Barry Rudner

When a baby is born, he or she has certain characteristics: eye color, hair color, personality. Even though some characteristics may be the same, like hair color, each baby also is different from the others. We love each child for who he or she is, not for what they look like or for the way they smile.

In his picture book, SILENT VOICE, Author Barry Rudner has written a story about children that may look much like other children, but they think differently and do not enjoy the things most children enjoy, such as swinging or playing hide and go seek or even laughing. Some children seem to live in a world that only they can see, and it’s nothing like the world of the other children.

Written in rhyming verse, the author tells a story of children doing the things most kids love to do. They play games, sneak cookies, and other activities that fill a child’s day. Each scene also shows a child alone, on the fringes, not participating with the others, like the little boy looking away from the boys and girls, his hands in his pockets, and the boy who sits under the table while his family plays a game, and the other loners that do not join in. Does this mean they don’t want to? Or do they not know how to interact with friends? Illustrator Peggy Trabalka’s adorable drawings of children playing, smiling, having fun work perfectly to show the happy kids and also the isolation, the sense of not belonging, some youngsters feel. The expressions on their faces say it all.

SILENT VOICE gives a beautiful message of how we all should be aware of and embrace the differences in our children and also hope that one day the key to freeing the minds of each precious boy and girl will be discovered. This picture book would make a great addition to elementary school libraries, public libraries, and your own private library to help spread understanding of the needs of the ones that walk a different path than we expect them to.

###… (meer)