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Jennifer Gennari

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Muffled Hardcover – October 27, 2020

by Jennifer Gennari (Author)

4.8 47 ratings

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A young girl learns how to cope with her noise sensitivity and step outside of her comfort zone in this heartwarming middle grade novel that’s perfect for fans of If This Were a Story and El Deafo.

Ten-year-old Amelia does not like noise. From subway brakes to squeaky sneakers, she is sensitive to sound, just like her dad. Amelia has always worn noise-canceling headphones, but now that she’s going into fifth grade, her parents want her to stop wearing them. To make matters worse, she must learn to play an instrument! Or, as Amelia sees it, make noise on purpose.

To help Amelia cope, her father gives her a pair of earmuffs to wear instead. Even with her new earmuffs, Amelia struggles at school…until she gets partnered with Madge in music class. Madge is loud and bold and goofy—everything Amelia is not. And so Amelia is surprised when Madge wants to be friends.

Still, it’s not long though before Amelia’s quiet nature clashes with Madge’s loud personality. And when Madge disappears after an argument, Amelia fears Madge might be in trouble. If she’s going to help her friend, she will have to find a way to let in the noisy world she’s muffled for so long.

Reading age

8 - 12 years
Print length

224 pages
Language

English
Grade level

3 - 7
Lexile measure

630L
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.9 x 8.25 inches
Publisher

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication date

October 27, 2020
ISBN-10

1534463658
ISBN-13

978-1534463653
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With the start of fifth grade comes new responsibilities for 10-year-old Amelia: she is allowed to walk to school and visit the Boston Public Library alone, but she also has to give up the noise-canceling headphones that she previously relied upon to manage her noise sensitivity. On the first day of school, Amelia's father, who has the same sensitivity, gives her a pair of fluffy purple earmuffs to ease the transition. Used in conjunction with the mental math she does as a coping mechanism, the earmuffs help to keep classroom and city noise at "five bars out of ten," but frustrate her mother and have an alienating effect in the classroom. As the class begins music lessons, Amelia struggles to settle on an instrument and retreats into the world of books until a solo library trip inspires her to pick up the trombone, and she embarks on a new friendship with fellow trombonist Madge. Gennari (My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer) effectively works Amelia's experience onto nearly every page ("each noise bounces around the walls of my head like a rubber ball"), making each of her hard-won victories resonate powerfully. A gentle portrait of a child learning to navigate her world. Ages 8-12. Agent: Andrea Cascardi, Transatlantic Agency. (Oct.)

Review

"Amelia's voice rings as clear and true as a song. Readers will root for her as she finds friends and music in her own way. A thoughtful, rewarding middle-grade story." (Beth Turley, author of IF THIS WERE A STORY and THE LAST TREE TOWN )

"A sweet book that packs a quiet punch. Readers will feel for quiet Amelia as she fights to find her place in a noisy world." (Gennifer Choldenko, Newbery-Honor winning author of AL CAPONE DOES MY SHIRTS and ORPHAN ELEVEN )

"Gennari effectively works Amelia's experience onto nearly every page ("each noise bounces around the walls of my head like a rubber ball"), making each of her hard-won victories resonate powerfully." (Publishers Weekly )

About the Author

Jennifer Gennari played the clarinet when she was younger—and quickly switched to choir! She loves quiet time, especially in a library. Muffled is her second novel for young readers. Her debut, My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer, was an ALA Rainbow List title and a Bank Street Best Children’s Books of the Year. A graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts, she grew up in Boston and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more at JenGennari.com.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1 CHAPTER 1

On the other side of the lobby door, ninety- six sidewalk lines away, is the first day of fifth grade. I stare through the glass, tugging at my backpack straps, although they are fine. I know I am stalling. As soon as I open the door, the outside will rush into my ears: taxi horns, loud radios, barking dogs. I hold on to the quiet for as long as I can.

“Do you want us to walk with you?” Dad asks, right as Mom says, “Ready, Amelia?”

I shake my head. I savor one more moment of quiet—only to be interrupted by the elevator dinging. Deb brushes by us.

“See you there!” she says as she pushes open the lobby door. Warm air and city commotion burst into our apartment building. I cover my ears and count the ways I am different this year:

I am ten now and can walk to school by myself.
Mom and Dad gave me a new CharlieCard and permission to ride the T alone to the Boston Public Library.
My noise-canceling headphones are not on my head.

Once the door closes, I lower my hands. Outside, I see Deb catch up to Jax, who lives across the street. They head off together, without me. I tell myself that’s fine. I am only a neighborhood pal to Jax and, ever since third grade, backup friend to Deb-minus-Kiki.

I take a step toward the door, and then hesitate. I feel light-headed, missing the weight of my headphones. Only my hair covers my ears.

Mom hugs me good-bye. “Fifth grade will be great.”

Dad touches my arm. “One more thing,” he says, and hands me a box.

“What’s this?” Mom asks, as surprised as I am.

I open it. Inside are purple earmuffs with a white band. I slip them on. The muffs—soft and furry—cover my ears completely. I love them instantly. Earmuffs are like having permission to place your hands over your ears all the time.

I hug Dad hard. He laughs.

Mom’s smile doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “Where did you get those?” she asks Dad.

“Target,” he says.

I think she is really asking why, but I don’t care. Now I am ready. I open the lobby door and walk by myself to school. Every few feet, I can’t help touching the fluff over my ears. How wonderfully soft! My steps grow bold. I’m sure everyone is admiring my beautiful, regular-looking earmuffs.

At the end of the first block, the traffic light turns green and all the cars accelerate at once. I jump—it’s louder than I expect. I walk eight more sidewalk lines, noticing city sounds more than before: the beeping of a backing-up truck, the one-sided cell phone conversations, the rattling of tires over potholes. The volume I hear is about five bars out of ten. Noise-canceling headphones are more like one bar. Earmuffs are better than nothing, though. Under my earmuffs, at least, everything is muffled, every sound is bearable. Almost.

I stand in the doorway of room twelve. Mr. Fabian has gray hair pulled back in a ponytail, and he is in the front of the room checking off names. Jax spins a pencil in the air. Deb-and-Kiki talk loudly, in side-by-side desks. Madge stretches her long legs beyond her chair. Soon Noah, José, Emma, Lina—everyone—will fill the classroom with too many sounds. Three rows with seven desks each is twenty-one.

No one else looks changed. I am the one who is different, now that my headphones are gone and I’m wearing beautiful earmuffs. I take a deep breath, adjust the band, and step into the classroom.

Instead of ignoring me like usual, they stare at my head.

“New earmuffs?” Deb asks.

“Your head is smaller now!” Noah says.

“Yeah, you no longer look like you work at an airport!” Kiki says, which launches a laughter wave.

My face turns as hot as my ears under my muffs. I keep my eyes down until I find my name on a desk next to Madge. My earmuffs are beautiful, I remind myself as I sit, letting the soft fluff brush my shoulder.

The bell rings, and I jump, unprepared. I press hard on my muffed ears, eyes shut, as everyone drops backpacks, scrambles to desks, scrapes chair legs across the floor. Mr. Fabian claps twice and snaps three times and claps again. Everyone’s hands make noise except mine. I am as stiff as a new book. Earmuffs do not cancel noise. Not even close.

“Welcome to fifth grade!” Mr. Fabian says, and announces that we’ll do ten minutes of silent reading every day, starting now.

Ten minutes is not very long, but I’m happy for the promise of quiet. I choose a book off the shelf about a raccoon named Bingo. I turn to the first page and stare at the words, but I can’t focus.

All around me are little pestering sounds. Jax curls the pages of his book, over and over like an itch. Cassie snorts and giggles as she reads, and even though Noah is three rows back and my earmuffs are on, I hear him popping gum. Madge says she doesn’t have a book, and Mr. Fabian sends her to the bookcase. Her shoelace charms clink-clank-plink with every step. She knocks books around on the shelf, picking one up, dropping it, flipping through another. Each noise bounces around the walls of my head like a rubber ball.

Mr. Fabian keeps saying “Shh” over and over.

I close my eyes, place my hands over the muffs again, and fly in my mind to the Boston Public Library, where librarians catalog all sounds. Inside voices, outside voices, they say. It’s where I can wrap myself in books like a blanket—

I feel a tap on my shoulder and open my eyes. Mr. Fabian is standing right next to me. “Amelia, how can you read with your eyes closed?”

Everyone turns to stare at me. I mumble, “How can I read with so much noise?”

Mr. Fabian pauses and bends down to speak so only I can hear. “I understand you’re trying something new this year.” He points to my earmuffs. “Are these part of the plan? Maybe you should take them off.”

I shake my head. “I like my new earmuffs.” Even with them, I feel as exposed as a bird on a wire.

I turn back to the page and pretend to read, hoping he will go away. Please don’t make everyone look at me again. I’m relieved when Jax asks him a question.

Things are no better when it’s time for my favorite subject. Mr. Fabian hands out fifth-grade math workbooks, but everyone asks him so many questions, he can’t get started talking about geometry and twelve-digit place values and long division.

I write my name inside the cover, concentrating on each stroke of each letter to block out Noah’s yawn, Lina’s complaints, and Madge’s groans. I flip through the clean pages, greeting the numbers like old friends.

At lunchtime, I clutch my brown bag, waiting near the door until the first rush of cafeteria noise dims: banging trays, ripping plastic, overtalking at too-crowded tables.

Shoulders tight, I take note of who sits where. Like last year, Deb is sitting with Kiki, Lina, and Emma. I see only their backs; everyone is clustered around Kiki. Her voice is sharp like a crow’s. In fourth grade, I tried to follow Deb into that circle, but it didn’t widen to include me.

Jax sits with Noah and Madge. Madge talks with an open mouth, and I see her chewed-up sandwich. She laughs hard when Noah burps after he guzzles chocolate milk. Some spills onto his shirt.

Nothing has changed. Except me. I touch my earmuffs again, so light on my head.

I walk the cafeteria perimeter to my table from last year, in the corner near the trash and recycling bins. I open my lunch bag and my copy of Alanna, even though I’ve read it five times. This way, no one will talk to me, and I can eat fast.

When it’s recess, I head to my place on the playground: inside the tube tunnel, my burrow. I curl up against the curve, back on hard plastic, knees near my eyes. Through the earmuffs I can still hear Kiki’s exaggerated screams, the creak of the swings, and Madge’s shouts of “You missed me.… No, not me! You’re it!” in a game of tag. But at least purple fluff cushions the noise.

I hear footsteps climbing up into the tube. Jax appears, but he stops when he sees me like a clog in a pipe. We stare at each other for a moment before he backs down the ladder, leaving me alone, like last year. It’s like my earmuffs are stop signs. Which is fine, I tell myself. Now I don’t have to share my tunnel.

Mr. Fabian asks everyone to make fall leaves for the bulletin board and to write our names on them. We will post our creations by our leaves all year. On each desk are scissors and orange, yellow, red paper. “Quiet conversation is okay during art,” he says.

No, I think, but it’s too late. Talk surges around me like someone turned on twenty-one radios inside my head. I hear Cassie’s voice overlapping with Tyler’s on top of Ryan’s. I press my muffs firmly on my ears.

Kiki taps me on the shoulder. I cautiously lower my hands, wondering why she’s talking to me.

“Is it snowing?” Kiki asks. Deb dramatically arches her neck to peer over Kiki’s shoulder.

I turn toward the windows. Outside, the street trees are starting to turn orange-yellow, matching our bright artwork.

“It’s fall,” I say to Deb-and-Kiki.

Kiki points at my head. “Then why are you wearing earmuffs inside?”

Everyone laughs.

“I can wear whatever I want,” I say, but no one pays attention.

By the time the last bell rings, I make up my mind. I will wear my earmuffs at lunch, at recess, at the library, when I take math tests. I will say, The headband holds my hair back, and I will wear them every day until no one notices them anymore.

Fifth grade will be the year of earmuffs.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (October 27, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1534463658
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1534463653
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 8 - 12 years
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 630L
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 3 - 7
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,608,948 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,957 in Children's Books on Disabilities
- #7,219 in Children's Self-Esteem Books
- #19,166 in Children's Friendship Books

Customer Reviews:
4.8 47 ratings

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Jennifer Gennari

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Jennifer Gennari is the author of MUFFLED (Simon & Schuster, 2020), a Junior Library Guild selection and Georgia Children's Book Award finalist, and MY MIXED-UP BERRY BLUE SUMMER (Houghton Mifflin, 2012), a Bank Street Best Children’s Books of the Year selection, and an American Library Association Rainbow List title. An engaging speaker, she teaches regularly at the Highlights Foundation and the Writing Barn. Her poetry has appeared in typishly, Lascaux Review, and several issues of the Marin Poetry Anthology. A graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts, she divides her time between the SF Bay Area and Vermont.

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Upstate New York

Great book by a great person

Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2021

Verified Purchase

Author Jen Gennari is personally connected to the book's theme of hypersensitivity to sound. She's a great writer, and generous person, too--her course for authors via the Highlights Foundation is excellent.

Helpful

Katie J Keridan

Touching, must-read book

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2023

My stepdaughter gave me this book for my birthday, and as someone with noise sensitivity (like the main character), I couldn't wait to read it...and it was even better than I hoped it would be! This book should be required reading in schools, as well as for any professionals who work with children. As a pediatric neuropsychologist, I've worked with so many neurodiverse children who constantly feel misunderstood, wish their parents "got" them, and desperately want friends who accept them as they are. This book covers all of that and more. The characters are so lovingly drawn, they instantly feel real, and you understand their motivations and behaviors even when you get frustrated at the choices they're making. I wish this book had been around when I was a child so I could have given it to people and said, "Here, this will help you understand me better." Highly recommend this delightful story of family, growing up, facing challenges, making friends, and figuring out how to be yourself.

Helpful

Mrs. L

Comforting and Heartwarming

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2022

I adored this book about Amelia and her struggle to fit into a loud world. As she begins fifth grade, new things are on the horizon. She will turn ten, and she gets her Charlie Card. But she also will no longer have her noise-canceling headphones, and probably worse--she must learn to play a musical instrument. Amelia uses her new ear muffs to help shield herself from noises, but she recognizes how alone she is as she watches her classmates develop friendships. When she chooses to learn the trombone, Amelia grows closer to Madge, a very loud girl with a gift for music. For the first time she wonders if she can be a person who needs the quiet, but also a person who can eat and play tag with her friends.

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Merriam Sarcia Saunders, LMFT

Sweet and empathic

Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2020

This is an incredibly sweet story of a ten year-old girl struggling with the noises in the world around her, as well as with the dynamics of changing friendships, being different, feeling unseen/misunderstood by some important adults in her world and still finding her way. An empathic read for any child who needs to march to the beat of their own drum (or, in this case, their own trombone!) however it may look, feel and sound.

Helpful

Blinka

A tender tale about friendship, differences and trombones

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2020

From the first page, the author draws the reader into Amelia's world in which ordinary sounds are overwhelming. As Amelia navigates teasing, making friends, and her first music classes, she must challenge herself to remove the ear muffs that buffer her from painful sounds, but also distance her from others. Amelia's experiences are both unique and universal, creating a story that readers allows readers to connect with her and empathize with her struggles.

Helpful

Christopher R. Low

Heartfelt and unique!

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2020

MUFFLED was a really creative spin on the story of a child finding her place and discovering friendship. The characters were well-drawn and realistic, and the tension was poignant and relatable. I learned a lot about noise sensitivity in the process of reading the book, but Jen Gennari managed to bring me into that world gradually and in a way that didn't disrupt the movement of the story. Beautiful!

Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2021

A time for quiet, a time for noise, and a time to MAKE noise! Such a beautiful story of Amelia and her struggle with noise sensitivity. Kiddos everywhere can learn from Amelia’s strength and courage to learn to adapt to a world full of noise.

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