This moving picture book set in 1930s Coney Island conveys the author’s memories of learning to explain the sounds of all things around him to his deaf parents. Author’s Note.

In this delightful picture book a young hearing boy goes to Coney Island with his two deaf parents. The boy's father wants to know what every thing sounds like, and the boy struggles to properly describe the sounds. After a trip to a library and a kind librarian who puts a book of poetry in his hand, the boy begins to feel more empathy for his deaf parents-- he knows he will never know what it will be like to be deaf and so he takes it upon himself to help his father "hear" the world in the way he does. Illustrated by Ted Papoulas, the book is engaging, heartfelt, and full of sound devices and imagery.

This book is about a little boy who is hearing but both his parents are deaf. His dad always asked him if he could tell him what something sounded like and the little boy always had trouble figuring it out. He went to the library one day and the librarian gave him a book of poems that had a description of what the ocean sounded like and he was excited to share it with his dad.
Ages:4-8
Source: pierce college

The author of this picture book, Myron Uhlberg, grew up in a world where he could hear every sound around him. His parents however were deaf. Uhlberg wrote this book, set in the 1930's in Brooklyn, about how his father wanted him to describe all of the sounds around him while visiting Coney Island. Uhlberg got frustrated, as it was hard for him to explain sounds to his father. In the end, he finds a book at the library that will help him describe sounds to his father.

This story was drawn from the author's real life experiences of being the hearing child of two deaf parents. The writing is beautiful and, since there is such a strong emphasis on descriptions, I think it could help students begin to think about metaphors and similes in their own writing.