Hush! A Thai Lullaby

Ho, M. (1996). Hush! A Thai lullaby. New York, NY: Orchard Books.

Read on June7, 2012.  A 1997 Caldecott Honor award book.

Being a new mom myself, I value peace and quiet while my baby girl is sleeping. This is not just an American thing, either. The mother in this book is desperate to have the creatures around her "Hush!" while her baby is trying to sleep. She goes to all the animals that are making even the tiniest of noises in an effort to help her baby get a little bit more sleep. Once everyone and everything is finally quiet and asleep, including the mom, the only person awake is the baby.


The illustrations in this book are similar to that of Lon Po Po in that the art is flat and primitive, indicative of folk art and stories. The drawings are bright and take on a different look than those animals that we are used to in the United States.

The author of this book allowed some mystery before what animal is making the noise that could wake up the baby. Students can use their prior knowledge of animal noises to infer what animal is making the noise on the next page (Mosaic of Thought). Doing so really relies on a student’s knowledge of animals. For example, if a student knows what a sty is and that pigs live there, they will be able to infer that the animal sniffling in the sty is a pig. I believe that poetry leads itself to active reading as well (Fish), especially since this book has animal noises.