Just Listen

Grandma teaches Tara how to listen to her own special song

A quiet story with limited appeal. On her monthly visits to her grandmother's cabin in the mountains, a city girl learns to listen for the silence and for her "own special song." Although Tara grows older and Grandma moves to the city, both are able to appreciate the country silence once more on a visit to the now-deserted cabin. Cullen-Clark's roughly realistic, bright pastel drawings are the true focus here. The grandmother, a sage woman with phosphorescent white hair, is a rugged individualist whose legacy to her granddaughter is the lesson of self-awareness. The format is crisp and clean, with text facing full-page illustrations, each bordered by a thin purple line. The important lesson this story teaches will be lost on those young readers who judge a book by its tale. --Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH
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