some parents will complain it's too dark - shame on them
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
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As both a die-hard John Irving fan and a lifetime worshipper of really beautiful picture books for children, the knowledge that the two would be combined in one package was hard to resist. And indeed, I'm glad I didn't resist it, as for the most part this was exactly what my expectations had demanded.
A Sound Like Someone Trying Not To Make A Sound first appeared as part of Irving's novel A Widow For One Year. In the novel dry, charming ladies-man children's author Ted Cole tells tales to his daughter Ruth to help her overcome her nightmares. He then publishes them, splattered with inky illustrations. Most of these, such as The Door In The Floor are darkly nightmarish visions (probably more so to parents than children), but Irving had a special fondness for A Sound… since this was the one that most reminded him of telling stories to his own children, and he explains in the short, sweet Introduction to this book that he gives it as a gift to Ted Cole because it is "the story that, to me, made the most sense of nightmares". Irving's creation of Ted Cole, he tells us, he is taking to task authors who seek to frighten children - this story seeks to soothe.
This background is, I believe, a useful pre-emptive defence to the accusations I've read on the likes of Amazon, about the darkness of the story. It is not a primary-coloured foray into magic worlds. But I strongly believe that it has this in its favour. As with most brooding and beautifully illustrated children's books, such as Where The Wild Things Are, it is much more haunting and memorable.
A Sound… tells the story of Tom, who wakes up in the night (though his brother Tim does not) and tells his father that he has heard a peculiar sound: a sound like someone trying not to make a sound. This evocative description intrigues his father and together they pick through all the imaginative and frightening explanations the boy's mind provides whilst looking for the real source of the noise.
Illustrated by Tatjana Hauptmann, the atmospheric deep blue cover, with it's rumpled boyish figure and almost supernaturally attentive teddy bear, gives way to more of the same. The images are soft, muted coloured pencil sketches. Each picture made me think of Where's Waldo without the clutter: each gentle scene seems ordinary at first until you realise there's something odd - the bulge in the blank wall, the bunched, lifelike cushion, unusual shadow, or Ted(dy) peeking curiously into Tim's cot. It's spooky, but in a familiar way. The illustrations echo the personification of the text: "'It was a sound like, in the closet, if one of Mommy's dresses came alive and it tried to climb down off the hanger,' Tom said."
This is not a long story, and the writing is broken into short chunks, occasionally interspersed by two-page spread illustrations, slowing down the pace and letting the creativity and wonderment be gently savoured. There's plenty of scope for discussion with a small child ("what do you think the sound is?"). The words are simple and easily sounded out for reading together. A quiet note on the dust jacket suggests ages 4 and up, and in terms of content I suppose I would not argue with that (in terms of language, an advanced reader of a younger age could cope).
This is not a straightforward story with a happy ending. It is more an attempt to voice that which is most difficult to voice (irrational fear) for those for whom it is hardest to put it into conventional language. Perhaps a parent would appreciate it more at first, but I think that any child who likes dreamy, imaginative stories would find something to treasure in it.
If I have any criticism of this, it's only to do with my own imagination. Because I had been seeing Ted's books in my head, with those pen and ink illustrations that are my favourites, for so long, this didn't look exactly as I expected. But I think those pen and ink illustrations, those scratchings of my psyche, really would have alienated a small child. This way, with the prettiness of Tatjana Hauptmann's work, they have an honest chance to get involved in the images and tell their own stories.
Published by Random House in 2004. Bought through Amazon.co.uk for £8.00
ISBN 0-385-74680-6
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