Wordless Picture Books
When our kid was little, I had mixed feelings about wordless picture books. They took a lot more energy and creativity than those with the words provided for you. In those early days, I didn’t always have energy or creativity to spare. But wordless picture books should definitely be included in your library. They are usually gorgeous and lead to great adult-kid discussions about what’s happening and what you can see.
Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathman (1994)
One of our favorites when the kid was a baby. When a zookeeper locks up the zoo for the night, Gorilla follows behind and lets out all the animals. Is it trouble they are interested in? No, they just want to bunk with the zookeeper and his wife.
You Can’t Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman and Robin Preiss Glasser (1998)
This wordless book is a delight from cover to cover. A kid and her grandparent are going to the Metropolitan Museum. The security guard stops her from bringing in a balloon and promises to take care of it. The balloon gets away from him, and he must chase after it. The parallel stories of the quest for the balloon and the art in the museum then unfold. Each spread has so many details to explore.
Flotsam by David Wiesner (2006)
A kid discovers a camera on the beach. He develops the film and finds the photos full of fantastical undersea worlds. The other photo on the roll is a picture of a kid holding a picture of a kid, etc. The kid takes his own photo and tosses the camera back into the sea.
Journey by Aaron Becker (2013)
A girl is bored in her monochromatic life. She draws a door in her room with a red crayon and enters a magical world, taking the crayon with her. She continues her travels on a red boat, balloon, and carpet of her own creation until she finds a purple door. Through that door she discovers a friend with a crayon of his own.
Over the Shop by JonArno Lawson and Qin Leng (2021)
A girl and her grandparent live in behind the general store they run. The apartment above the shop is vacant and falling apart. When a biracial couple arrives, the girl knows at once that they are the right people for the apartment; the grandparent needs some convincing. Soon the couple and the kid clean up the apartment, and then help out at the shop. The love and care spreads to the neighborhood as others gussy up their homes.