wordless

Review: Hocus Pocus by Sylvie Desrosiers

| Tasha

hocus pocus

Hocus Pocus by Sylvie Desrosiers and Remy Simard

This wordless picture book has the feel of a graphic novel, but one designed for very small children.  It tells the story of Mister Magic who heads home with his pet dog, feeds the dog, and then settles in listening to music with his headset.  Once he has fallen asleep, the rabbit jumps out of his hat.  On the counter is a grocery bag and he spots some carrots up there.  But he has to sneak past the sleeping dog to get there.  He has the great idea of wearing slippers to be quieter, but then he crunches on a peanut.  The dog wakes up and discovers the rabbit’s activity, but the rabbit is able to soothe him back to sleep with some violin music.  But that is only the first round, as the dog and rabbit try to outwit each other.

This is a very funny picture book that emerging readers will enjoy.  It’s not a wordless book for toddlers who would miss the humor of the story, but rather one for slightly older children who will read this book like watching a silent cartoon.  The humor is pure slapstick fun, channeling the Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny feel with plenty of physical gags. 

The art here is crisp and clean with a modern vibe.  The colors are vibrant, bright and very appealing.  Children who pay close attention to the illustrations will see some of the jokes coming, making it all the more fun to read.

A modern picture book that is full of classic humor, this book has great appeal.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Kids Can Press.

Also reviewed by 100 Scope Notes and Sal’s Fiction Addiction.

Review: The Umbrella by Ingrid & Dieter Schubert

| Tasha

umbrella

The Umbrella by Ingrid & Dieter Schubert

A wordless story told in vivid images, this book will whirl readers into an adventure.  A small dog finds a red umbrella and sails up in the autumn breeze into the air.  He walks on the clouds, visits Africa with its elephants and alligators, yikes!  Off he heads into the air again, carried this time to the expanse of the ocean where his umbrella serves as a boat.  Until that is, he sinks down below the surface only to be blown high from a whale’s spout.  He is carried into the jungle in a strong breeze and then caught by a pelican and lifted higher.  Then down onto the snowy peak to be met with the applause of seals.  His umbrella becomes a sled, sweeping past polar bears and then up into the air again.  Bats join him in flight until down below amid the autumn leaves, his house appears.  He puts the umbrella back where he found it and where a cat who has watched him come and go just might have an adventure too.

There is a wildness to this book that is as refreshing as a strong autumnal wind.  It comes from the wandering of the breezes and the wildlife that the little dog experiences.  The book captures his emotions with great skill from the delight of sledding down snowy hills to the utter exhaustion at the end of his travels. 

This is a book that does not need words.  The images capture the story fully, allowing readers to create their own story from the expanse of world that they get to see.  Children will revel in walking on top of clouds, of meeting elephants, of escaping arrows, and of finding the way back home. 

A perfect read for fall that will inspire imagination, this book opens and closes with gusts of wind and swirls of autumn leaves.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Lemniscaat.

Book Review: Where’s Walrus? by Stephen Savage

| Tasha

wheres walrus

Where’s Walrus? by Stephen Savage

This wordless picture book has a great appeal for the youngest children and adults alike.  Walrus escapes from his small pool in the zoo, pursued closely by the zookeeper.  He hides in the most unlikely spots, posing as a mermaid in a fountain, seated at a diner counter, glamming up a window display, and much more.  Finally, he is cornered up on a diving board sporting a red swim cap.  What happens next is a satisfying close to this cheery picture book.

Savage has a tremendous sense of pacing in this book.  It moves ahead from one hiding place to the next, and then turns into a full story as the final pages turn past.  The story works well without words, helped by the skilled pacing and the ease of the storyline.

What really sets this book apart are the illustrations, done in bold shapes and bright colors.  They have a graphic quality to them and a modern edge.  While the book sounds like a Where’s Waldo type of book, it really isn’t thanks to the simplicity and style of the illustrations. 

This wordless dazzler of a picture book will impress old and young alike with its style and sense of fun.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Scholastic.

Also reviewed by

Book Review: Animals Home Alone by Loes Riphagen

| Tasha

animalshomealone

Animals Home Alone by Loes Riphagen

When the humans leave the house, the animals are left all alone and do some wild and silly things.  In this wordless book by a Dutch illustrator, there are fifteen animals to try and keep track of.  From one page to the next, they escape their confines, eat things, watch TV, and even fall in love and have babies.  The front endpages have the animals’ names while the rear ones have questions about what happened in the story.  It’s a fun book that requires eagle eyes to spot everything.  It’s not a book you can read entirely in the first sitting.

Riphagen’s illustrations have a great quirky quality to them that adds to the humor and silly feel of the book.  With the crowded page, bright colors and engaging animals, this book has so much to look at and see.  Then add the stories that each of the animal characters is engaged in and you will find yourself flipping back and forth pages to figure out how the jam was spilled, why the goldfish is now yellow, and what happened in the bathroom!

A visual game that has some very funny moments built into the various storylines, this book will be a hit with children who enjoy Where’s Waldo and I Spy books.  Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from copy received from Seven Footer Press.

Also reviewed by Bookie Woogie.

Book Review: Fox and Hen Together by Beatrice Rodriguez

| Tasha

foxhentogether

Fox and Hen Together by Beatrice Rodriguez

The story begun in The Chicken Thief continues in this second wordless book.  Here Hen has laid an egg but the refrigerator is empty, so she heads out to catch some fish.  This leaves Fox to watch the egg.  Hen fishes with her friend Crab, but when she catches a large fish, an eagle swoops out of the sky and grabs it.  Hen holds on and so does Crab as the eagle carries them all to its nest filled with hungry babies.  Just when you think they have escaped, a sea monster comes out of the deeps to grab the fish.  Hen manages to escape that danger too, but then enters the house to find that Fox has been having adventures too.

Rodriguez has created a full-color immersive wordless picture book that has great appeal.  The book has a great pacing that shifts from one page to the next, making for a very exciting and fun rollercoaster of a book.  It is all told through bright colors, plenty of action and a storyline that twists and turns. 

I am looking forward to the third in the series, Rooster’s Revenge, coming later this year.  The stories make most sense if you read both of them, learning the tale of the Fox and Hen and how they came to live together.

A bright, action-filled wordless book, it is appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from copy received from Enchanted Lion.

Also reviewed by

Book Review: Ice by Arthur Geisert

| Tasha

icegeisert

Ice by Arthur Geisert

Geisert returns with another wordless picture book featuring his industrious little pigs.  In this book, the pigs are on a desert island where it is hot and water is running very low.  So the pigs hatch a plan to find water.  Delightfully, they create a hot-air balloon from their boat and fly over the waves.  They find an iceberg, where they install a sail on the ice and take the entire thing back to their island.  The final pages show interesting details of transferring the iceberg into the water tank and the differences the ice has made in their lives.

Geisert excels at details in his illustrations.  Sweltering heat and low water are shown by bucket brigades and drooping pigs.  The time with the iceberg is shown as almost a party with pigs dancing and celebrating.  The pigs then begin working again to get the ice moved to the tank.  Somehow Geisert makes work look fun or at least very intriguing. 

These are illustrations that are small, detailed and worthy of some time spent looking at them.  Share this book with a child who loves looking closely.  Or even better, curl up together and share some time with ice, invention and imagination.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from copy received from Enchanted Lion Books.

Also reviewed by:

The Secret Box: A Wordless Treasure

| Tasha

secretbox

The Secret Box by Barbara Lehman

Lehman continues her wordless books with this treasure of a title.  Years ago, during the times of steam trains and horse-drawn carriages, a boy hides a box under the floorboards of a house.  Other buildings are built around that house, as the city grows.  Cars and a modern train show that time has passed.  Three children head to the high floor and discover the hidden box.  In the box are directions to the Seahorse Pier.  The children have to find the old landmarks that are almost hidden in the modern city.  They follow the map to the Seahorse Pier and to a surprise waiting for them at the end of their adventure.

Lehman’s books are delightful adventures, allowing readers to take travels along with the characters in the books.  Readers also get to puzzle out what is happening, as the book takes turns and twists like any great adventure should.  Told entirely through illustrations, the story is delicate yet strong.  Lehman uses a deft hand in this book, balancing the book exquisitely.

Although this is a wordless story, it will work best for slightly older preschoolers because the stories are not as straight forward as most wordless books.  Because of that, I see them as ideal picks for children having difficulty with reading.

Highly recommended, this book will be enjoyed by fans of Lehman’s previous work and will find new fans as well.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by

Octopus Soup: A Yummy Wordless Treat

| Tasha

octopussoup

Octopus Soup by Mercer Mayer

When an octopus climbs up an anchor line and into a fisherman’s basket, it causes all sorts of chaos.  The octopus is flung onto the head of someone cleaning the street and from there is chased through a window.  Taking refuge in a pitcher of water, the octopus is discovered by a chef with a taste for octopus soup.  A chase ensues, ending with the octopus hanging from the dock until it drops into the chef’s waiting soup pot.  But don’t fret, there is yet another twist in this tale.

Mayer’s latest features vaudeville physical humor and a timeless story.  The wordless story has more than enough humor to keep children giggling, enough tension to keep them wondering what will happen, and more than enough appeal for young readers. 

Hand this to children too young to be reading yet who want a book they can “read” on their own.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from library copy.

Owly & Wormy: Friends All Aflutter

| Tasha

owlyandwormy

Owly & Wormy: Friends All Aflutter by Andy Runton

The popular Owly graphic novels make their picture book debut with this colorful new story.  Owly and his best friend Wormy want to make friends with some butterflies.  So they plant a milkweed plant, hoping to attract some.  All they manage to attract are some bugs that are definitely not butterflies and that are munching on the milkweed leaves.  Owly and Wormy make friends with the bugs instead until one day the bugs have to leave.  Now Owly and Wormy are left alone.  They wait and wait for their friends to return.  When they eventually do come back though, Owly and Wormy don’t recognize them!

Runton’s friendly and funny Owly graphic novels are some of my go-to graphic novels for younger children.  This new book makes the Owly stories available to even younger readers.  With the wordless format, this is a book that will appeal to children just about to become readers themselves. 

Add the bright colors to the illustrations and you have a very appealing book that is about friendship and metamorphosis.  The cartoon-like illustrations filled with smiling faces large and small are very friendly themselves.  The illustrations run from two-page spreads to smaller more graphic-novel-like images that read as panels.

This book takes graphic novels to the youngest readers and introduces them to a friend that they can share adventures with for years to come.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Simon & Schuster.