Sonam and the Silence

Review

In Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, little Sonam’s world is dark and silent. Then one day, our protagonist follows a magical melodious sound to a walled garden, and her world is silent no more.

The sound is music, and it lifts her up among the stars and takes her deeper than the tree roots in the earth. How can she hold on to this extraordinary feeling in a world where music is forbidden?

Author Eddie Ayres, who grew up in England, has drawn on his experience of teaching music for a year in Kabul to write this lyrical, fable-like story about the irrepressible power of music.

Ronak Taher’s dream-like layered illustrations would be the perfect starting point for a class collage project, while the story makes an excellent leaping off point for discussions about empathy, thankfulness and how pupils would feel if something they loved was suddenly deemed forbidden.