''Noisy Nora'' is a 1973 children's

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

Rosemary Wells Rosemary Wells (born January 29, 1943) is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. She is well known for using animal characters to address real human issues. Some of her most well-known characters are Max & Ruby (later adapted into ...

. It is about a mouse called Nora who likes to make lots of noise.

Plot

One evening, an attention-starved middle mouse named Nora wanted attention for her parents. But her parents are doing stuff with her older sister Kate and her baby brother Jack. After so much waiting, Nora decides to make noise: She banged the window, slammed the door, and dropped Kate's marbles on the kitchen floor. But, unfortunately, all it did was make her parents yell at her to be quiet and Kate embarrassedly says to Nora: "Nora, why are you so dumb?" Nora tried to get attention again but her parents are still doing things with Jack & Kate. Again, she tried to make noise to get attention: She knocked the lamp, felled some chairs, and flew a kite down the stairs and crashed it at the bottom of the stairs. But, again, her parents yell at her to be quiet and Kate embarrassedly says to Nora again: "Nora, why are you so dumb?" Out of options to get attention again, Nora shouted to her whole family after she couldn't get attention from them: "I'm leaving and I'm never coming back!" After a moment of silence without Nora, The family realizes that Nora is gone because they neglected her and they decided to form a search party to find Nora. But Nora was not in the mailbox or in the cellar or hiding in the shrub or in the tub. Nora's mother was very upset that Nora is gone forever even when they were searching through the trash. But, all of the sudden, Nora popped out of the broom closet saying "But I'm back again" and everything in the closet came down with a monumental crash. The whole family was glad that she was back and they managed to accept her by giving her attention again.

Development and inspiration

Wells has said that she was an only child, as opposed to Nora who was the middle child of a big family. Wells has called her books ""non-fiction"", so that "Nora was my grade school best friend, Virginia O’Malley, who was a middle child".

Publication history

*1973, USA,

Dial Books The Dial Press was a publishing house founded in 1923 by Lincoln MacVeagh. The Dial Press shared a building with ''The Dial'' and Scofield Thayer worked with both. The first imprint was issued in 1924. Authors included Elizabeth Bowen, W. R. Bu ...

*1997, USA, Dial Books

Reception

A review in '' Kirkus Reviews'' of ''Noisy Nora'' wrote "Any child who has felt left out of the family schedule and affections can identify with Nora, ..". ''Noisy Nora'' has also been reviewed by ''

School Library Journal ''School Library Journal'' (''SLJ'') is an American monthly magazine containing reviews and other articles for school librarians, media specialists, and public librarians who work with young people. Articles cover a wide variety of topics, with ...

'', ''

Booklist ''Booklist'' is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. ''Booklist''s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is av ...

'', and '' Horn Book Guides'' It is a ''

'' Best of the Best book, an

American Library Association Notable Children's Book American Library Association Notable lists are announced each year in January by various divisions within the American Library Association (ALA). There are six lists, part of the larger ALA awards structure. * ''ALA Notable Books for Adults'' (est ...

, and a ''Choosing Books for Kids'' book. A recording of the book is an ALA Notable Recording.Awards list
Retrieved on March 29, 2018.

Adaptions

In 1994 Weston Woods developed an animated story based on the book's illustrations, which was narrated by Mary Beth Hurt. In 2000, Nora was featured as one of the characters in the ''

Timothy Goes to School ''Timothy Goes to School'' is a children's animated television series based on books written by Rosemary Wells, but is titled after the book of the same name. The show premiered on September 30, 2000, and aired its final episode on January 26, 2 ...

'' animated TV series. In 2010 it was produced by Newvideo and Scholastic and bundled with 4 other animated stories on a "Scholastic Storybook Treasures" DVD.

References

External links

{{Portal , Children's literature
Library holdings of ''Noisy Nora''
1973 children's books American children's books American picture books Children's fiction books Children's books adapted into television shows Children's books adapted into films English-language books Books about mice and rats Fictional children Books about families Anthropomorphic animals United States in fiction Female characters in literature Child characters in literature Literary characters introduced in 1973