A Sound Like Someone Trying Not to Make a Sound by John Irving, illustrated by Tatjana Hauptmann

This is the first children's book written by John Irving. The story actually developed from one of Irving's novels, A Widow for One Year, which is about a children's book author. There are lots of things that I liked about this book, especially the gorgeous illustrations by Tatjana Hauptmann (her drawing of Tom captures nighttime dishevelment perfectly and her use of shadows are fantastic); but I can not recommend this book as a children's book.

This book is aimed at those in the 4 to 8 year old crowd. It is a story that is supposed to be about calming down a child after a nightmare, but if anything I think it would make children even more nervous.

In the book Tom is woken up by a sound in his house, a sound that he will eventually describe to his father as, "a sound like someone trying not to make a sound." Very descriptive, but also a very scary idea. Tom's father tries to explain to him that the sound is just a mouse in the wall. The part of the story that I didn't like, is that Tom's baby brother, Tim, is in the room as their father explains about the mouse in the wall. Tim is far to young to know what a mouse is, all he knows is that there is a wet, slimy, furry, animal with no arms lurking behind the walls. Not exactly pleasant thoughts before drifting to sleep.

So I do not recommend this book as a book for children, but it does have an interesting story and gorgeous art work so it is still worth taking a look at.

Ages: Written for 4-8, but I would only think of giving this to someone 10 or older
Keywords: Nightmares, Scary Stories, Night, Mice, Shadows, Sounds, Brothers, Night

Lesson Plans: This might be an interesting book to use for Junior High or High School english to start an introduction about descriptive language. Write a description of an unknown sound.

Powell's Books - A Sound Like Someone Trying Not to Make a Sound by John Irving