Quiet as a Butterfly follows an attentive boy as he listens his way through a school day. He hears a clock ticking, horns beeping, school bells ringing, rain dripping, pans clanging and, at day's end, the staircase creaking and his father snoring. The book's point is not to explain how hearing works; rather, it aims to sharpen young readers' awareness of all they can listen to—and all they can learn as they do.