4Jun/130

Wordless Picture Books

You might wonder what's so great about a book without any words in it. Does it even qualify for a book if there are no words? With no words, isn't it just pictures? The truth is, a wordless picture book tells a story without using words. The PICTURES have meaning. The ability to look at pictures an understand from them what is going on is an important skill for small children to practice. Looking at wordless picture books helps your child acquire several skills, even before he/she begins to recognize letters or words.

Comprehension - understanding the meaning of the pictures
A book is understood from left to right
Stories have a sequence
Inferring meaning - understanding what has just happened based on the picture, for example, a facial expression.
Predicting what will happen next
Vocabulary - yes, even without words a wordless picture book helps build vocabulary because the reader comes up with their own words, and when reading with a parent, hears the parent's words that describe the same picture...but in different words. Instant vocabulary building!
Lastly, what great books for kids who have trouble with letters and words!

A picture really is worth a thousand words. Looking for more? Search our catalog under the subject “Stories without Words” to find other great wordless reads!

New Wordless Picture Books:

Classic Wordless Books:

Selected by: Janet Spaulding, Selection Services

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Tagged as: Concepts, Imagination, New Books, Picture Book No Comments

9Mar/130

Wumbers

Wumbers is a story created with letters and numbers. Letters and numbers are used together to make words and sentences 4 kids 2 figure out! It's a great book for kids interested in word puzzles. The clues are letters and numbers. The pictures help too. Here is what the story looks like:

Don't you just love making 4ts?! (Don't you just love making forts?!)

I Like 10ts, 2! (I like tents, 2!)

It's fun.One of my favorite books growing up was CDB! (See the Bee) by William Steig. It does the same thing! In fact, Wumbers is dedicated to William Steig. The author of Wumbers liked CDB! too! L8er allig8or! Author: Amy Rosenthal

Amazon Look Inside: Wumbers
GoodReads: Wumbers
GoogleBooks: Wumbers
Official Website: Author Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Official Website: Illustrator Tom Lichtenheld

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Filed under: 2012, Concepts, Letters, Numbers, Picture Book No Comments

23Feb/130

How Many Jelly Beans?

If you could have as many as you wanted, how many jelly beans would be enough? (I could eat a lot...except the black ones. I always gave those to my Mom.) Is a handful good? How about 10? How about 100? The kids in this book up the number of hoped for jelly beans until they get to a million. On each colorful page kids can watch the number grow in the pictures and actually count the jelly beans. Even a million! The million page fold out to make a giant poster of ONE MILLION COUNTABLE BEANS! For small children, it's often hard to tell the difference between one minute and 5 minutes...let alone big numbers like 100 or 1,000 or 10,000. This book is a great way to introduce the big numbers. And it's funny, which is always an A+ way to end a book. Author: Andrea Menotti

Amazon Look Inside: How Many Jelly Beans?
GoodReads: How Many Jelly Beans?
Google Preview: How Many Jelly Beans?

More books to help get a handle on numbers, the big ones as well as amount words like "pair" and "couple" and concepts like "more than" and "less than"!:

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Tagged as: 2012, Concepts, Math Skills, Picture Book No Comments

1Feb/131

a is for musk ox

A confident, cheeky musk ox takes over the whole alphabet, convincing Zebra that musk ox actually belong on every single letter page, not just on the "m" page, stuck in the middle where nobody remembers.

"I didn't ruin your book. I saved it. Every other alphabet book starts with "A is for apple." That's sooo boring. I think you should do something different. How about this: a is for musk ox."

Zebra shouts in exasperation "But musk ox does not start with A!"

Ahh, but it DOES, and with many other letters too. Read on to find out how (but pay careful attention to m, p, t and z.)

A laugh out loud alphabet book with a sassy narrator and wonderful illustrations. If you can paint attitude, Matthew Myers does. Author Erin Cabatingan

Websites:

McMillan: a is for musk ox Photo Gallery
Google Books: a is for musk ox
GoodReads: a is for musk ox
Erin Cabatingan Blog
Matthew Myers Official Website

Books:

Here are some books that use the letters of the alphabet to tell a story...or a joke. These books make naming the letters and practicing with the sounds the letters make fun...just like musk ox and zebra!