Wordless books can jump-start some sublime conversations

The wordless picture book has become a powerful learning tool in the parent-education talks and workshops we offer at our library. Wordless books help us teach parents to talk about the pictures when they share books with their young children. These books emphasize how important the pictures are to children and encourage parents to ask questions and relate the pictures to the child's real world. They demonstrate that often the best part of the read-aloud experience is the conversation generated by those pictures.

We order multiple paperback copies of wordless picture books and hand them out to our adult audiences. We ask them to work in partners and tell the story to each other, switching speaking and listening roles when we give a signal. After their initial embarrassed giggles subside, the adults have a great time with this exercise. They begin to understand how details in the pictures help build a story. They learn how much fun it can be to invent or improvise a tale. Often we take time to compare the different stories they develop. They enjoy discussing the pictures they liked best and the particular details that caught their imaginations.

Wordless picture books also help us teach the concept of “book sharing.” While it's important to read the lovely language in many picture books, the most valuable part of the read-aloud experience is the parent-child conversation that develops around a book. It's the interactive conversation that helps the child develop early literacy skills, and it's these interactions that strengthen the bonds between the child and the adult sharing the book.

Wordless picture books help us get across the message that people who do not read themselves, or who do not read the language of a particular picture book text, can still enjoy sharing a book with the children in their lives. ESL classes especially respond to wordless picture books.

Wordless books are great for families or family caregivers who read with children of mixed ages. The story can be tailored to the particular children who are sharing the book at the moment.

One of our favorite picture books to share with adults is Good Night, Gorilla (Putnam, 1994) by Peggy Rathmann. Although this is not technically a wordless book, it has only minimal text on a few pages, and it is also available in a Spanish edition. The adults laugh and get caught up in the humor of this story about a mischievous gorilla who steals the zookeeper's keys and creates havoc at bedtime. Hi! (Philomel, 1994) by Ann Scott and Glo Coalson is another delightful book with minimal text that functions as a wordless book. Tiny Margarita waits in a long line at the post office with her mother and greets everyone who comes by with the same word.

Other wordless books we enjoy sharing with adults are Deep in the Forest (Dutton, 1976) by Brinton Turkle, Sunshine (1981) by Jan Ormerod and its companion Moonlight (1982, both Lothrop), Pancakes for Breakfast (Harcourt, 1978) by Tomie dePaola, The Red Book (Houghton, 2004) by Barbara Lehman, Will's Mammoth (Putnam, 1989) by Rafe Martin and Stephen Gammell, Anno's Counting Book (Crowell, 1975) by Mitsumasa Anno, Frog Goes to Dinner (1974) by Mercer Mayer, and Mayer's A Boy, a Dog, a Frog, and a Friend (1971, both Dial). A great favorite of our preschool audiences is Carl Goes Shopping (Farrar, 1989) by Alexandra Day, and Day's other books about that big black dog are popular as well.

We encourage parents and caregivers to make wordless picture books with their children. Photographs of families or field trips or special projects like making snowmen or baking make great wordless books. The children get excited about telling the stories that go with those pictures. Narrative skills are developed and strengthened while everyone has fun.

When we discuss wordless books we like to quote Lewis Carroll: “…what is the use of a book, thought Alice, without pictures or conversation?”