The Country Noisy Book

Noisy Books

by Margaret Wise Brown, Leonard Weisgard (Illustrator)

A little dog goes to the country and hears the sounds of donkeys, squirrels, turkeys, owls, crickets, pigs, and frogs

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

Margaret Wise Brown wrote hundreds of books and stories during her life, but she is best known for Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. Even though she died nearly 70 years ago, her books still sell very well.

Margaret loved animals. Most of her books have animals as characters in the story. She liked to write books that had a rhythm to them. Sometimes she would put a hard word into the story or poem. She thought this made children think harder when they are reading.

She wrote all the time. There are many scraps of paper where she quickly wrote down a story idea or a poem. She said she dreamed stories and then had to write them down in the morning before she forgot them.

She tried to write the way children wanted to hear a story, which often isn't the same way an adult would tell a story. She also taught illustrators to draw the way a child saw things. One time she gave two puppies to someone who was going to draw a book with that kind of dog. The illustrator painted many pictures one day and then fell asleep. When he woke up, the papers he painted on were bare. The puppies had licked all the paint off the paper.

Margaret died after surgery for a bursting appendix while in France. She had many friends who still miss her. They say she was a creative genius who made a room come to life with her excitement. Margaret saw herself as something else - a writer of songs and nonsense.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

So yes, I do find it at best a trifle problematic and also disconcerting that unlike in The Summer Noisy Book (where Margaret Wise Brown in fact has little dog Muffin travel with his owners to the country in the family car) in The Country Noisy Book, Muffin has to actually travel as unaccompanied cargo on a train and a boat, as the family's vacation trip to the country seemingly involves airplane travel. And because in the 1940s, dogs were obviously (from the wording of The Country Noisy Book) not yet allowed on airplanes, this presented scenario does indeed mean a trip for poor Muffin all alone in a small and dark wooden crate (where he can hear sounds but also cannot really see anything).

And I do indeed find myself at the beginning of The Country Noisy Book generally totally aching with sympathy for Muffin, as he is not only all alone on that train, unable to see and is hearing a multitude of strange and unfamiliar sounds (and does not even know where he is with regard to time and place), Margaret Wise Brown's rather matter-of-fact and lackadaisical wording regarding how Muffin is confined to his crate and then simply shipped off also shows that Brown (and probably society in general) in 1940 obviously thought that Muffin (that a pet dog) all alone and travelling in a wooden box was probably considered a basically animal-friendly way to have pets travel and join their families on vacation (which I for one totally and absolutely do not, and in my opinion, Muffin's owners should either have vacationed somewhere that could be reached by car or they should have taken Muffin to a local boarding kennel while they were on their trip to the country).

Therefore, while do find the bulk of The Country Noisy Book enjoyable and appreciate how Margaret Wise Brown through canine Muffin often very much onomatopoeically shows her young readers (or listeners) the many sounds of the country (from loud noises to more quiet ones, from animals to even the impression that Muffin is able to hear the grass grow) and that Leonard Weisgard's accompanying illustrations certainly do provide a visually delightful and colourful mirror to and expansion of Margaret Wise Brown's text, my personal issues with how Muffin is shipped as cargo and is basically totally alone and likely also frightened and unsure on his solo trip to meet up with his family, with his owners, this really does emotionally bother me to such an extent that I really can only consider a very low three stars for The Country Noisy Book (and I actually also think I am being rather generous here, for if I would truly follow my gut reaction, I would most likely be rounding The Country Noisy Book down to but two stars).

[Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seventy-four years later, this book is more of a history lesson in how life was back then. Family trip to the country? Good news, Muffin, you're going to join us for the first time in your short simple life.

Only you are going there in a box.

Not in a car with the family, not in the plane the family took. Looking at the tiny fighter the family's riding out to the country, it's a wonder the kids weren't packed into boxes on the train as well.

A tale full of fun noises to make for your child, then repeatedly ask what each noise was.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muffin, a little dog, was put into a box and transported by train and boat to meet his family in the country. All along the way he heard new sounds. Cute illustrations. Readers are involved in thinking about what Muffin was hearing.

[Kerri · Rating 5 out of 5]

a fun book with lots of sounds for kids to say and name the animals.