Museum Trip

Where does one even begin to describe Museum Trip (2006) by Barbara Lehman? I could begin with the end, when I felt a sense of satisfaction for the young boy's achievement. Perhaps I could begin with the beginning, where we see the main character getting on a bus with his classmates for a field trip to the museum. Where ever one could start, Museum Trip is an intriguing story of a young boy's trip to a museum with his classmates.

Once at the museum, the young student falls behind when he stops to tie a loose shoelace. While looking for his class, he steps into an unlabeled room, where he finds several small mazes. He manages to jump into the mazes and make his way through all of them, stepping into an unmarked door in the last one where he receives an honor of some kind. The medal is interesting, as another one just like it appears in a most unlikely place at the end.

Throughout the story, the author uses different types of framing. The framing techniques help to convey the young boy's emotions. No where is this more apparent than on the page where he realizes he's alone. The author couples demand (the young boy staring at the reader) with no frame or background. The reader can't help but feel the young boy's momentary panic.

Museum Trip was simply a fun read. I feel certain my kindergartners will enjoy this wordless picture book. We will have fun analyzing the book as we stop and I ask my students what they see and notice, what's the same and what has changed. Also, all along the way, I'll ask, "How do you think he feels now?" I'll also ask them why they think he feels the way he does.

No!

No! (2009) by David McPhail is a powerfully written wordless picture book for children. It's a statement about how violent our world is and how, in order to change it, we must each stand up for what's right, beginning with the youngest child.

In the story, a young boy has written a letter to the president of his country. He witnesses several scenes of violence on his way to the mail drop. Upon arriving at the mail drop, our young character is confronted with a bully who is ready to beat him up for no apparent reason. The main character stands up to the bully. He says, "NO!" His simple one word message starts the world moving in a better direction, so to speak, and our young character sees a much different world on his walk home.

The framing for this story is interesting in that the only scenes that are not framed are those scenes that depict violence inflicted upon the character by the bully. The scene where he tells the bully a loud, clear, confident "NO!" seems to jump off the page because the author doesn't even shade the background of that particular scene.

While No! would be a great book for my kindergartners any time throughout the year, I feel like it would be particularly suited for the beginning of the year. Without giving away too much, the end of the story deals with rules. This would be an excellent springboard into class rules. It would also be a great teaching point on dealing with bullies. I would love to ask my students how else are young character could have dealt with the bully and, if he had, how might it change the outcome of the book?

Chalk

 What happens when three kids come across a bag of "magic" chalk on a playground on a rainy day? You'll have to read Chalk (2010) by David Thomson in order to find out!

While Chalk is a wordless children's picture book, the story line itself weaves a spell on the reader. Three children just happen upon a playground during a nasty, rainy day. They find a bag of chalk hanging from the mouth of a dinosaur-shaped seesaw. As they start playing, their chalk drawings come to life. All is fun until one draws a dinosaur which terrorizes the children!

The book cover features "demand" prominently, as the dinosaur toy holding the bag of chalk looks straight at you, as though challenging you to take the magic chalk back from his big, plastic mouth. Each page image shows the action and completely lacks framing, meaning the illustrations cover the entire page. The author uses some framing carefully, depicting only individual characters within the frames to give the reader a window into that character's thoughts. You know the boy in the yellow slicker is up to no good by the close up, framed view of his face as he pulls the green chalk stick from the bag.

I loved this book! I will most likely be using it with my kindergartners very soon. The images lend easily to questions like "What does that look on her/his face look like?" "What is she/he thinking?" "What will she/he draw?" and "How will they get out of this mess?" We would also go through the story, deciding and making a list of what is real and what is not real.

Regardless, Chalk is a wordless picturebook that will be a permanent part of my classroom library soon!