Wordless Picture Books

Not too long ago I posted about the Owly series of graphic novels and talked a bit about how these books are so accessible because of the fact that they contain almost no words and tell the story using only pictures and symbols. There are plenty of other books that use similar techniques, telling the story with art instead of words. Here are a few of my favorites:

David Wiesner is a master of the wordless picture book. He has numerous awards under his belt for such stories, including a whopping three Caldecott Medals and two Caldecott honors. While many of Wiesner's books are wordless and all are equally worth checking out (seriously, go and get your hands on Tuesday and Flotsam), my favorite is The Three Pigs, which won the Caldcott Medal in 2002. The book opens seeming to be the traditional story that we all know and love, but when the Big Bad Wolf arrives he huffs and puffs and blows the pigs right out of their story! The pigs find themselves in a place that seems to be behind their tale, and the three wander - and even fly - from story to story meeting other characters along the way. What few words there are in this book seem to be more of a part of the illustration to be explored along with the drawings, rather than a text that needs to be read aloud. Perhaps it's the former English major in me, but I love the way that this book explores the narrative process, seeming to discuss ways that the imagination brings together tales that don't initially seem to have any real connection. Just like we all do, the pigs float from story to story, exploring as much as they like and taking the parts that they really need with them back to their own lives. Besides, the illustrations themselves are pretty darn awesome, and I love the way that Wiesner uses different styles for each story that the pigs enter.

Overall Grade: A+

This year, one picture book that's been getting some Caldecott talk for 2010 is Jerry Pinkney's wordless retelling of The Lion and the Mouse. This beloved Aesop's Fable is told in gorgeous pencil and watercolor illustrations that portray both the Majesty of the lion and the Serengeti, but also the beauty and detail of smaller creatures like the mouse. The illustrations are simply stunning and will demand your full attention as you page through the story. Part of the beauty of illustrating this very familiar story wordlessly is that it becomes nearly effortless for children and their parents to put words to the story themselves as they look at the illustrations - and narrative retelling is one of the necessary skills that a child needs to have in order to be able to read effectively!

Overall Grade: A

You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum is an interesting tale by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman. A girl visits the famous gallery with her grandmother and ties her yellow balloon to the railing. However, the balloon escapes anyway and floats off to have its own series of adventures. Reproductions of paintings featured at the Met are included with Weitzman's pencil drawings as the girl and her grandmother look at them at the museum. The action in these paintings always seems to reflect the balloon's adventures, giving viewers two separate but parallel stories. Weitzman has created two other picture book that follow the same format where other art galleries are visited: the Museum of Fine Arts, and the National Gallery.

Overall Grade: A

Kids Internet Resources - The United States

As promised, here is Part 2 of my exploration of great websites for kids. Today's topic is the United States of America. The websites listed below give a good overview of how our government works, our history, and some information about each of the fifty states that make up this great nation.

American FactFinder Kids Corner
This is the children's page of the US Census Bureau's website. Here, kids can find all sorts of great statistical information about the fifty states.

America's Story from America's Library
This website is built and maintained by the Library of Congress, and provides an interactive look at American history with games and exhibits.

Ben's Guide to the US Government
This is by far my favorite website EVER for exploring the United States government. Learn about the three branches, how laws are made, and US citizenship with different portals of information geared for students of different grade levels.

Encyclopedia Britanica's Guide to Black History
This is a great portal to everything related to black history. Check out the great selection of video and audio clips, the timeline, and more.

Fifty States and Capitols
While this information does have some obnoxious adds, it also has one of the most comprehensive lists I've seen of quick facts about each of the 50 states.

Dying to Meet You: 43 Old Cemetery Road

Ignatious B. Grumply was once the beloved author of the Ghost Tamer series of books for children, but he now suffers from a terrible case of writer's block and hasn't been able to write anything for twenty years. Hoping that a change of scenery might do him good, he decides to rent an old Victorian home for the summer while he works on the highly-anticipated 13th book. Unfortunately, Ignatious finds more than he bargained for when he arrives and realizes that when he had his lawyer sign the contract to rent the home, he unwittingly agreed to care for a boy named Seymour who was left behind by his parents while they toured Europe to make a series of presentations about how there is no such thing as ghosts. It soon becomes clear that Seymour's parents had a reason for leaving him behind - he is clearly convinced that a ghost is living in his home. Ignatious isn't happy to be sharing his abode with this child and is even more unhappy that Seymour keeps blaming all of the noise in the house on a ghost. What will it take to whip Seymour into shape? Or, more importantly, what will it take for Seymour and the ghost of Olive get Ignatius to pull it together?

This book, written and illustrated by the team of Kate and M. Sarah Klise, is a real winner. Told in a series of letters, drawings, and newspaper articles, the book's format is easily accessible, highly entertaining, and brilliantly executed. I enjoyed the book's humor, filled with snide jabs and delightfully punny names like Anita Sale (a realtor), Paige Turner (Ignatious' agent) and E. Gadds (Ignatious' lawyer). There's even a great sort of lesson thrown in at the end of the book about how everyone's life is a story that's sometimes better than fiction in a non-didactic manner. This moral is even more clever when you consider the book's narrative format - using written documents from real life to tell the story. How cool is that? Definitely a fun read for kids who like not-scary ghost stories, humor, and other books with interesting formats such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Also check out the sequel, Over My Dead Body: 43 Old Cemetery Road.

Overall Grade: A

Al Capone Does My Shirts

Author Gennifer Choldenko really struck gold with her 2005 Newbery Honor-winning book Al Capone Does My Shirts. Set in 1935, a boy named Moose Flanagan and his family move to Alcatraz island when his father takes a job as a prison guard there. Moose isn't thrilled about having to live isolated on an island with a bunch of convicts, but his parents have good reason for the move. Moose's older sister Natalie isn't exactly all there in the head, and their parents hope that they'll be able to send Natalie to a special school in San Francisco that works with kids like her and could maybe cure her. When they arrive on Alcatraz, Moose quickly learns that the Rock has many rules even for civilians like him. Things become more complicated when Moose makes friends with Piper, the warden's daughter, who comes up with elaborate schemes that break all of these rules and could land the two of them in big trouble.

Unfortunately, the Flanagans get some bad news: Natalie will not be accepted at the school they had hoped to send her to, even though they're sure that the school would be the best thing to help her. But what can they do about it? Not much...but maybe Prisoner 85, better known as Al Capone, could!

Overall Grade: A+

In the newly-released sequel Al Capone Shines My Shoes, things pick up right where they left off. Thanks to Al Capone, Natalie is leaving home to attend her special school. Moose is left with a string of his own problems though. Jimmy is jealous of one of Moose's baseball-playing friends from San Francisco. Annie wants Moose to spill his secret about Capone's help. Piper is constantly worrying about her mother and the new baby she is expecting, certain that she'll be ignored once the baby arrives, and takes all of her worry out on everyone else. One of the guards seems to have it out for him. Worst of all, Moose gets another message from Al Capone in his laundry: "Your turn." Capone clearly wants Moose to do something to return the favor for his services. Even though Moose knows that helping one of the convicts could mean major trouble for everyone, he doesn't exactly have a choice - after all, if Capone had enough power to get Natalie into her school, he could easily get her kicked out. How can he say no?

Overall Grade: A

These books are truly fascinating. The setting itself is very well drawn out, and Choldenko has clearly done her research about the time period and about life on Alcatraz. The characters themselves are brilliantly drawn and likable, and the dialogue is spot on. Natalie's character is especially intriguing. As you will see in Choldenko's excellent set of Author's Notes at the end of each book(which also include great historical information about Alcatraz), Natalie suffers from what we would today recognize as autism, but at the time when this book takes place they didn't have a word for her condition, so it is never used. Because of this, we get to really explore the ways that Natalie interacts with the world around her without being distracted by knowing what she suffers from.

The sequel is nearly as perfect as the original, and the author did a great job of creating a believable follow-up story that flows perfectly from the first. My only complaint is that while she hasn't lost any of her spunk, Piper was much less exciting to me as she was wallowed up in worry than when she's plotting to exploit her position as the warden's daughter and a citizen on Alcatraz for her own benefit. Despite this, the other characters are improved upon and given more depth and the style of writing remains as smooth and seamless as ever.