Please welcome my friend and fellow author, Lisa Rogers, with her 10 Picture Books About Listening to the World Around Us list! Her newest picture book celebrates musician John Cage.
We are giving away a copy of Beautiful Noise AND a picture book critique for a manuscript that is less than 700 words and non-rhyming. Anyone who is writing picture book biographies should take advantage and try to win her critique. I had the great privilege of getting her feedback for my three haiku poems in the poetry anthology from The Writers’ Loft and she gives the best writing advice!!! To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter at the bottom. There will be 2 Rafflecopters; one for each giveaway.
How about you? What are your favorite books for listening to the world around us?
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Thanks for hosting me on Pragmatic Mom, Mia! I believe that it’s important to pay attention to the world around us. Taking time to listen, appreciate, and learn about our world helps us better understand how we fit into it. Noticing the sounds around us feeds our imagination and creativity. In their own unique way, each of these beautiful books celebrates the joys of listening.
10 Picture Books about Listening to the World Around Us
Beautiful Noise: The Music of John Cage by Lisa Rogers, illustrated by Il Sung Na
Innovative composer John Cage believed in his work to find new, different, and exciting sounds–yet his favorite sounds were the ones around him. As this book takes readers through Cage’s journey, it asks them to explore, experiment, imagine, and persevere just as Cage did, and appreciate their own sonic landscape. With themes of creativity, ingenuity, originality, and mindfulness, this book is for musicians and non-musicians alike. [picture book biography, ages 4 and up]
Silence by Lena Shamshurina
A narrator invites us on a journey to find silence, from daytime in the city to night, from woods to a cave, underwater, and even into space! This seemingly simple book has lots of layers, deftly including factual information that, combined with Intriguing black and white illustrations, make this a book that will be experienced again and again. [picture book, ages 4 and up]
What Sound is Morning? by Grant Snider
This beautifully illustrated book opens in the quiet of morning–and then asks readers to listen. Is morning really quiet? What are the sounds of morning as animals awaken and a day begins? The poetic text and engaging illustrations will encourage young readers to linger on each page as they notice the sounds around them. [picture book, ages 2 and up]
First Notes of Spring by Jessica Kulekjian, illustrated by Jennifer Bower
In this upbeat story about believing in yourself, Juniper the skunk’s loud percussion music isn’t welcomed by the forest’s First Notes of Spring musicians, she’s disheartened. But she soon finds other percussionists–a woodpecker looking for bugs, a beaver thumping its tail, a rabbit stomping its paws–and they make their own brand of music. The two groups eventually band together to make beautiful music. [picture book, ages 3 and up]
The Sound of Silence by Katrina Goldsaito, illustrated by Julia Kuo
Yoshio loves Tokyo’s sounds, but when he asks a koto musician what his favorite sound is, he begins a search for silence. Finally, he loses himself in a book and realizes that silence lives within him. A beautiful book to inspire conversations about mindfulness and the peace that can be within. [picture book, ages 3 and up]
Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! by Wynton Marsalis, illustrated by Paul Rogers
Written by famed jazz great Wynton Marsalis, this book is a rhyming romp through sounds, from a dripping faucet, squeaky door, and whooshing kite to the powerful blasts of a train horn, trumpet, and tubas. Its energetic illustrations and large, easy-to-read font add to the fun! [picture book, ages 4 and up]
A Fox Found a Box by Ged Adamson
Life in the forest changes when Fox finds a box that sings like a bird, gets the forest creatures rocking, and lulls them to sleep. But when the box stops singing, the animals are despondent–until they listen to the natural sounds of the world around them. This enjoyable book might inspire children to act out the story and create their own songs and dances! [picture book, ages 3 and up]
Boom Boom by Sarvinder Naberhaus, illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
With spare text that employs only sound words, this book perfect for toddlers depicts a preschool class listening to the sounds of the seasons. Beginning with a clap of thunder and exciting flashes of lightning, the children enjoy joyful splashes of rain, springtime’s buzz, fall’s crackle and crunch, and the quiet of snow. With its large, enticing illustrations that feature a diverse group of children, Boom Boom would be an excellent interactive read aloud. [picture book, ages 4 and up]
Ten Ways to Hear Snow by Cathy Camper, illustrated by Kenard Pak
In this sweet intergenerational story, Lina’s grandmother is losing her eyesight, yet Lina wants her to see the snow. As she walks to Sitti’s building, she hears the sounds around her–shovels digging into the snow, her boots crunching–counting each one as a way to hear snow. Together, the two make stuffed grape leaves, open the window, and listen to the snow together. [picture book, ages 4 and up]
Night Owl by Toni Yuly
Young Night Owl loves the night, but when Mommy Owl is away, Night Owl listens for her to return. Night Owl notices all the sounds of the outdoors, even braving a thunderstorm by herself until Night Owl hears the best sound of all. A sweet book for the youngest readers. [picture book, ages 4 and up]
2 Giveaways: Beautiful Noise picture book GIVEAWAY & Picture Book Critique by Lisa Rogers GIVEAWAY!
We are giving away a copy of Beautiful Noise AND a picture book critique for a manuscript that is less than 700 words and non-rhyming. Anyone who is writing picture book biographies should take advantage and try to win her critique. I had the great privilege of getting her feedback for my three haiku poems in the poetry anthology from The Writers’ Loft and she gives the best writing advice!!! To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter below. There will be 2 Rafflecopters; one for each giveaway. We can only mail the picture book to U.S. and A.F.O. addresses.
Lisa Rogers is an award-winning author who became inspired to write for children during her career as an elementary school librarian. Besides BEAUTIFUL NOISE, which is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, Lisa’s debut picture book, 16 WORDS: WILLIAM CARLOS AND “THE RED WHEELBARROW,” illustrated by Chuck Groenink (Schwartz & Wade, 2019), received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly, is a Bank Street Best Children’s Book, a Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choice, a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, an ALSC Notable Books shortlist book, and a winner of the Boston Authors Club Julia Ward Howe award and the Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award. HOUND WON’T GO, a rhyming picture book illustrated by Meg Ishihara (Albert Whitman, 2020), is a 2021 Massachusetts Must-Read book and was inspired by her rescue dog. Two poems are included in FRIENDS AND ANEMONES: OCEAN POEMS FOR CHILDREN (Writers’ Loft Press, 2020) and another poem is the title poem for IF I COULD CHOOSE A BEST DAY (Candlewick, 2025) edited by Irene Latham and Charles Waters. DISCOVER HER ART: WOMEN ARTISTS AND THEIR MASTERPIECES, coauthored with Jean Leibowitz, (Chicago Review Press, 2022), received praise for its inclusive group of artists. Five picture book biographies are forthcoming, including WOODY’S WORDS: WOODROW WILSON RAWLS AND “WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS” (Astra/Calkins Creek) and the Little Golden Book biography RONALD REAGAN. A former daily news reporter and editor, Lisa lives outside Boston with her family and intrepid hound and is a four-time runner of the Boston Marathon. Visit her at her website and follow her on social media: Instagram, X, and Bluesky @LisaLJRogers.
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My books:
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
- Starred review from School Library Journal
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Scholastic / Signed or Inscribed by Me
I love ITZKHAK, A BOY WHO LOVED THE VIOLIN by Tracy Newman.
Congrats, Lisa! Looking forward to reading your book!
The Mozart Music book.
We love to read Ten Ways to Hear Snow at our school. We have also enjoyed Listen: How Evelyn Glennie Changed Percussion.