A funny thing happened at school this week. One of my kids saw me in the hallway and yelled "Mrs. Sibberson, when I come to library today, will you have any of those empty books?" Empty books? What could she have possibly meant? "You know, the books with no words?" So I decided to read CHALK by Bill Thomson aloud this week, since she had asked so cleverly for wordless books.
CHALK is a great new wordless book--one that I would love to see win the Caldecott Award. Mary Lee reviewed it a few months ago but it wasn't a book that I took the time to fall in love with right away. You see, I am a text girl and I have very little patience for taking the time to enjoy a wordless book on my own. I do not always take the time to really take in the visuals. But this week, I discovered what a treat sharing CHALK with children is! I love watching the kids' faces each time I turned the page. The amazement, excitement, surprise, fear, and discovery were all so clear on their faces. Their conversations around the book have been amazing and this is definitely a book I could read a million times.
So, today, I am adding CHALK to my list of BOOKS I COULD READ A MILLION TIMES. I think this is the first wordless picture book to make the list but it is definitely one that deserves to be there.
so cool! We own this book. We went to this fun bookstore in Kansas City and my daughter accidentally ripped this book so we bought it and I Love it! Can't wait to share it with my students when I return to teaching. So many things it could be used for.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this book and so does my kindergarten class! I used it the 2nd week of school to "prove" to them that do know how to read. I explained to them that if you can look at something and understand the message, you are reading. They didn't believe me, until they read Chalk to me. It was one of those really cool classroom moments. LOVE this book!! It would get my vote for a Caldecott Medal!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you've had a chance to fall in love with this book!
ReplyDeleteThis book is on my mock Caldecott list with first graders. I can't wait to share it with them and get their opinions!
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