I love wordless picture books for a few reasons. I love their focus on art, and I love how thoughtfully created they are. They kind of have to be – without text, the pressure is on for illustrations to show us the story clearly. Good wordless picture books flow from one page to the next like a movie. But the best wordless picture books – and all of the books on this list – use their textlessness as an opportunity to take off on ingenious artistic flights of fancy. These are a few of my favorites right now.
Shadow, by Suzy Lee, Chronicle Books, Ages 3-6
A little girl turns on the attic light and entertains herself by making shadow puppets. Her fantasies take over the whole room, and soon she’s swallowed up in a shadow adventure full of princesses, elephants, and monsters who may not be as scary as they seem. Shadow is mirrored into two, split along the spine of the book, with the left-hand pages depicting “real” world, and the right-hand pages depicting the shadows. Everything is in black and white, except for when the little girl starts to use her imagination – then things take on a glowing yellow aura. Done in smoky charcoal and spray paint, Lee’s shadows positively smolder with that dark, magical shapeless feeling that real shadows give. This is a great book for practicing comprehension skills, since in addition to following the shadow adventure, the young reader can point out which real-life objects, such as ladders and bicycle wheels, correspond to which palm trees and moons.
Sea of Dreams,by Dennis Nolan, Macmillan Publishing, Ages 3-6
Sea of Dreams follows the secret journey of a tiny family fleeing the crumbling sand castle where they lived before the tide came in. Nolan’s soft, sumptuously colored illustrations give this story the air of a fairy tale. One of the most magical aspects of this book is the scale: we get to reexamine familiar things from our world from the point of view of someone very small. The towering seagulls and megalithic cliffs really help create a sense of wonder. Nolan’s art conveys a great deal of movement, so that although the story is quiet, high-action moments like the huge wave that threatens their boat, or the rescue of a boy overboard by young mermaids, are breathless encounters. This is the perfect bedtime book: exciting enough to hold the young reader’s attention, but calm enough to encourage that sleepytime hush.
The Conductor, by Laetitia Devernay, Hachette Book Group, Ages 3-6
A conductor enters a forest, climbs a tree, and begins to conduct the leaves. First one, then two, and then countless leaves peel off the trees and fly away like birds under the conductor’s direction. Framed like the movements in a piece of classical music, each double-page spread in this visually breathtaking book shows the flight of the leaf flock. Some pages show only one or two leaves, drawn in large, intricate detail; some pages are flooded with wings. The Conductor is one of the best visual representations of music I’ve ever seen in a book. For musically inclined children, or those in the process of trying to understand music, this book would be a great tool for explaining the different aspects of a piece of music. It could even be read while music is playing, so that the child could connect the pictures with sounds. For attention span reasons, I’d recommend this for children on the older end of the 3-6 scale, but if your child can sit through a story that’s more art than plot, don’t hesitate to pick up this gorgeous book.
Chalk,by Bill Thomson, Marshall Cavendish, Ages 3-6
Swathed in rain gear and armed with a bag of chalk, three children go to the playground on a rainy day. They quickly realize that the things they draw come to life, which is all fun and games until someone draws a dinosaur. This vividly photo-realistic adventure is painted from dramatic perspectives and drenched with light so that all the colors really pop off the page. Even in the rainy beginning, the colors are warm and strong. The art is really amazing; Thomson used reference photographs, but Chalk is painted entirely, and painstakingly, by hand. That realism makes it even more magical when the chalk drawings come to life. It’s like it really happened! Bonus point for suggesting that drawing is the source of incredible experiences. Here’s hoping that Chalk inspires a lot of young ones to enter the arts, and here’s hoping it leads them on imaginative journeys as fun as this one!
The Dot, by famed illustrator Peter H. Reynolds, is a must-read for any child who thinks they are unable to do something. The book opens with a little girl named Vashti sitting at her desk with a blank sheet of paper on which she believes she cannot draw. When her teacher sees this, she tells her to make a mark to see what happens. Vashti, in frustration, angrily makes a dot in the center of the page. The teacher looks at it and asks her to sign the paper. The next day in class, Vashti walks in and sees her picture framed and hanging over her teacher’s desk. Irritated, Vashti looks at the picture and decides she can make a better dot than that one, starting her on a journey of drawing throughout the rest of the book. Due to her teacher’s clever encouragement, Vashti realizes she can draw.
Seeing is Believing!
Periwinkle Smith and the Twirly, Whirly Tutu, by John & Wendy, Ages 3-8
I can’t believe I’ve forgotten to tell you all about this fabulous book for kids (especially girls) ages 9 to 12 (and parents) who love exciting stories! This wild tale, filled with dramatic twists and turns, takes place in a world populated by thousands of species of mice (trust me, they’re not yucky but are prized as clever pets and useful companions – with some even being rare collectibles worth national fortunes.) Our heroine, 12-year-old Emiline, aspires to become a famous mousehunter, traveling the world in search of new and unusual species. But almost immediately, she finds herself on an ocean-going adventure as daring, treacherous, and suspenseful as Treasure Island. It’s a great read-aloud and would be a good book club selection.
Francesca Simon, the only American author (so far) to win the Galaxy British Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year (past winners include JK Rowling, Philip Pullman, and Eoin Colfer) has created a fabulous chapter book series for boys and girls ages 6 to 10. Each Horrid Henry book contains four easy-to-read stories featuring naughty Horrid Henry and his younger brother, Perfect Peter. These lovable, laughable – and, yes, wholesome – characters will delight even the most reluctant readers.
I’ve read four of the books – 16 stories, in all – and they’re consistently humorous and fun to read. Best yet, you don’t have to read the books in any particular order. The illustrations by Tony Ross are great, too!
Oh, and they’re great read-aloud books for the entire family!
