Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews

A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place

Douglas Wood
Illustrator:  Dan Andreasen 
For ages 4 and up
Simon and Schuster, 2005   ISBN: 978-0689876097

Sometimes the world is just too busy, too noisy. Grown-ups talking and talking, "engines roaring," and so many other sounds can make your ears almost hurt and it is time to find a "quiet place" where you can just be and where you won’t be bothered.

Finding such a place isn’t that hard and once you find it you can take a journey to all sorts of places to find your quiet. If you crawl under the lilac bush in the yard you can imagine that you are "a pirate finding treasure on a desert island."

What about if you go to the seaside? There you can pretend that you are an explorer discovering a new land and if you go to sit next to the pond you can imagine yourself being "the world’s greatest fisherman" who catches an enormous fish.

In all the possible places where you could go there are imaginings to imagine, explorations and adventures to pretend, and peace to be found. And if, the lilac bush, the cave, the pond, the library or the museum aren’t quiet right for you, then you can go home to your own room and enjoy the best quiet place of all, the place which never leaves you.