
A touching and profound tale of friendship, differences, and acceptance from renowned Estonian children’s author and illustrator Piret Raud. On the sandy shore of a big sea lived a bird named Ellie who had no voice. “Everything else has a voice,” Ellie thought sadly. “The trees rustle. The waves crash. Even the rain sings when it falls.” “I’m the only one who can’t make a sound.” Ellie felt tears well up in her eyes—that’s how sad she was to be voiceless. Ellie’s life is turned upside down when she finds a curious instrument on the shore that makes the most amazing sound when she blows into it: Trööömmmpffff! Creatures come from near and far to hear Ellie’s magnificent new voice. But when Ellie learns that the horn actually belongs to Duke Junior who is desperately unhappy without it, she goes on an adventure to return the horn to its rightful owner. After days and nights of searching, she finds Duke Junior on an island in the middle of the water. To her surprise and delight, Duke Junior doesn’t just toot Tröömmmpfff on the horn… he plays the most beautiful music! Ellie is so happy that Duke Junior has his horn back and can produce such lovely sounds that she’s content listening to his tunes and being herself.
Author

PIRET RAUD was born in 1971 in Tallinn, Estonia. She has studied printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Since graduating in 1995 she has been living and working in Tallinn as a graphic artist, book illustrator and author. She has illustrated over 50 books, written 21 books for children and 3 novels and 2 short story collection for adults. Her books have been translated into French, English, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Slovenian, Croatian, Albanian, Hungarian, Korean, Chinese and Occitan (Gascon, Languedocien and Limousin dialects). Piret Raud has received the Estonian Cultural Endowment’s Award on multiple occasions, most recently for her prose in 2023.