The Listening Walk: A Heartwarming Picture Book About a Father and Daughter Discovering Sounds for Kids

by Paul Showers, Aliki (Illustrator)

With art by home and classroom favorite Aliki,  The Listening Walk  will remind both adults and kids of the wonders all around them...if they slow down and  listen . 
“A fine resource for studying the senses.” — Booklist Put on your socks and shoes—and don't forget your ears! We're going on a listening walk.  Shhhhh.  Do not talk. Do not hurry. Get ready to fill your ears with a world of wonderful and surprising sounds. A little girl and her father take a quiet walk and identify the sounds around them. Soon the girl discovers an extraordinary world of sounds in her everyday environment.

Genres: Picture Books, Nature, Science, Childrens, Family, Teaching, Pre K

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

Reviews

[Manal Cheikh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect book for children to learn about the sense of hearing, or as an introduction to a class walk outside. This book has great illustrations and teaches kids to listen to the environment around them instead of always making noise.

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

2021
Gift from Harper's grandmother

[Stacy Natal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a great story to introduce onomatopoeia, or as an introduction to a S.M.A.R.T lesson about using your hearing/listening skills, or as a walk to get students to connect with nature or breathe deeply. I liked it because it is something that all students could try in different settings.

[Briana]

Good concept. Felt really long while reading it.

[Jon Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about listening. A young girl takes a walk with her father and their pet dog, as they walk through various parts of a town she describes all the different noises that she can hear.

I like this book although I feel it is a little long and features some Americanisms that may grate a little e.g. sneakers instead of trainers and jet instead of aeroplane (when I read this book to a nursery class I changed the words accordingly). It covers a wide array of sounds one might hear, from footsteps to bees buzzing and the children love joining in with the noises. It could lead to taking groups of children out on listening walks with clipboards to record what they can hear. I also tied this in with road safety and the importance of listening out for cars as it was clear from a school trip that a lot of the children needed to learn road safety.

So not perfect but the idea carries the book through and it is easily adaptable. You could use it in Year 1 at a push but I would say it is better suited to Nursery and Reception aged children.

[Ruby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for pre-k children. It does a great job at using onamanpeas so that children can understand what some things might sound like. Children are curious at this age and some sounds may be new to them so it might be exciting to know that you can listen for different things.


Activity extension: We can play a Simon says" game where you tell children to do something that makes a sound that you instruct. For example, Simon says to crack.

[CHARISSA MITCHELL · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: The narrator, a little girl, goes for walks with her father and her dog, Major, go for a walk, and they do not talk, so the girl listens, and she hears a lot of different sounds. At first, she hears her dogs toenails on the sidewalk, her father’s shoes, but she does not hear quiet sneakers. Then, she hears a lawn mower and different sprinklers. Next, she hears different kinds of cars—quiet, new cars and old, noisy ones. She hears a bike, a crying baby, and a basketball. Then, she hears a lady in heals walking then she hears her running to catch a bus. Then, she hears the bus door open, and she hears it drive off. Next, she hears someone using a jackhammer, but it is so loud that she has to cover her ears. Then, she and her father and her dog go into the park where it is much quieter and she hears her father’s shoes and birds. They also feed baby ducks who have their own unique quack while the larger ducks stay to themselves, but they also have their own unique quack. She also hears a woodpecker and bees. Although it is fun to go on a “listening walk,” it is possible to listen wherever you are; you can even be quiet and listen whenever you finish reading the book.

My Thoughts: This book was a lot of fun to read and try to replicate the sounds. Also, it had sweet pictures and a very, very good message about how it is okay not to talk and to just listen and be alone with your own thoughts. Being silent and thinking almost does not exist anymore because people spend almost every “bored” moment on technology. The only thing I did not like is how the book was very simple and did not talk very much about the philosophy, the reasons behind the importance of listening.

Connection to Teaching: 1) I would use this book to explain how it is important to be still, to watch, and to listen, and to be alone with your thoughts. 2) Also, I would teach them that it is okay to be with someone and not necessarily talk but just to be together.

[Braelyn Carwile · Rating 3 out of 5]

The listening walk is about a young boy who goes on walks with his father and dog. He doesn't talk during these walks, instead he listens to things around him. He only notices a few things at first, but with time he is able to hear what he couldn't notice before.
This is a very cute book with wonderful illustrations. I liked the call to action at the end and I think we can all learn something from this book. Now when everything is loud and in you face it is nice to just be quite and listen. This book was published in 1961 and we can still learn a lot from it.
In my classroom I would use this to teach observation. I think it would be fun for my students to go on their own listening walk and to write what they hear. This could also be used to learn onamonapias. Most of the time when children learn about them it is just animal noises and instruments, but this book could help demonstrate how vast they can be used.

[Maiss Lukyana · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Listening Walk” is a perfect book for children who are in 1st grade. It's a fiction that shows science. These are some things kids in those grades will enjoy and help them stay interested in the material.

It is especially inspiring to young girls. This fiction is a great book for students to discover different sounds. This book is about a young girl who goes on a walk with her father and dog. During her walk, she hears all the different sounds. The girl starts to identify all the sounds on the walk. She then discovers an extraordinary world of these sounds that she sees in her everyday environment.

I would choose this book for my classroom library since representation matters and to normalize all the different sounds we hear every day. This book is great for students to learn more about science.

[E & E’s Mama · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book to teach children about mindfulness. It’s a longer book, so it’s appropriate for preschoolers and up, but Elliot just adores it, so it works for toddlers as well. A girl goes on a quiet walk with her dog and dad, listening to as many different sounds as she can. Elliot likes to hear me make the sounds of the “chuff chuff chuff” of shoes on a path, the “zoooom” of the lawn mower, the “chroooof” of a bus, the “dak dak dak” of a jackhammer, etc. We take a lot of walks to the playground every week, so I have been asking “what sounds can we hear on our listening walk”, which has been a nice practice for me as much for him!

[Mary Alexandre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Close you eyes and listen.What do you hear? Paul Showers takes our ears on a journey filled with the everyday sounds heard by a little girl on a simple walk with her Dad and dog. The illustrations by Aliki are beautifully simplistic while capturing the essence of the text. This story is a wonderful teaching tool full of examples of onomatopoeia. Whether reading this book or having it read to you, lots of fun can be had as the sounds come to life on the pages. I would recommend this book for all ages as a teaching tool and for elementary students as a fun read.

[Lillian Hazzard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The listening walk is an engaging book that can be used one on one or in groups for a variety of purposes. Illustrations clearly match the text, which allows early readers to focus primarily on the use of onomatopoeia. With larger groups, you could also pair the book with a listening activity where students describe the various sounds around them. Regardless of the activity, I would choose to do, I believe I would add a writing activity where students experimented with various sound-effect spellings.

[Betul Kilinc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this book in school when I was younger and going on our own class listening walk after we read it. I think this is a great book to get children to think of all the different sounds that they might not even realize that they hear every day around them. And after reading the story it would be a fun activity to go on a listening walk. This is also a great book to read when learning about onomatopoeia.

[Lana · Rating 5 out of 5]

The concept of this book, Listening walk, may be somewhat difficult to understand for children, but it may provide interesting play for children who are sensitive to natural sounds and surrounding sounds. The author expresses various sounds that are often heard in our surroundings using monophonic languages. At the end of the book, the suggestion to focus on the sounds of the children around them adds interest to the book.

[Sterlande Altidor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has great illustrations, and teaches children to listen to the environment. This book will help children uses their senses to find out more about their surroundings. It is a great book to introduce children to their outside world so that they could observe and participate in Science activity. I think that this book is also a great way for children to call attention about their senses awareness.

[Jewel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book of onomatopoeia and the sounds that are all around us that we do not pay attention to. This would be a good book to read to a child before taking a walk and asking them to listen to the sounds they hear outside. The pictures are simple but realistic of things and people one might see outside. This book also shows that it is okay to be quiet and just listen to what is going on around you.

[Kimberly Medley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Listening Walk has a variety of onomatopoeia of different sounds that describe the item in the book. This can be a good book for teachers to utilize during the five senses unit and can give the opportunity for the children to get familiar with the items and the sounds they make. Also, the teacher can read the story first and then have the children listen to different sounds and try to guess what item matched it.

[Tami Speakman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has so many action sounds in it that it will be fun for the adult or child to read. The book explains that a child doesn't need a TV or device they can listen around them and find something new a different. The children can create a listening game on their own too as they walk, the children can count how many sounds they hear as the book suggests. When you are not busy talking or working on a device you can see and hear so many things, this is wonderful to show children nowadays.

[Jessica Javier · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is great for children to learn how to hear the sound of the outside. this can be a great way for children to do an activity by listening and memorizing the sounds of different things and talk about it when returning to classroom. this book has great pictures. this book has great sizes. great for children.

[RC · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can you hear when you're out for a walk? The tap of your shoes, the whirr of the sprinklers, the chug of the bus? This classic picture book encourages you to slow down and listen to the noises all around you. While the illustrations are a bit dated, the book would still make a great read-aloud for a story time about the senses or an introduction to a listening walk of your own!

[Amy Buthelezi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story teaches children how to use their ears to discover the new sounds around them. This may be a good story for children who are visually impaired. This story has onomatopoeia and emerging vocabulary words. It also describes many concepts including transportation, occupations, nature, clothing, and location.

[Jade · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells the story of a young girl who walks in nature with her father discovering different sounds around her. It is a good listening book for small readers that will allow for open ended questions about what she hears along her walk. This book is a great read for young listeners who are starting to be familiar with the world around them.

[Bethany Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book because it shows children what they might hear when they listen. There are so many interesting sounds around us. This could be used as a fun classroom activity. The children could be encouraged to listen to the sounds around them and mimic the sounds they hear, just as the author did in the book.

[Sophonie Joseph-Canel · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my classroom I play the listening game with my toddler’s Facebook is a great way to also incorporate listening skills while playing this game. I love all the different sounds that you can ask them if they hear because they are listening and they are quiet definitely a great book to read right before naptime or before lunch.

[Josefina Bustos]

The promotion of listening skills is essential in early childhood settings. This story brings life to everyday sounds that most of us tune out. Children are encouraged to listen to their surroundings and enjoy identifying them. This story can also be used to promote self-soothing strategies but talking listening walks.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

She's not 4 for another few days, but I'm rounding up. She liked this book. I could hear a car running, birds, and the cat futsing about in the kitchen when we closed the book to listen. We're planning to go on a listening walk, but it's an unusually cold morning in NYC, so not sure when we're going to do it.

[Makenzie VanderHorst · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so good for the five senses. It shows really good pictures and it is so cute. This describes using their senses to find out more about their surroundings, a great concept for pre-k -1. Using the book as an introduction to a class walk outside is a wonderful option, and underscores an amazing amount of learning to be done about habitat and community.

[Darrie McCain Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book. I would talk to the children about the different things they hear throughout the day both in school and on the way home. I think this discussion will make the children more aware of their surroundings and what they are hearing. This is a really good book and it makes you think about what's going on around you.

[Lauren Mowrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The listening book is a fantastic book for the classroom. This book has lots of onomatopoeias to expose children to what things sound like. This book can be used to talk about childrens listening skills and what things they could hear if they stay quiet. This book is also a great read for if your taking the class on a walk\.

[Neona Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Listening Walk tells a story of what this child sees on their walk. This book is a great book for Literacy shows the different sounds from busy city sounds the quiet nature sounds. This book also has great illustrations children will enjoy seeing. I would recommend this book to parents and teachers of pre-k and kindergarten children