Wordless picture books can be enjoyed on so many levels. Younger children might enjoy just listening and looking. Older children might enjoy writing their own text to go along with the story. Here are a few of our favorites.
| Chalk by Bill Thomson | On a rainy day, a group of kids find a surprise at the playground. Someone has left behind a magical bag of chalk that has the power to make drawings come to life. Beautiful illustrations. Imaginative. Suspensful. Not to be missed. Also checkout Fossil, another wordless picture book by Thomson featuring dinosaurs. |
| Tuesday by David Wiesner | Hillarious drawings allow the reader’s imagination to soar as high as the frogs in the story. Something strange comes over a pond one Tuesday evening. The town is invaded by flying frogs. Tuesday is my all time favorite wordless picture book. I have yet to share it with a child who didn’t giggle the entire way through. Another wordless picture book by Wiesner is Flotsam. |
| Time Flies by Eric Rohmann | A fantasy come true for all dinosaur lovers. A bird flies into a museum after hours and has an adventure that takes her back in time. |
| Journey by Aaron Becker | Part one of a three-part series, this wordless picture book has amazingly intricate illustrations. With the help of a crayon, a girl decides to explore what is behind a door she draws on her wall, and she meets up with a boy who was looking for adventure too. All three books (Journey, Quest and Return) are beautifully illustrated and magical. |
| Trainstop by Barbara Lehman | A girl from the city takes a train ride. While all the adults on the train doze, she disembarks at a magical stop in the middle of a tiny village. This story supports daydreaming at its best. If you like this one, check out Museum Trip by Lehman too. |
| Mirror by Jeannie Baker | The unique book design alone makes this wordless picture book worth a look. Mirror tells the stories of two families, one from a city in Australia and one from Morocco. The stories are meant to be viewed side by side, with the Australian family’s story on the left and the Moroccan family’s story on the right. As the reader looks at both stories, similarities and differences abound. An interesting approach to talking about what binds us all together. |
What You and a Book Can Do 