The Children's Book Council (CBC) K-2nd Grade Children's Favorite
A gentle, award-winning picture book that celebrates the beauty of being quiet, thoughtful, and perfectly yourself in a world that never stops talking
What can you hear when you stay quiet as mud? Inspired by the beloved children's book author Margaret Wise Brown, this softly illustrated poem invites young readers to slow down, listen closely, and discover the rich, wonderful world that opens up when you sit still and pay attention. In soothing rhymes and warm, dreamy illustrations, Quiet as Mud shows children that you don't have to be the loudest voice in the room to have the most interesting things going on inside.
This is a book for daydreamers, deep thinkers, and the kids who watch and wonder while the world buzzes around them. Rather than asking quiet children to speak up or come out of their shell, Quiet as Mud does something rare: it tells them that who they already are is something beautiful. Whether read together at bedtime, shared during a calm moment at school, or enjoyed in a cozy reading nook all alone, this is a book that gives introverted kids permission to embrace their quiet nature and helps the grown-ups in their lives understand and appreciate it too.
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Jane Yolen lives in Massachusetts and has written more than 400 books across all genres and age ranges, including the Sydney Taylor Honor book Miriam at the River. In 2022 she was named the The Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Winner. She has been called the Hans Christian Andersen of America and the Aesop of the twentieth century.