Byrd Baylor and Peter Parnall
Alladin, 1997.
From the Publisher: With a lot of practice, a young boy learns from his old teacher how to listen to the sounds and songs of the natural world. When you know “the other way to listen,” you can hear the wild-flower seed bursting open. You hear rocks murmuring and hills singing, and it seems like the most natural thing in the world. Of course, it takes a lot of practice, and you can’t be in a hurry. Most people never hear these things at all.
When I chose this book to read to the kids, I worried that the pictures were too abstract, that the story was a bit too quiet and slow. Was I ever wrong. They were captivated by this journey of learning how to listen, and by the mostly black/white/yellow illustrations. This is a book that teaches us to love the land, love all earth’s creatures, and take time to listen and learn.