear the sounds our bodies make. This books could either be unsettling (for kids who want to find absolute quiet) or interesting (for kids who want to discover every tiny sound), so reader beware. This picture book was creatively done with grayscale illustrations and steady pacing.

This is a wonderful book to accompany a unit on light and sound, or to teach children about mindfulness. It teaches an important lesson in listening, awareness, and paying attention to your surroundings. I think children will delight in their own observations, inspired by this book. The greyscale illustrations effectively enhance the message.

"Be quiet" is a phrase we hear often, but can we really find silence? In 36 pages, this book takes a skip and a hop, looking for likely places to find silence.

If you call it, will it answer? Will you know it if you see it? Is it anywhere here?

The secret of silence, the book tells us, is that even when we think there are no sounds, we will still find some, because silence is in space where sound doesn't travel.

Readers are invited to listen for more "secret sounds" that weren't noticed before.

Although my review copy was black and white, the book is in full bright colors to capture attention and the imagination.

It's not a common illustration style in America, but the figures are easily recognizable; especially the amusing animals. (You may note that the size of the object often indicates the size of the sound.)

I like the idea of listening carefully. It's good to be aware of the common sounds around us (normal sounds in the home, school, car, store, yard), so we will notice the unusual.

4/5 Stars

Thanks to Annick Press and NetGalley for the preview of this ebook pdf; the review is voluntary.

#Silence #NetGalley #PictureBook #ChildrensBook #ExploretheWorld #HiddenSounds

I really did not like this book. I get the gist of it and what it's trying to say, but I didn't like the black and white theme and the fact that so many pages don't have anything on them.

In the search for silence, we discover there is sound everywhere. So is there truly a place of silence? Join in the journey to discover silence and just how beautiful the variety of sounds around us can truly be if we just take a moment to listen.
The various shades of black, gray, and white help to limit the "loudness" that even color can cause. Wise choice.

What a fun book to be able and sit back and ponder the answers to the questions posed. It is quick to point out there are few places on earth and even your own body doesn’t give you silence with its mechanisms working 24/7/365. In outer spaced to evaluate there is silence. This isn’t a place most people can’t get to at this time. I thought the black and white illustrations told the story perfectly with the words. Thanks to #NetGalley,#Lena Shamshurina, and #Silence for this opportunity to review early in exchange for an honest opinion. I would definitely recommend this to older elementary students to understand They need to evaluate the noise pollution they are bombarded with daily. Some of this noise can be logically controlled.yes, I would recommend this book.

So beautiful. Heart warming little story about silence in our noisy world. It touch me directly to the heart. I love it!

Awesome storytime read. The kids are going to love talking about sounds and thinking about what silence is. The illustrations are captivating and the different styles work well with the transitions from place to place in the story. There are so many art projects and activities that could spinoff from this book. The only critique I have is the written sounds can be difficult to read at times. Initially, the snoring person on page 12 looked like a dead guy with a butcher knife hovering over his open mouth. Then I Iooked again and saw the snrrsr text. The style is cool, but I'm not going to lie-- I had to look twice. Overall, a great read and one that I would purchase for a classroom or story hour presentations.

Thanks NetGalley for the early copy!
This book was absolutely beautiful. The images were stark and at times, haunting, using only shades of black and white. The words were eerie on their search for true silence.

I liked the way this story created an understanding that silence is hard to find and the small white noises we hear constantly. Have we ever heard true silence??

Lovely!