So Loud! - by Sahar Golshan (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A Quill & Quire Best Book of the Year! A fun and touching debut that explores the power of finding your voice.

Rudābeh (Rudy for short) loves to talk, sing, jump and shout. There's just one problem: the adults in her life are always telling her that she is SO LOUD. When her grandmother (Māmān Bozorg) visits from Iran for the first time, Rudy worries that she might be too loud for her. But as she tries to be quieter, Rudy starts to feel less and less like herself. Listening closely to the many sounds in her world--from husky howls and streetcar chimes to Māmān Bozorg's roaring sneezes--Rudy tries to figure out the full range of her own voice, discovering along the way the joy in being loud.

With exuberant illustrations by Shiva Delsooz, this charming story will resonate with readers who love to make noise and are still learning where and when to take up space.

Review Quotes

"This is a story I wish I'd read as a child--a touching story of a multigenerational family and a young girl discovering the power of her voice." --Jael Richardson, author of Because You Are and Executive Director of the Festival of Literary Diversity (The FOLD)

"This will make a great addition to any library/classroom/home who want to increase their multicultural collection or even just have a wonderful heartwarming story." --Youth Services Book Review, 02/23/24

"A sensory declaration of what it means to self-express, take up space, and to be one's self for all to hear. So Loud! welcomes the voices of girls to be bold and live out loud." --Nadia L. Hohn, author of Malaika's Costume

"Beautiful, healing, and hilarious . . . This book will resonate especially with anyone who has worried or has been told that they need to 'tone it down' in order to fit in. So Loud! is an important reminder that all of our voices matter." --Kai Cheng Thom, author of From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea

"A beautiful celebration of girls who spill outside set boundaries and their powerful flowing voices. You will fall in love with irrepressible Rudy and this howlingly sweet, roaringly sonic debut." --Kyo Maclear, author of The Wish Tree

About the Author

Sahar Golshan is a writer based in Mississauga, Ontario. She is the 2022 winner of the Marina Nemat Award for Creative Writing in Non-Fiction and received the 2019 Air Canada Short Film Award for her short documentary KAR.

Shiva Delsooz is an Iranian-Canadian children's book illustrator living in Ontario, Canada. She has always had a passion for drawing, as her mother can confirm by all the little doodles underneath her dining room table.