Customer Reviews

A Quiet Place

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A Quiet Place is a wonderful book to help kids realize that it is good for them to be quiet and think. With all the noise they experience during the day and their constant activities (including music, television, computers, electronic toys, etc.), it is so important for them to be able to think in quiet and daydream. This book gives wonderful examples of the different places a boy goes in his thoughts, and it shows him imagining himself to be different people or animals. For example, when walking on the beach he becomes an explorer discovering a lost continent, when laying in the snow he's a sleeping polar bear, when climbing a hill he becomes a mountain climber on top of the world, when visiting a museum he's an artist admiring his own masterpiece. It is extremely well written and captivating, and the illustrations are beautiful. I came upon this book at the library and am now on-line to order it for my 6 and 4 year old boys (who loved it).

This story beautifully balances a child's inner self-esteem with a wonderful sense of adventure. The young boy in the book looks for "a quiet place" to escape from the intesity of the outside world. My son and I have read it every night for the last week, just before bed. Wonderful writing, truly breathtaking illustrations. The author's earlier work, GRANDAD'S PRAYER'S OF THE EARTH, is one of our favorites.

Douglas Wood is a breath a fresh air in our consumeristic world. He offers children a view of life that treasures the simple pleasures, and appreicate each moment life has to offer. A real find for children - AND adults.

It would be quite difficult to find another book which better illustrates for children the power of imagination; the power to be alone in their own quite place, a place we all have...our mind.

The author begins this work with a declarative statement..."Sometimes a person needs a quiet place."

"A plce to rest your ears from
bells ringing and
whistles shreaking and
grown-ups talking and
engines roaring and
horns blaring and
grown-ups talking and
radios playing and
grown-ups....

Well, even grown-ups need a quiet place sometimes."

The author and illustrator, Dan Andreasen then take the young, and not so young, reader of a soaring journey through the possibilities of the mind. They start in the frantic clutter and confusion of the city and travel to...well, under a bush where pirates lurk and buried treasure is to be found. On then to the deep forest where it is dark and deep...flitting then to the sea where lost continents can be discovered and then with a blink of the eye to the desert; perhaps riding with the Pony Express!

The journey is not over though as the next page shifts to a quiet pond where one can become the world's greatest fisherman and frogs plop from lily pads. Then to a deep dark cavern..who knows what might be found...a saber-toothed tiger, an ancient cave dweller...but if the cave is too dark, cold and damp, then it is off to a far away mountain top, more than a hill, really. Spending the day at the North Pole making snow angles and frolicking with polar bears...hmmmm, too cold? Well a visit to a museum to admire your own masterpiece as it hangs on the wall with all the old Masters from the Bronze Age to now. Ah, but a secret corner in the library...you are off to any time and any place in the universe and if the library is closed...well, a nice book in your room while snuggled in bed....

The illustrations in this work are quite amazing, beautifully done and the rhythmic text is absolutely captivating.

Trust me folks, this is one you will want to make available for your child. When I was young...so very many years ago, I was constantly being hounded by teachers, parents, neighbors, well, grown-ups, due to my tendency to spend a large amount of time simply daydreaming. Now I know they meant well, but to he honest, had I to do over again, I probably would have indulged myself even more. Now that I am old, my time is sort of my time and to be honest, I get great satisfaction out of reverting to my childhood habits and take even more satisfaction that I do not have all those "grown-ups" bugging me about it!

Other books by Douglas Woods which I highly recommend are:
Old Turtle
Old Turtle and the Broken Truth
No One But You


Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

I purchased this book for my 8 year old granddaughter.
It was perfect for her but the best part was she loved the story.

My 2 1/2-year-old daughter loves this book. She doesn't understand everything in it, but really gets into the illustrations and the sound of the text. Highly recommended.

In the book Building Emotional Intelligence: Techniques to Cultivate Inner Strength in Children, author Linda Lantieri recommeds "A Quiet Place" and other books to read to children. This one is special, though. I was able to read it to my son and, when I had finished, say, "What we're going to do now is find that quiet place inside you, so you can come back to it any time you need to."

It was the perfect introduction to the mindfulness and relaxation exercises we were about to begin doing together.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that I ADORED Old Turtle...