SILENCE SOUNDS SIMPLE

The music of silence is celebrated through the lens of a composer who appreciated it more than anyone.

Joining a wide array of picture books about John Cage, this title is more concerned with the essence of the artist’s work than the man’s life. “Thinking newly / freshly changes / your mind…changes you,” Golio writes, and indeed the book replicates Cage’s methodology. The author explains the myriad ways that the composer made music, whether it was by sticking screws, bolts, and rubber bands into guitar strings or playing 12 radios all at once. Then, on a spread labeled “Apartment Arabesque,” the yawns, clinks, and giggles of the morning work together in a symphony of sound. Golio’s philosophical text considers the questions that motivated Cage: “Is there / sound without silence / silence without sound?” A passionate mushroom hunter, Cage also mulls the music of the forest: “Who’s to say / that mushroom / spores / hitting the ground / don’t make a sound.” It all ends with a thought-provoking “Coda”: “YOU ARE / the music / the noise / the silence / so now / who’s listening?” Backmatter encapsulates Cage’s life, with side discussions of his thoughts on both silence and mushrooms. Reading this book aloud to young listeners allows for plenty of interaction as well. Golio’s text pairs well with D’Aquino’s eclectic cacophony of images, depicted in an array of purples, yellows, browns, and greens.

A mind-expanding exploration of what lies in the spaces between the notes.