This picture book for older children has a sophistication and beauty about it that younger children might find difficult to understand, but it is certainly worth the effort. Based on a true story about a Chinese dancer, Lihua Tai, who became deaf at the age of two, and went on to becomes famous worldwide. In this story, she is called Mili and we are told that her parents took her to various doctors trying to find a cure, but none was possible; she was a frustrated child initially. But then she made an important discovery. Sound was all around her, all the things she could feel - the rumbling of an old bus, the vibrations from a popcorn machine, the wind on her face, waves in the swimming pool, the bright sunshine. She begins to understand that 'language is a river, flowing and flooding into Mili's body...turning into musical notes like little tadpoles swimming into Mili's heart.' A drum being beaten at school begins her dancing because she can feel the beat with her feet, and once she begins to learn sign language and lip reading, communication becomes much more vitally alive. Her world 'has become vibrant, shining with the colour of sound.' We are given a few sign language letters and numbers at the end of the story in Chinese, British and American sign languages, and we are told there are differences worldwide. This is a beautifully illustrated book, written in lyrical text with the kind of poetic language that needs some real thought. But it is also moving and tremendously alive.