Too Much Noise

A fun approach to a classic Yiddish folktale about contentment. A man is unhappy with his "noisy" cottage, so he goes to the local wise man to ask advice. The advice is to keep adding more and more noisy animals to his home! When the animals are all finally gone, the man realizes his home was always nice and quiet to begin with. Young children are invited to join in the story with the constantly growing list of sounds.

A different take on the same folktale is "It Could Always Be Worse" by Margot Zemach.

A secular version of a Yiddish folktale, "It Could Always Be Worse," good for young children---few words and lots of repetition. The rabbi has been replaced by a wise man and the unhappy occupant of a noisy home lives alone instead of with a large family. Interesting to compare it to Marilyn Hirsh's Could Anything Be Worse?, my favorite version.

An old man can't stand the noise in his house and seeks a wise mans advice. The advice? Bring some animals home! The noise becomes too much for the old man. Great story about being happy with what you have and knowing that it could always be worse. Great for grades 1-4

A good version of the well known Jewish folktale, McGovern's retelling is detailed enough to appeal to older children and adults, while still managing to retain the simplicity, the repetition and the humour that makes this tale a favorite of young children. (see the flannel board version from Judy Sierra). Simms Taback's illustrations--lively, colorful and fun--only enhance the retelling of this well loved classic. One of my current favorites, it is a favorite when storytelling for all ages and it should circulate widely

An old story, retold nicely with lots of repetition and onomatopoeia for small children. I knew it with a rabbi for the wise man; the book retains a yiddish sensibility somehow without being overtly Jewish at all.

I love this book. It's about an old man who thinks his house it too noisy. So he goes to get advice from the wise old man. He tells him to put in a whole bunch of random, noisy animals. Throughout the story his house becomes louder and louder and each time he returns to the wise old man for more advice. In the end the wise old man tell him to take out all of the animals and his house is finally quiet. He realizes it was quiet before.

(fiction, easy, folktale) This patterned language book is reminiscient of folktales/songs from Jewish heritage. Peter, the old man, is frustrated by the peaceful sounds of a hissing tea kettle and blowing leaves on his roof. He goes to a wise man who suggest he incorporate several farm and domestic animals into his household. Now Peter's home is so noisy that he can't think straight. Following the wise man's advice he releases all the animals he has acquired, and is dumbfounded as to how peaceful his home really was. This book is a good tool to explore Folklore, but also the old adage to be grateful for what you have. I think a fun activity to accompany this book would be (for the younger set) to make animal face masks (from the book- show more dog, cat, horse,donkey etc) on paper plates (with popsicle sticks for their hands to hold them with) and encourage the children to hold the plates in front of their faces and make the various animal noises together at the same time. The teacher/adult could ring a loud bell(or the like) and that would signal silence at which point the children would stop making their noises. The teacher/adult could talk about how quiet vs. how noisy it is. show less