The Sound of Colors: A Journey of the Imagination

by Jimmy Liao

Book Overview

A young woman losing her vision rides the subway with her dog in search of emotional healing. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316939927
• ISBN13: 9780316939928
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.4" x 9.8"
• Age Range: 6 to 9 years
• Grade Range: Grades 1 to 4

Customer Reviews

A Multi-Layered Book of the Journey Towards Hope

With allusions to "The Wizard of Oz," "Alice in Wonderland," and psychologist/anthropologist C. G. Jung, "Color of Sounds" tells teh story of a blind young girl who rides a vast subway network because "I have a journey to go on. There are some thing I need to find." What follows is a remarkable narrative about internal and external discovery, with some of the most luscious and creative illustrations in recent memory. The girl disembarks at various subway stops (subway illustrations are always panelled strips running across the middle of a two page spread), and climbs colorfully patterned stairs (often reminscent of M.C.Escher) and arrives at archtypal settings: An apple tree sitting Eden-like in a verdant forest, alongside dolphis and atop a whale, a topiary-adorned maze. Jimmy Liao presents his metaphors on both adult and children's levels. While adults may recognize the symbolic conflicts and issues presented by a maze; for example, children benefit from the explicit text: "Sometimes the street twist themselves into a maze.But if you look hard enough, there's always a way out. Other sections may benefit from discussion at an age-appropriate level. At one subway station, there are four trains going in both directions, all filled with people, and all colored differently. THe girl stands between them, "Which is the right one? It's easy to get lost underground." At his point, she seems to take her own route, riding a kiddie train (decorated with motifs decorated a la Guaguin, Matisse, and others), then abandons the train to a white swan swimming against a cloudy yet luminescent background (a mystically beautiful and serene illustration). She slowly arrives at her answers. "HOme is the place where everything I've lost is waiting patiently for me to find my way back." She realizes that because she "went forward, step by step, into the dark," used her other sense (listening "for the sound of colors I can't see"; smelling the shapes and tasting "the light and dark," and hoping for someone "who'll sit beside me, sip tea, tell me her hopes for the future, and listen to mine." (Here, the two-page spread depicts her sitting on a green oval-shaped chair, surrounded by four rows of empty chairs in various colors, shapes, and sizes. Towards the conclusion, the young girl encounters a butterfly, whom she believes may offer the answers to her hopes and dreams: She'll tale me to the friend I need to find. She'll lead me to the place where all the colors are. she'll bring me back to the light that I lost, still glowing here, in my heart. An enormously colorful mosaic of birds, flowers, eyes, and other motifs surround the now smiling girl, when Liao write "in my heart." It's neither saccharine or precious. While the book may be read at many levels, and it simulatneously present many emotions and moods (fear, comfort, solitude, hope, wonder) the overall effect is an almost staggering visual and narrative display of poetry. The undertones can be dark and may e

An incredible journey inward

A pity that Hollywood has ruined so many story endings by making them all so damn uplifting. What's wrong with a little melancholy? A year ago I began to notice that my sight was slipping away. I sat home alone and felt the darkness settle around me. In Liao's bittersweet telling, a blind narrator ventures forth into the subway, searching for an unnamed something or someone. It quickly becomes clear that nothing can restore her eyesight, but acquiring vision is another, more heartfelt, matter. Originally written in Chinese, the translation is set in New York, but it could well be any teeming, multi-ethnic city. At each subway station the girl alights onto an imagined landscape; dolphins frisk at one, clouds drift below another. It's choc-a-bloc with allusions, first to childhood classics: the monster from Where the Wild Things Are or Hans Christian Anderson's the steadfast tin soldier, to name only two. Liao then pays subtle homage to some of Modern Art's great colorists; watch for visual references to Matisse, Mondrian, Chagall and even Escher's monochromatic dreamscapes as she descends and ascends, again and again, tap-tapping out the new terrain where memory and wishfulness intersect. The narrator's endearing for her refusal to let darkness define her world or narrow her possibilities, an important example for shy children especially. This story dares them to be brave and independent, to explore and feel and hear and really see.

The colors of my life are softer than a breeze

Okay, I need you to make two lists on two separate sheets of paper. On one sheet I want you to write down all the picture books you can think of that deal with kids who are going to be or already are blind. Got that? Okay, now on the other sheet I want you to write down all the picture books you can think of that were originally written in Chinese and have been translated into English. All right, pencils down, and let's see what you have. Now if you're like me you probably had a devil of a time coming up with any titles at all. I'm a children's librarian and work with picture books every day. Just the same, I found myself stumbling over whether or not I could think of any children's books, picture and otherwise, that spoke about blindness. Obviously there are some out there, but I've just never been privy to them. As for Chinese translations, American publishers are notoriously frightened of introducing books from other cultures into the American market. Credit Little, Brown and Company then with what may well be one of the finest transplantations of Chinese children's literature in years. Originally this book came to my attention because my fellow children's literature bloggers were cooing so loudly over it. Part over-the-top dreamscape, part personal journey, the book is one of those remarkable stories offering up personal reflections without a drop of self-pity. Our heroine is a girl in a red backpack a pair of blue-tinted sunglasses. The first sentences in the book read, "A year ago I began to notice that my sight was slipping away. I sat at home alone and felt the darkness settle around me. But today I walked outside into the thin gray rain and made my way to the subway. I have a journey to go on. There are some things I need to find". It starts out slowly. The gray colorless subway doesn't offer much for the imagination, but our heroine starts to think and dream. She wonders what the world will be like when she reaches a different stop. Her mind begins to expand upon the places the train might take her and the occupants of those trains. When she exits stations she sometimes thinks, "What if I stepped out into an ocean?", and sometimes, "I wonder what would happen if I stepped off the last stair and found nothing beneath my foot". In this way she flies downward, soars upwards, and the stations become more and more colorful and powerful. Trains can be filled with passengers wearing sunglasses identical to the girl's or filled with Tin Woodsmen, for no particular reason. The girl glides on the back of a swan or sits in a library windowseat as an orange sunset suffuses the room. At last she returns home to find the light she lost that still glows, "in my heart". The final image is of the girl entering a home that has vibrant stained glass walls of enormous colors, images, and comforts. By and large, you don't normally come across picture books that are 80 pages long. There's a level of sophistication to, "The Sou

A Must Read!

Jimmy Liao was born in Taipei, and is the author and illustrator of more than twenty books that have been translated into numerous languages. The Sound of Colors has been adapted into a stage play and motion picture by a Hong Kong filmmaker. A young girl began losing her eyesight a year ago. And while she doesn't have her vision to guide her, she has her white cane and her imagination to help her on her subway journey. While on the subway ride she sees sights and colors in her mind. Some she remembers, others she creates as she learns about the new world around her--the world where she must imagine. The young girl is compelling and strong. She doesn't allow her disability to get the best of her. She is determined to be independent and the reader will be inspired and rejoice in her courage. The words are beautiful and lyrical. The watercolor illustrations envelop the reader and we become lost in the details of the pictures. All children will benefit from reading Liao's book. It may help them think about the senses they use daily and take for granted. For children who are visually challenged, it puts words to what they may feel but don't have the verbal ability to express. As the mother of a blind child, The Sound of Colors brought tears to my eyes as I clearly saw what it must be like for my son. And I appreciate and applaud Mr. Liao's desire to write a book for the thousands of children who live in darkness. What an encouragement to imagine! Armchair Interviews says: A must read book for children Grade 1-5.