The Sound of Silence

By Katrina Goldsaito, Julia Kuo (illustrator),

Book cover of The Sound of Silence

Book description

Yoshio thinks Tokyo sounds like a symphony hall! He delights in everyday sounds--shoes squishing through puddles, raindrops pattering down, and lots of giggles! But one day he meets a musician who tells Yoshio that her favorite sound is ma, the Japanese word for the sound of silence. Yoshio must hear…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Sound of Silence as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Little Yoshio lives in noisy Tokyo, where “the sounds of the city swirled all around him” like a “symphony hall.” As he walks around on a rainy day, absorbing these sounds, he comes upon a woman playing a koto, a stringed instrument. The woman shares that her favorite sound is “ma,” or silence. So, Yoshio begins a search for the sound of silence but can’t find it anywhere! Buses and trains aren’t silent; even bamboo stalks make a swishing sound. Everywhere he goes, Yoshio hears sounds but not silence. Finally, he discovers that silence is “underneath every sound.” A lovely,…

From Deborah's list on mindfulness and silence.

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