THE CITY NOISES might be seen as a primer intent on illuminating John Cage’s philosophic assertion: “Noise: When you ignore it, it’s annoying. When you listen to it, it’s fascinating.” Looked at another way, THE CITY NOISES might be seen as an all-ages type of story that relates a young musician’s transition from an imaginative time of fairy tales to a maturing encounter with some of life's more complex and cruel realities. It is primarily through the vehicle of sound (narratively described and/or illustratively depicted) that this trying transition is related: juxtaposing the inherent music of a child's innocence with a jumble of urban noises that might naturally be considered a symptom of these unfortunate realities.

Though quirky and offbeat and so blatantly a children's book, THE CITY NOISES might best be categorized as upmarket fiction. Accounting for the moxie by which such a lofty designation as this is perceived would be the work's simple-seeming narration, which is built, like a facade around a subtext that is designed for children and adults alike.

THE CITY NOISES began as a screen play—which led to DreamWorks advising its author to have the story published first in book form and then, should it do well, to come back and see them.