Archive | April 30, 2020

I Don’t Want to Be Quiet!

I Don't Want to Be Quiet!

I Don’t Want to Be Quiet!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Don’t Want to Be Quiet!

Laura Ellen Anderson

Bloomsbury, 2020

32pp., pbk., RRP $A14.99

9781526602442

Being quiet is not on her agenda.  She wants to be loud.  Chatting, humming, stomping, drumming, slurping, burping – whatever the activity it has to be done at the maximum number of decibels. Until she goes to the library, picks up a book and learns the lessons of silence…

While “put yourself on mute” is likely to be a widely understood and commonly used phrase in the weeks to come, it probably wouldn’t have any effect on the little girl in this rollicking rhyme which is the antithesis of children being “seen but not heard!”  She barrels through her days at the top of her lungs creating the sweet sounds of silence once she has passed but making those around her wish they could mute her while she is there.  She reminds me of me when I was little, the only girl amongst eight boys and needing to be noticed! 

In fact, Laura Ellen Anderson seems to have such a knack of reminding me of my childhood in her stories with I Don’t Want to Be Small  and I Don’t Want Curly Hair that I’m beginning to wonder if she is, in fact, my mum writing using  nom-de-plume. (Only because I know she is no longer with us, am I sure it’s not!)  In the meantime, our young readers are treated to another fast-paced story that will resonate with them, and perhaps they too, will learn the value of listening.  It’s an important lesson to learn.