Sound: Discovering the Vibrations We Hear

by Olga Fadeeva, Lena Traer (Translator)

Overview

"Brimming with cogent insights, delightful visuals, and infectious wonder." - Kirkus Reviews (STARRED REVIEW)

Sound — in both science and history — is explored in this dynamic, illustrated nonfiction picture book from award-winning author-illustrator Olga Fadeeva.

Do you ever wonder about sound—what is it, anyway?

How do we produce and hear sound? How do birds, dolphins, and humans use sounds to communicate? What does life look like without sound? How has the sound of music developed over the centuries? How are sounds sent across thousands of miles? How has technology—phonographs, cassettes, radio, computers—changed how we share sound? Can sounds even affect our health?

Author Olga Fadeeva (Wind: Discovering Air in Motion, Water: Discovering the Precious Resource All Around Us) explores sound’s vital role on our planet in this playful, wide-ranging tour through physics, technology, musicology, language, and more. Throughout the book, “Try It!” sections encourage children to create their own sound experiments. 

Translated from Russian by Lena Traer, and part of Eerdmans’ Spectacular STEAM for Curious Readers series.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467469722
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	08/26/2025
Series:	Spectacular STEAM for Curious Readers (SSCR)
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	56
Age Range:	8 - 14 Years

About the Author

Olga Fadeeva is the author and illustrator of Water: Discovering the Precious Resource All Around Us, Wind: Discovering Air in Motion (Eerdmans), and many other books for children. Wind earned a starred review from Kirkus and was named a USSBY Outstanding International Book, and Water earned starred reviews from Booklist and School Library Journal. Olga’s art has been honored in Italy, China, and her home country of Russia. Follow Olga on Instagram @olgafadeeva_illustrations.

Lena Traer is a Russian- and English-language translator with a focus on books for children and young adults. She has translated Wind: Discovering Air in Motion, Water: Discovering the Precious Resource All Around Us, and On the Edge of the World (all Eerdmans) into English and has also translated a variety of picture books and scientific materials into Russian. Born and raised in Siberia, Russia, Lena now lives in San Francisco.
Olga Fadeeva is the author and illustrator of Water: Discovering the Precious Resource All Around Us, Wind: Discovering Air in Motion (Eerdmans), and many other books for children. Wind earned a starred review from Kirkus and was named a USSBY Outstanding International Book, and Water earned starred reviews from Booklist and School Library Journal. Olga’s art has been honored in Italy, China, and her home country of Russia. Follow Olga on Instagram @olgafadeeva_illustrations.
Lena Traer is a Russian- and English-language translator with a focus on books for children and young adults. She has translated Wind: Discovering Air in Motion, Water: Discovering the Precious Resource All Around Us, and On the Edge of the World (all Eerdmans) into English and has also translated a variety of picture books and scientific materials into Russian. Born and raised in Siberia, Russia, Lena now lives in San Francisco.

Editorial Reviews

"Fadeeva’s work is chock-full of clear explanations, suggestions for experimenting with sound, elegant infographics, and rich vocabulary, all defined in context...Brimming with cogent insights, delightful visuals, and infectious wonder." — Kirkus Reviews (STARRED REVIEW)

From the Publisher

★ 2025-05-03
A compendium on the science and history of sound.

Fadeeva’s work is chock-full of clear explanations, suggestions for experimenting with sound, elegant infographics, and rich vocabulary, all defined in context. Consider her lucid description of sound, translated from Russian by Traer: “Have you seen how dropping a stone into water creates waves? Similarly, sound waves travel away from the source of the sound (the ‘stone’), but instead of seeing these waves, we hear them.” This type of crystalline image helps propel a narrative that prizes curiosity and a grasp of the nuances of sound. In one spread, Fadeeva unpacks the difference between birdsong and a bird call, followed by a collagelike illustration of different species on a tree, detailing what each sounds like. Animal sounds, readers learn, include fish that “squeak, knock, honk, cluck, and chirp” underwater, where “sound also moves four times more quickly.” After pondering the 7,000 languages that humans use to communicate, the author wisely pivots, exploring how we do so without sound. She then makes an imaginative leap into the past to consider sound and music from the prehistoric era to the Middle Ages with its noisy suits of armor to the modern age of TVs and electrical appliances. She examines the harmony of orchestras and the evolution of recording sound and includes a fantastic spread about the way animals’ sounds are perceived differently all over the world. Characters are diverse.

Brimming with cogent insights, delightful visuals, and infectious wonder. (activities)(Informational picture book. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews