[Reviewed from Copy Courtesy of My Public Library.]

In Be Quiet! Rupert, whom we met earlier in Hotel Bruce, is excited to star is his own picture book. He assures readers that this picture book is going to be artistic and wordless. Or so he thinks!

Rupert meets up with two other mice, but they won’t stop talking! They talk about wordless books, they talk about not talking, they talk about how the book will be visually stimulating, and what other types of characteristics and events this wordless picture book will need. Rupert becomes more and more frustrated that these other mice are ruining his wordless picture book. After almost 28 pages of explicitly telling the other mice to be quiet, Rupert goes off on them. Yelling followed by a page-long rant about how they keep talking is only met with one of the verbal offenders telling Rupert to be quiet. Rupert storms off and the other two talkative mice decide that the book turned out alright and they hope to do another one soon.

Be Quiet! is told entirely in dialogue among three mice. It has fantastic vocabulary that is introduced in an extraordinarily playful way. The illustrations are rich with bold lines and colors. There’s a great texture-feel to the background that gives it an almost three-dimensional quality to it. The conversational dialogue makes for a face-paced and engrossing read. The accents of a hat, glasses, and buckteeth make for very endearing, extraordinarily loquacious, mice. Adults will be sympathetic to Rupert’s plight of only wanting some quiet, but realistically they’ll be too busy enjoying their children’s laughter.

This book is nominated for a Cybils Award in Fiction Picture Books. Have you nominated a book yet? You have until October 15th, 2017. I hope you will!  Click here to learn more. 

Where to Get it:

• [Affiliate Link]: Amazon.com
• [My Favorite Bookstore]: Addendum Books
• [Library]: Worldcat.org

Author/Illustrator Websites:

• Author:  Ryan T. Higgins

More Reviews:

• Kirkus Reviews
• Publishers Weekly

Where Obtained:  I received a review copy from my fantastic library. No other compensation was received.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

FTC Disclosures:  Some of the links in the post above are Amazon affiliate links. If you click on the link and purchase something, I will receive an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you. Which goes to fund my family’s picture book habit.  It’s a vicious cycle, but we manage.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”