The children’s book Too Much Noise by Ann McGovern was first published when I was three years old, but somehow it had managed to stay off my radar until my friend Kathleen recently brought me her copy to read. As soon as I read it, I knew that I would review it. In fact, the very reason that “Quiet” is this month’s theme came from ideas she and I discussed the day she brought me her copy and told me how much she and her children had enjoyed it.

It’s a classic that many of you will remember, but in case, like me, you’ve been under a rock in a remote wilderness for the last half century or so, I’ll bring you up to speed. An old man named Peter lives in an old house that makes far too many noises. The floor squeaks, the bed creaks, the leaves rustle, the tea kettle whistles—a real cacophony, right?

So Peter visits the wise man of the village who tells him to get a cow. When Peter returns and tells the wise man that the cow makes too much noise, the wise man says, “Get a donkey.” Subsequent trips to the wise man result in Peter’s adding a sheep, a hen, a dog, and a cat.

When Peter returns to the wise man and rages that all those animals are way too loud, the wise man tells him to let all the creatures go. Peter follows his advice and returns to his house, where the floor squeaks, the bed creaks, the leaves rustle, and the tea kettle whistles, and Peter says, “Ah. Oh. How quiet my house is,” and falls into a deep sleep.

This would be a fun book to read aloud with children because it’s repetitive and noisy in the vein of “Old MacDonald.” But I love this book because it demonstrates, through simple folk wisdom and clever illustrations, the importance of shifting perspective.

At first, Peter is driven to distraction by little noises that are disproportionately bothersome. As is typical when we’re looking at things negatively, he can’t concentrate or sleep. He’s cranky. According to Linda David in TD Magazine, “Carrying negative viewpoints saps our energy; it weighs us down both mentally and spiritually. Imagine how you could use that energy in other ways.” Indeed, when Peter is able to contrast the sounds in his house with mooing, braying, baaing, clucking, woofing, and meowing, he realizes that things were pretty good to begin with. And he falls fast asleep. He changes his perception—that’s the first takeaway from the book.

The change in Peter is rapid because he learns through direct experience. If the wise man had said, “Oh, but that isn’t loud! You want to know loud? You should hear what my house sounds like,” Peter would likely have defended his position of everything being too noisy. Of course the problem was the sounds he heard, not his perception of them!

But the character is, after all, a wise man, so he barely looks up from his book as he advises Peter to get farm animals and bring them into his house. Peter obliges in part because the wise man is so dispassionate about the advice he gives.

This reminds me of Parenting with Love and Logic, where parents are advised to let kids make choices and then let the consequences do the teaching. The hardest part of Love and Logic for me was to stop talking. As soon as I opened my mouth to explain, the teachable moment was lost.

So from this book about Too Much Noise, the second takeaway for me is to remember the importance of remaining quiet when a friend shares a problem with me. She probably doesn’t want advice; she’s likely looking for comfort and a friendly ear, and maybe a shoulder to cry on. She wants empathy. (For a great short video on empathy, check out Brené Brown’s video on YouTube.) I don’t even have to be particularly wise—she’s probably not looking for that. I simply need to listen with compassion.

I’m grateful to Kathleen for sharing this book with me. I’m always searching for titles (adult and children’s books) that I can share on DoYouMind.life. If you have a book that you love and that might go well with a future theme, please tell me about it!

Until next time,