A great read - we used this for a city wide reading quiz with Key Stage 2 children. Gives a true insight into how people live with hearing loss. How they adapt to the world around them and how friends and family adapt also.

Honest and sympathetic look at an adolescent coping with deafness.

I've read books by the author before, and was surprised to find out he has a hearing impairment through reading this. It's not something, as is evidenced in the story, you spot easily, and also as we see in the book - is very easy to forget about, leaving those affected left out and frustrated.

Foster gives us Sophie, enjoying her secondary school life in a band, with friends and song-writing and her guitar. They are even in a Battle of the Bands! She's had some problems with her hearing for a while, but one day her world changes completely when she awakens to a silent world. She can't hear a thing.

The book looks at not only how a young person deals with this, the hearing loss, and as an adolescent with their own school/romantic/friend issues, but also how other people react and help (or otherwise).

You can tell that the author has drawn on personal experience or researched well, the descriptions of what a quiet world is like, how crisps 'feel' in your mouth with a crunching sound, what words are missed from sentences spoken, how relationships are affected... it's very well done.

I loved the friends and family here, Sophie has a typical 'annoying big brother' who may just come through for her, she has wonderfully supportive parents who don't overdo the role as protective/uncaring/comic - they are regular parents doing their best for their daughter in her upsetting new situation. Sophie has a fab best friend too, who shows just what friends can be to each other.

And the music side of the story is great, Sophie channelling her fears and thoughts into song lyrics, and floundering at first with her love for music torn to shreds - can she recover this into a new form?

Fantastic for gaining understanding of hearing impairment, and a very well-composed account of teenage friendship, love of music and bravery in the face of adversity.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing an advance reading copy.

This is the story of a young girl who loses her hearing, how this affects her life and the changes she makes in order to continue.

There are some really heart-wrenching, emotional moments in the books that could have made me cry - although some of these moments are of sadness for the main character, Sophie, others are in appreciation of her incredible friends who help and support her through such a difficult time.
The characters are developed so well that you really get pulled into the story and feel everything with them. There are some fantastic themes about friendship underpinning the main story. I would love to read more books by this author.

Can You Feel the Noise? is an entertaining and emotional read that deals sensitively with a difficult topic.

Sophie's hearing has been getting worse and she's been suffering with tinnitus which makes playing in her band tricky. One morning she wakes up unable to hear anything at all. She worries that all her musical dreams have been shattered. The story follows Sophie facing frustrations, fears, and friendship troubles as she navigates this new silent landscape while trying to continue playing music. With the help of old and new friends, plus a huge amount of bravery and determination, Sophie discovers ways that she can still play and perform.

The level of detail of Sophie's experiences makes the story so believable and adds so much depth to Sophie's character. It was really eye-opening to read - when all those little sounds that you might not think of, like doors banging, or posters rustling when you lean back on them, vanish from Sophie's world. Reading Stew Foster's own experiences at the end of the book, I can see this must have been a really personal story for him to write.

A brilliant book for encouraging empathy - I learnt so much. Perfect for Year 5 and 6.

Sophie is struggling with her hearing which makes playing in her band rather tricky. However, when she loses her hearing overnight, she thinks she’ll also lose her ability to play and that is the worst thing of all.

This is a lovely story about learning to live with a disability and lengths that friends and family members go to to help her feel included.

I love Stew Foster’s books and I know a couple of children with hearing loss who will love this story.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sophie has been having problems with her hearing for a while but when she wakes up one morning to discover that she is completely deaf, her entire life changes. How is she going to be able to play her guitar? And with the Battle of the Bands competition looming, what is she going to do?

Can I just say from the get-go that Can you Feel The Noise is a phenomenal book? Foster's portrayal of Sophie is superb and his attention to detail really helps the reader to understand exactly what she is going through. It wasn't until I had finished the book and I was reading the author's note and acknowledgements at the end that I discovered that Stewart himself is hard of hearing and I began to realise that this must have been an incredibly personal book to write - it's no surprise that it moved me so much.

For me, it was the details like the different noises that Sophie still heard in her head, the fact that eating crisps 'sounds like bones are crunching inside your head' and being afraid to go outside that helped me to begin to understand what she was going through. She is an incredibly strong character, even if she doesn't know it. Her entire life changes overnight and the things she loves to do most - play and listen to music - are no longer available to her. I can understand her wanting to retreat to her bedroom and not to want to come out, but she has a set of amazing friends (existing ones and new friends she meets on her journey) that help her find her way. I love the vulnerability that we see in Sophie and the portrayal of her doubts and fears; of having to learn how to do things like going for a walk again - it really gives readers a true idea of what losing your hearing must be like. I also like the fact that we get to see the effect it has on Sophie's friends: Mai is a huge support to Sophie but even she doesn't always get it right (do any of us?), but it's Rocco that made me smile the most: he seems determined to find ways to get it wrong at every turn! At first, I thought it was just insensitivity and him being too wrapped up in his dream to win Battle of the Bands but actually, as the book progressed, I began to think it was more than that, and in fact, he just didn't know how to handle the situation.

I found the book compelling, even though it's not an action-packed adventure book. I was desperate to know more of Sophie's story and to discover how she was coping, and I found myself thinking of her when I wasn't reading, particularly whilst I was at school where I began to think about how many things would be different for a child in my class in the same situation (I need to mention Mrs Hopkirk here: everybody needs a teacher like her in their lives) . Although I have never had hearing problems, I found myself being able to empathise with Sophie and, at times, felt almost panicky at what she was going through. There were numerous times I wanted to reach into the book and just give her a hug, and too many times to mention when I shed a tear for her.

I also liked the references to other famous musicians who haven't let their disability stop them doing what they love, but the references in particular to Evelyn Glennie whose story I have been interested in since reading about her in the 2006 KS2 SAT reading paper!

Stewart Foster is one of those authors whose books I know I'm going to enjoy even before I start reading them; however, Can You Feel the Noise, I think, is his best book yet. It's a book full of heart and hope; it's a powerful yet sensitively told story about what happens when you think your life has been turned upside down and it's a story about resilience and realising that life-changing events may lead to exciting new beginnings.

Due for release on the 7th July, this is absolutely a book to pre-order.

Can You Feel the Noise is a powerful and uplifting story about triumphing over adversity. It’s a deeply moving tale and the personal links to the author, Stewart Foster, are evident through the depth of feeling and utter believability of the story.

Sophie lives for music - she plays it, writes it and forms friendships through it. She is over the moon when her band reach the semifinals of the Battle of the Bands and dreams of her future as a musician. She is determined that her emerging hearing issues will not stand in the way until one day she wakes up completely deaf. She must relearn everything in a silent world. Who will she be without her music?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and think it would be fantastic for building empathy in the classroom. I would recommend it for readers in Year 5 and above. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.