Wordless (or nearly so)

The Giant Seed
by Arthur Geisert
Enchanted Lion Books, June 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

I am a huge fan of wordless picture books, and Arthur Geisert is a master of the form.

This followup to Ice (reviewed here) is a story of survival, collaboration and dandelion seeds. Yes, dandelions. It seems like the perfect season to look at those plants we think of as pests with wonder and admiration as we imagine the small worlds that would be saved by those magical floaty seeds...

Little Bird
by Germano Zullo
illustrated by Albertine
translated from the French by Claudia Zoe Bedrick
Enchanted Lion Books, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

It's high time we here in the U.S. started paying better attention to books published internationally.

Take for instance, Little Bird, winner of the 2011 Prix Sorcières for illustration (the French Caldecott). Yes, the book is visually stunning. It's clear why it won an award for illustrations.

But it's a great story, too. About the small things in life. About keeping your eyes open for the little ways that make every day different, unique, and a day to be treasured.

This is not quite a wordless book. The words stay tucked down at the bottom of the page in the white margin around the illustration. The words are like a quiet commentary that complement the cinematic pictures. This is one I'd love to read to kids of many ages to see how their reactions differ.

Favorite Series: Fox and Hen

Fox and Hen Together
by Beatrice Rodriguez
Enchanted Lion Books, 2011
review copy provided by the publisher

The surprise in Chicken Thief (a PW Best Book of 2010), the first book in this trilogy (watch for Rooster's Revenge in September), is that when the fox steals the chicken, the outcome is happily ever after and not chicken feathers at the corners of fox's mouth. In this book, Chicken leaves Fox in charge of her egg while she goes out to catch a fish for dinner. The adventure that ensues for Chicken takes up the rest of the book, except for the part at the end where there's a surprise with that egg.

I'm not telling. Sorry. You'll have to read it for yourself.

Why I love this series:
1. It's more than just the Fox and the Chicken, it's a whole series of wordless books that Enchanted Lion is doing called Stories Without Words. (see also my review of ICE by Arthur Geisert)
2. The size and shape of the books -- they are different from other books -- long and skinny.
3. Wordless picture books are "just right" books for EVERY reader in my classroom.

ICE by Arthur Geisert

Ice (Stories Without Words)
by Arthur Geisert
Enchanted Lion Books, March 1, 2011
review copy provided by the publisher

It's hard to remember what it's like to be so hot that you would devise a plan to make a combination airship/sailboat to sail across the world to nab an iceberg and tow it back home, but that's just what Arthur Geisert's trademark pigs do. They bring it home, chop it in to big ice cubes and cool down.

At the end of the story, we leave the pigs, once again gathered around the table where they hatched the iceberg plan (but with the fan blowing a cool breeze over a block of ice) and we wonder...what kind of plan will they hatch next?

Did I mention? This is a wordless book, the second title in Enchanted Lion's Stories Without Words series. The publisher suggests that this book would make a good read aloud, and I do love to read (silently) aloud wordless picture books, but the pictures are so small and detailed on this one that it would probably work best as a "read in the lap" or a "small group of students reads it to each other as the teacher peeks over their shoulders to unobtrusively observe" kind of book.

Definitely one for my "Wordless Picture Books" tub, and I know just the ELL that I'll hand it to first thing in the morning!

Here's another review by Travis at 100 Scope Notes.

Books I Could Read A Million Times--Chalk

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.