Whispers and Roars

Whispers and Roars

Patrick Guest

 Jonathan Bentley

Little Book Press, 2025

32pp., hbk., RRP $A24.99

9781923141391

Recently a little person I know, one who would prefer to spend lunch in the library reading, the one who taught me about pangolins when he was just four years old, ventured into the playground to play soccer with his friends instead.  Except, rather than having some fun with them, he was stung in the mouth by a bee and immediately went into serious anaphylactic shock.  Luckily, calm, well-trained staff knew exactly what to do and he was soon on his way to hospital under lights and sirens and even a helicopter ride to a major city hospital.   But now he is back at school, he is very hesitant to go to the front office -somewhere he was once very comfortable having known it all his life because his mum and gran teach at the school – because he associates it with the trauma and pain of his injury.

While this was a major event for this little lad,  and cause and effect is clearly visible, we cannot always know the triggers that cause the “wild whispers” that normally dwell “over the mountain, that overlooks my home, in a field within a forest” to visit, to “swirl themselves around you, wanting you to play, hoping you’ll believe in them and hear them every day.” And so, many of our little ones are plagued by unseen but very real anxieties that prevent them from enjoying the normal happy pursuits of childhood.

They’ll try to make you think of things like spiders, sharks and snakes

They’ll try to steal your confidence and laugh at your mistakes.”

They’ll make the world seem dangerous and stop you having fun.

“Never have adventures!” “Don’t trust anyone!”

Many will relate to the beginning of this masterful rhyming story where those wild whispers are not only acknowledged by the author, but portrayed by the illustrator as real things -somewhat amorphous in shape but nevertheless with scary faces as they lie in wait, and swoop and swirl around, getting larger and larger, with the background becoming darker and more sombre as they close in.

A peek inside…

But  then we learn that

The voice that makes our worries grow and stops us all from trying. the voice that makes us doubt ourselves, is almost always lying. 

And we are reminded that we have another voice, one that reassures and reaffirms that we can do this, if we just take that first step.  And because there are those who love us and believe in us, that whisper becomes a ROAR!  One strong enough and loud enough to vanquish those wild whispers. 

While there are many books that help our little ones understand that feelings of uncertainty and doubt are normal and common, and that they can be overcome, this one speaks directly to the reader putting them in the role of the main character so it becomes a first-hand experience rather than being at arm’s length sharing the story of a third-party.  Designed to be shared more in a 1:1 situation between parent and child than a large group read-aloud, it is accompanied by notes from a qualified counsellor to help the adult navigate situations where feelings freeze actions so that they, too, have age-appropriate strategies that can move everyone forward sensitively.  

Something unique and special that should be in every library for those times when…

PS.  My little friend is OK although he has a long program of desensitisation ahead but because he has so many who believe that he too will ROAR in time, those wild whispers will be conquered sooner rather than later.