The Little Woman Who Wanted Noise

Buy a copy of The Little Woman Wanted Noise. Read it several times over. Buy copies for others. Read it aloud to them, for a better children’s book with a better message is hard to find these days.

New York Review Children’s Collection recently re-released The Little Woman Wanted Noise and I would say it has come at a perfect time. The illustrations in this book were done by none other than Robert Lawson (of The Story of Ferdinand fame). This book was originally published 1943 and it tells the story about a little (older) woman who lives in a busy town. The town is growing at a rapid pace all around her and so she decides that what she really needs to do is get away from the noise and move to the country side, which she does. Once in the country she discovers peace and quiet – and the fact that she misses having some noise around her.

The little woman proceeds to populate her country farm home with a cow, some chickens, a dog and other barnyard animals. These all serve to make noise, but never enough to satisfy the woman. Finally, she decides to go to (what is obviously) an orphanage and there she adopts two little boys. They come to her house and then she has just the satisfactory noise that she was looking for.

“And the little woman had no rest.
But she had peace of mind.”

In a day and age where children are quite undervalued, I really appreciated this book. I appreciate the fact that there is a message being re-presented to society that says, “Yes, children do require work, time and attention. Yes, they create noise. But there is no greater blessing in the world than to have children around you.”

Now, I know that there are plenty of disobedient kids out there who aren’t made to obey and wreck havoc in public, disturbing the peace. But our society has deemed it important to forgo the training of children, opting instead to promote self-esteem. I would say that all this has resulted in is pure and unadulterated chaos and leaves the general populace fearful of having children anywhere around. (See this news article for proof.) But children can be trained and should be included in society. I think this book promotes that idea that children are worthwhile and add value to our lives. Yes, they make noise and yes they wear you out and keep you on your toes — but they are treasures all the same.

Many, many thanks to New York Review Children’s Collection for reprinting this book! Thanks also for sending a copy my direction for the purpose of facilitating this review. I received no additional compensation for this post and all opinions are (always) 100% my own.

Carrie blogs about books and life from a Christian worldview over at Reading to Know.