The Best Sound in the World was published early September and is a delightful debut picture book written and illustrated by Cindy Wume.
Roy, the lion is passionate about music and to be a famous violinist he believes that he needs to collect beautiful sounds. His neighbor Jemmy, is a loveable, lively lemur who enjoys Roy’s company and has a love for music too. Jemmy is keen to help Roy on his search for great sounds but Roy finds his company a distraction and believes he doesn’t need assistance.
Roy sets off on an adventure visiting places near and far. Forests, mountains, deserts and more are explored with the intention of collecting a variety of sounds, but which one is the best sound?
The story lends itself to being such a great resource to use in literacy and phonics in a learning setting. The brilliant examples of onomatepoia through out the book and the attention to observing and listening carefully to sounds is representative of early phases of phonics work. Roy isn’t too dissimilar to a poem I love written by Roger McGough titled The Sound Collector. Roy too is passionate about sound but along the way he becomes so absorbed in his own work that he mistreats Jemmy, neglects him and doesn’t realise how good a friend Jemmy is.
On his return home Roy is overwhelmed by what he has collected but also feels deflated. He receives so many opinions on what the best sound in the world is but he just can’t decide and his longing for friendship becomes more and more evident.
Unbeknown to him Jemmy was supporting Roy on all his adventures. He was there every step of the way and if you look super carefully, amongst all the wonderful illustrations you see Jemmy looking out for his friend from afar on each double page.
After discovering this you see Roy and Jemmy’s friendship flourish. They equally value each other and begin to do more things together. Jemmy shows Roy that he adores his music but also gently shows Roy that perhaps there are many sounds to be adored, not just one.
Cindy Wume’s illustrations are absolutely wonderful and it is no surprise that her works have previously been selected at Bologna Book Fair Exhibition. Her illustrations are fun, the colours chosen are inviting and her work is so in keeping with the target audience for this read. (3 years and up.) I am excited to see future work from Cindy Wume.
The value of friendship and perseverance is explored in this charming read.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. We received this book from the publishers. All words and opinions are my own.