Disney films are always followed by a number of children’s books: while some merely retell the events of the movie, or contain activities, stickers and similar non-story content that children might enjoy, some of them are little spin-offs, giving us new stories with the movie characters. Today, we shall have a look at one of those, featuring the characters from Encanto – The Missing Sound.
Preview pictures taken from Amazon.
The Missing Sound is a simple picture book for young children, but it is focused on a character that many older viewers found intriguing as well – Dolores Madrigal. Her super-hearing has spawned a number of questions and theories among the fans. How good is she at hearing everything around her – does she need to focus to pick out sounds, or does she notice everything? How does she bear hearing all the everyday sounds around her, many of them unpleasant? What is her room like – is it sound-proof, to give her some rest, or is it maybe full of musical instruments? While The Missing Sound might not answer all these questions, it does give us a few interesting tidbits!
We’ve already talked about Bruno on the blog – so let’s talk about Dolores now! Let us have a look at the book and see what’s in it for child readers, and what for older fans! Technically, spoilers ahead – but it’s a short and simple story, so it shouldn’t be a problem.
General information
The book was written by Susana Illera Martínez, an established author of Disney’s children’s books, but also the author of the original award-winning Lala the Lizard picture book series. (I haven’t read the Lala books, but they look cute and won multiple awards, so they might be worth checking out!) It is marked as a Step into Reading step 2 book, which means that it is a short and simple story written using short sentences and basic vocabulary (for which it was adapted by Nicole Johnson), aimed at preschoolers or first graders. So, expect no more than a few short sentences per page, and a style that is not too verbally appealing, as it is adapted to be easy to read out for beginners. More on the plot itself further on!
The illustrations, attributed only to the “Disney Storybook Art Team” (which presumably changes, so they don’t want to bother with listing the names), are in 2D, but otherwise they closely follow the film’s art style – as you can see in the pictures here. Sometimes there is one full-page picture and a page of text side by side, sometimes smaller illustrations are combined with text on the same double page. Personally, I like the style very much – it is true to the movie, much better than the caricatural style of the Encanto comics (which I also intend to write about soon!) and simply pleasing to the eye. So, unnamed people in the art team, good job!
The book was published by Random House New York earlier this year (2024). It is a thin (24 pages) soft cover book, with glossy covers, but ordinary (non-glossy) paper inside. (Well, mine is soft cover. There is also a “library binding” option available – and a Kindle, of course.) The format is, I think, B5 or something similar – so, the size of a ‘regular’ paperback fiction book, just, of course, much thinner than a novel would be.
The story
The story is simple: Dolores (whose super-hearing is briefly introduced) wakes up one morning, and we are given a description of various things she hears around the house and town… but then she realizes that a sound she usually hears is missing now! She doesn’t know what it is, only that something is missing. She first tells her mother and Abuela, and they conclude something must be wrong and Dolores should be able to help. So, she sets out with the other younger Madrigals to walk around and find the missing sound. Finally (and here is the spoiler, so skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want it), the mystery is revealed in a certain Don Osvaldo’s chicken coop: one of his hens is ill, so she hasn’t laid an egg and isn’t clucking like the others. Dolores and Don Osvaldo promptly make a medicine that makes the hen better, she lays an egg, and everyone is happy. “Hooray for Dolores and her special gift!” A simple and positive message of a power used to do good, and used in an everyday context, with no scary dangers, appropriate for the youngest readers.
Technically, this book does not require prior knowledge of the film: it could be fun for a child just as a standalone picture book. Dolores’ gift is explained right in the beginning, and no other Madrigal gifts feature prominently in the story: while Dolores does at one point hear “her cousin Isabela dropping flower petals”, a reader who is unaware that the rest of the Madrigals have special powers could think that Isabela is just dropping them from her hand, and that it’s simply an illustration of how Dolores can hear even such a faint and soft sound. It could also take place either before or after the film: neither Antonio nor Bruno appear (not even in the background), so there are no direct connections to the movie’s main plot.
Does it add anything to the Encanto lore?
Well, the most obvious piece of information is that one of the townspeople is named Don Osvaldo, and that he has a chicken coop and at least one donkey, but that is hardly the most interesting thing ever. :) However, we do learn something about Dolores’ room! No, they don’t show it to us, alas, but still, have a look at this page:
Well, beyond learning that Dolores’ room has a bed (and that she has a cute nightgown, and wears her bow-scarf even in bed), we didn’t see much, and that is likely very much on purpose – they wanted to keep the freedom to design her room in more detail in some more prominent instalment of the series further on. However, the scene heavily implies that Dolores hears the coffee brewing and Luisa and Camilo racing down the stairs from her room, proving that it is not soundproof.
There are no other major discoveries: everything we see or can conclude ties in to the lore smoothly. Dolores and the rest of the Madrigals are genuinely concerned about the missing sound and the idea that there is some sort of trouble in the Encanto, and they show genuine care towards the ill chicken. Even Camilo, who is sometimes rather aloof, is shown gently holding the sick bird with a smile on his face while Dolores and Don Osvaldo (assisted by Julieta and Mirabel) prepare the medicine. This all underlines the Madrigals’ care for their community, while omitting the theme of overburdening and pressure that the film contained.
Not in the Amazon preview, but I had to show it. :)
Beyond that… we can see Dolores, Pepa and Abuela Alma eating breakfast from ordinary white plates, and not the decorated ones from the movie, but it is safe to assume that they own more than one set of everyday dishes. (The fancy decorated plates with names and elaborate decorations focusing on individual family members’ powers are obviously just for special occasions: they don’t use them for breakfast in the movie, either.) Mirabel is also shown sewing on her sewing machine, which corelates nicely to what we’ve seen in the film.
Conclusion: a simple, but adorable book!
To conclude, The Missing Sound is a simple story targeted for the youngest audience, but if you don’t overly mind the simple language, it does bring the spirit of Encanto back in a heartwarming, slice-of-life little tale. If you’re considering buying it for a child, particularly one who liked the cartoon, I think you won’t make a mistake there! If you’re an older fan or considering it as a gift for one… well, maybe you just wanted to know what it tells about Dolores, and then maybe this post was enough for you. On the other hand, it is beautifully illustrated and brings one more adorable story to the universe of Encanto, so, if you have a collector’s mindset – the paperback one is just $5,99, so why not treat yourself!
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