Shhh! by Valeri Gorbachev

When his baby brother is sleeping, the older brother is very quiet.  He walks on his tippy-toes and doesn’t make any noise.  Of course, this involves getting even the toys to be quiet.  So he has to tell the clown to stop laughing, the knights to stop battling, the tiger to stop growling, the pilot to stop flying, the train to stop rolling, and the pirates to stop firing their cannons.  Happily, when his baby brother wakes up, he can run around, play with his toys, and make plenty of noise.  Until… baby goes to sleep again.

There is no resentment in this book from the older sibling to his baby brother.  Instead the book embraces the differences between awake and nap time in a playful way.  The older brother sees being kind to his little brother as a way to demonstrate how much he loves him.  While parents are present in the book, this is much more about the self-control of a child and his own willingness to help by being quiet.  There are no lectures from parents or even reminders to be quiet.

Gorbachev’s art is colorful and fine-lined.  He sets a playful tone in the book that works well.  When readers are first shown the toys that have to be quiet, they are presented as if they are fully alive and life-sized.  Once the baby is awake, they are shown in their true forms, as toys. 

A positive book about being an older sibling and having to be quiet.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Philomel Books.

Also reviewed by A Picture Book a Day.