The Wonder of Wordless Books!

Books, books, books.  We love to read them and it is always fun to explore different genre's.

When I talked about 7 benefits of reading aloud to our kids, I mentioned the benefit of exposing our kids to a variety of literature genre's.  A favorite genre of children's books in our home are wordless books.  As the name suggests these books are creatively illustrated to 'tell' a story, but rely on the child and parent's imagination to give words to the story.

I love that wordless books give you a personally crafted storytelling experience!  They inspire the imagination, creativity, an often times wider exposure to rich vocabulary and encourages discussion.  Oftentimes, there are a lot of smaller stories going on in the midst of the big story which make these books especially fun to study and explore.

It is fun to throw one of these into the mix every now and then!  I'll find my readers and non-readers alike enjoy pouring over these on their own too!  This article had some great ideas on how to maximize your time with wordless books whether you are a toddler or a 10 year old!

Here are some great one's to get you started:

Rain by Peter Spier

I just love this book.  I remember getting this from the library when my oldest was 2.5 and we were learning about 'weather'.  The illustrations were enchanting and we poured over it for a long time.

Yellow Umbrella by Jae Soo Liu

This book brought us under its spell initially at my sisters home.  The illustrations are so simple and yet we found ourselves studying it.  I recently checked it out from the library again and discovered that there is a cd that goes with it with the sound of rain and different classical-inspired piano pieces for each page.  Living here in the desert, I just love the sound of rain.  This book definitely makes us all feel just a bit cooler and has been a great escape from afternoon heat.

Wave by Suzy Lee

Suzy Lee is a new illustrator for me.  So far we are loving her books.  While Peter Spier has very intricate illustrations, Lee's are simple and yet so engaging.  She has an amazing ability to get inside the mind of a child.  We laughed our way through both of her books.

Shadow by Suzy Lee
This book is sure to inspire a desire to play with shadows!

The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney

Aesop's Fables can even be communicated without words.  We loved this one when we discovered it a few months ago.

Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola

What can I say.  We LOVE Tomie dePaola!

Deep In the Forest by Brinton Turkle

A charming wordless retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

The Red Book by Barbara Lehman

Keegan loved reading this one this week.  I found this one when looking for other wordless books.  This is one that is perfect for an older child because of the concept of traveling through a book between two places on opposite sides of the globe.  In light of all of our geography explorations and most recently our reading of "Call It Courage", Keegan found this especially fascinating.

A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog by Mercer Mayer

This illustrator knows little boys.  We giggled over the young boys futile attempts at catching a frog.  This is the first in a whole series!

Good Night, Gorilla
I can't believe I almost forgot this one.  My mom owns this nearly wordless book and it has been a favorite for quite some time.

Up next: a tutorial on how to create your very own wordless book about the most important issue in life!  Then I'll be sharing about some of our favorite picture books and chapter books.  I'd love to hear any favorites you have in any of these categories!

Related Posts:

Seven Benefits of Reading Aloud

How to Grow Your Read Aloud Time

posts on various children's books and activities they've inspired

"A Life Made Beautiful" wordless book tutorial