Wordless Books

I've been wanting to write this post for a long time. I feel very strongly that wordless books are an underutilized, unappreciated resource. Wordless books can be used from pre-k through college, and can challenge both non-readers and fluent readers alike. Wordless books have like their names suggests, no scripted text, but the illustrations provide the context for the story to unfold. The better a reader's schema and understanding of the subject, the more a student will be able to pull out any nuanced meaning from the pictures.

Below I would like to display a few authors that are really at the pinnacle of what a wordless book should be. I'll be careful to highlight the age range I would suggest for each title and any suggestions I have for how to utilize each book in the classroom.

                                                                                                        Books by Aaron Becker


Journey and Return are fantasy at the very best, filled with landscapes and many ways the story could go.

Age: 4th grade through Middle School

Lesson Suggestion: Have students tell the story, write it out. Have students choose one picture and add onto the story (choose your own adventure-esque).  Rewrite the end of the story, and add an illustration to go with it.

A Stone for Sascha was a slight departure from Becker's earlier work and depicts a clear story of a girl leaving home for a trip. On her trip she finds a stone in a lake. Most of the story is about how the stone got to it's spot in the lake, going thought thousands of years of transformation from a large stone (like the ones used in stone hedge) to a small statue, each time chipping off a smaller and smaller piece, until the stone is found by Sascha.

Age: 3rd-Middle School

Lesson Suggestion: I would pair this book with Flotsam, written by David Wiesner. Both stories depict the journey of an object from the past to present day. Compare and contrast these two stories. Imagine an additional place that the objects could have been, write a story from the objects point of view rather than the characters point of view.

Books by David Wiesner

David Wiesner books were some of the earliest wordless books that I remember reading when I was a child. They always fascinated me. I wasn't sure really about the story, just that I was able to look at the pictures and tell something was happening.

Tuesday tells about about a regular Tuesday night, but some levitating force zooms some  unassuming frogs all over town.

Age: These, again, I would read with upper-elementary through middle school. I've found that elementary kids can tell what's going on but middle and high school kids can really understand the more nuanced expressions and catch on to deeper details.

Gosh, this is a cool one! Flotsam, similarly to A
Stone for Sascha has an element of past and present day in the illustrations. This has a clearer story than Tuesday, but is still open to interpretation. A boy finds an old fashioned camera on the beach. When he goes to get the film developed he is amazed to find what the photos show!

Check out these stand alone titles--all wordless and all worth buying a copy!

The Snowman written by Raymond Briggs, tells the story of a snowy day and how a boy builds a snowman, the snowman comes alive and how the boy and snowman go on an adventure together. Drawn in cells like a comic book or graphic novel, kids can easily tell what is going on by the expressive faces and use of light that the illustrator uses to depict mood. Grade: K-8

Activities: Choose one page of panels and have students write in speech bubbles to depict the action.

Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie Depaola Everyone loves pancakes! One morning, a woman wakes up and wants pancakes. But she needs to get all the ingredients to make them. She has to tap the trees to get the syrup, she has to milk a cow and church the milk to make the butter --What a lot of work! Later, she gets a whiff from her neighbors house and pops over for breakfast. A great one to use as an anchor text or shared reading with very young kids. 

Grades: K-3 

Activities: Read together and write out the action, this is a great shared writing anchor text. Especially for ELL students. Simple actions and simple characters bring this story to life.

 I LOVE Unspoken by Henry Cole! I use this EVERY YEAR!  Unspoken tells the story of a young girl and her family who lives on a farm. One night, the young girl goes out to the store house to get some supplies, but she finds someone hiding--an escapee on the Underground Railroad! Night after night, the young girl brings food and water to the escapee, until one day some bounty men come riding by on horses and ask to look around. When the young girl goes to check on her friend, they are gone.

Grades: 3-High school




Activities: I use this book when I am practicing inferencing with my students. The story is not obvious right away and students have to take what they know (schema) about the civil war, slavery and the Underground Railroad, and use the pictures to put together a narrative

 A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka is a simple story about a dog and a ball, follow Daisy as she plays in the park. Watch as tragedy strikes and how she overcomes her adversity. Another great one to use with young children. Talk about Daisy's emotions, write out all of her action words, teach onomatopoeia (pop! wag! splash!)

Float by Daniel Miyares, like A Ball for Daisy has a simply story, but is beautifully illustrated. What I like about these simple wordless stories for young readers, is they depict happenings that many children have participated in: Walking/playing in the rain, watching a dog play in the park--Each situation is very relatable and therefore easy for students to practice their comprehension using visual media.