Reading books with no words can be incredibly liberating.  Here's Why.
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Illustrations are stories unto themselves. When you strip a book of its words, you are free to decide the story for yourself, time and again. 

Consider this. You have more than one kid with you. One kid is big, one kid is small and you. And you need something to do to keep everyone occupied. Books without pictures are perfect for this situation since everyone can access the text - there are no words!

​I've used true picture only books with middle schoolers and upper elementary school students with great success. Often, they are hesitant at first but once they trust that you're not going to tell they are wrong, they can get really into it. Journey is my favorite with older kids.

You can read and make-up the story as you go with a few kids at a time or you can let the oldest tell the smallest a story based upon the pictures. Or my personal favorite, the role reversal, let the littlest one of them all be the storyteller for everyone else. 

Picture only books are also fantastic at allowing for revisionist storytelling. Kids will want to tell their stories immediately again because they thought of new and better details to add. They are drafting out loud. This kind of picture book fosters a sense of collaboration since everyone can contribute. It's inclusive and makes you feel safe. And, everyone wants their story to be heard.

Every story is correct as long as its based on the pictures. Storytelling with no words encourages risk-taking, inventiveness and fun! You will be surprised at how proud everyone is when they are finished telling their story.

Here are a few of our favorites (you are also welcome to click on the pictures above):

• Flashlight: Liliana's favorite. This book is great to read with an actual flashlight (with a toddler, bigger kids won't want that prop). This is a great bedtime book that explores what happens outside the comfort of your tent (or house, apartment, you get the gist). 
• Journey: One of my all-time favorite books. This is a Caldecott Honor book about a child who escapes her room into her own fantasyland by drawing a door on her wall. It has wisps of The Chronicles of Narnia and Alice in Wonderland and could spark a great conversation about what you'd imagine your world to be if you got to create it. And, why is it called Journey?
• Tuesday: Also a Caldecott winner, this book has vivid pictures that you can look at time and time again. Enjoy telling stories about frogs on their lily pads and what they see! 
• Lion and the Mouse: This particular book is fantastic, not only because of its stunning drawings, but also because it is a clear adaptation of an Aesop fable. If you are looking for a lead-in to a book with words, or a book that connects, this book clearly is a companion toAesop's Fables.

​Enjoy!

Kids like being storied to, too. Even big kids. If you're not a gifted storyteller yourself, you can still use picture books with big kids to tell stories. Even though they can read them for themselves. ​All you need is a good storybook, a story with some layers and good inflection. These stories are great as is, but can also be a great springboard into issues like homelessness, immigration, death and racism.

Eve Bunting is an especially good storyteller who includes many facets to her stories, but I've included others for your perusal. 
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• Fly Away Home: This is a picture book you can reader to younger kids but ultimately is about homelessness. You can expand on this picture book by talking about larger societal issues.

• Smoky Night: This hits upon the L.A. Riots and a family's need to flee urban violence. It speaks to the coming together of an unknown community against violence, all in one book.

• Crazy Hair: A whimsical rhyming book about crazy hair. This book can be used to discuss first impressions kids have about others.

• The Wreck of the Zephyr: A beautiful picture book which you can use to talk about the toughest of topics, death.

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• The Curious Garden: A fun tale of a boy growing a garden. This books speaks to environmentalism and watching things grow.

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• A Day's Work: A touching story of a young boy who helps his grandfather find work, even though he doesn't speak English.

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• This is Not My Hat: A tale of stealing and getting it back. This is a great book to springboard into heavier topics like stealing, righting a wrong and reparations.

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• Mr. Tiger Goes Wild: A fantastic tale of a tiger who wants to be his own. A great story of uniqueness and compromise. This is a good story for kids who are coming into their own and feeling left out of their community. For a bigger picture conversation, talk about people who are bullied or ostracized as minorities.

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• Mr. Lincoln's Way: This story is a straightforward bully story. Mr. Lincoln teaches tolerance and how to encourage others to be more open. But this story also turns the bully on its head, and shows that the school bully also has something positive to contribute. This is a great story to introduce the ideas of prejudice and consequences.

Please share!

​I found my favorite book of all time by browsing my local library's bookshelves. I found another favorite book by being bored in a bookstore while my Dad browsed for books. And I found one of my favorite storytellers by glancing at shelves at a small bookstore while on vacation. And now, I read both of these books each and every year, over again and watch out for books by Margaret Atwood as often as I remember to. 

There are some things each of us do every week to zen out. And without them, we may fall apart...or explode. In any case, we can feel it when we don't do those things.

For me, it's going to a bookstore or library. Now, since this is my jam, I actually try to get to bookstores really, really frequently. I keep up with new books for friends with kids (and who are we kidding, myself), teacher friends, and clients.

​But the real magic happens when I go with no agenda whatsoever.

The weight of the book lets me know it's real and it has something important to say. I might not like the book, I might love it - but either way, holding it in my hands compels me to open it and find out. And this is why I like going to physical places with physical books. 

I can get lost in books. They make me think. They can make me feel good and bad, sometimes simultaneously or guilty for not reading enough of them. Books have heft and require me to spend more than 10 seconds on them - more time than I would if I were clicking around online.

​Books require me to focus, to analyze, to connect, to escape and to reflect. Books make me feel life.

Many times I speak to parents and teachers alike who complain about the amount of time they don't spend on reading. They want to spend more time but don't know how to fit it in with their already busy, chore-filled, obligation heavy schedule.

Reading feels guilty - because "I could be doing something else that's productive," I hear.

I hear it over and over from busy parents. But what I hear in the subtext is, I really want to read. I want to make that time and I don't want to feel guilty. How do I do that? 

I bought a lot of my daughter's books to start her baby library. There were certain books I wanted and there were certain books I didn't want at all.

There are books that it seems like almost every new mom registers for - you know the ones - The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Goodnight Moon, Dear Zoo, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Where the Wild Things Are, Guess How Much I Love You - you get the picture. These are all great books, but a new mom is inevitably going to receive these.

But there are so many other books! Here is a list with a mix of American Library Association recommendations, Caldecott winners, most-checked out kid books from the library, my daughter's favorites and my own favorites. I often buy and recommend books by well-known authors, but their lesser known titles that are just as fantastic.

​Many of my own favorites are books that are not annoying to be read over and over and over and over and over...and that makes it more fun for Liliana. If I can convey enjoyment while I read, she will pick up on that. Read books that are joyful to you as a parent!

• The Little Island - Not your standard Margaret Wise Brown book. It won a Caldecott award in 1947 for the beautiful watercolor pictures and the story is very mellow. 

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• The Pout Pout Fish - The illustrations are great and the story is super cute. There are more of these books in case the child-to-be loves the first one. These stories can grow up with a kid.​

• Fish Eyes - Lois Ehlert always has great pictures in her books. This board book has math extensions and is so colorful, you'll want to flip through it again. We frequently do art activities based on the fish in this book too.

• Eating the Alphabet - Another Lois Ehlert book with fruits and veggies. It's very colorful and there is a lot to look at. It's also a great book to bring along to the grocery store and keep those hands busy.

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• Please Baby Please - Written by Spike Lee and has a musical tone to it. The book goes through a toddler's day - very familiar to us!

• G is for Goat - A great introduction to the world of Patricia Polacco - with a farm alphabet.

• Ten, Nine, Eight - A counting backward book akin to Goodnight Moon.

• Baby Beluga - Baby Beluga in the deep blue sea, swim so wild and you swim so free. Beautiful ocean animals and if you like Raffi music, even better. 

• 10 Trick or Treaters - Another favorite of ours - a counting backward to bed book. 

• Giraffes Can't Dance - A colorful, animal-filled book about finding the confidence in yourself. The rhyming in the book is well-done and hasn't been a bother to read over and over and over again.

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• Chickens Aren't the Only Ones - A very colorful book explaining all the animals that lay eggs. The rhyming is done well and one Liliana picks this up from the bookshelf almost daily.

​Enjoy!

When I was in the classroom, all at once, all of the boys in the room started to love dinosaurs. It was like a whirlwind of dinosaurs. I couldn't have had enough dinosaur books to go around. And so, I started searching for different dinosaur books - fiction and non-fiction that would satisfy their thirst. The kids were so enthusiastic about dinosaurs (and this enthusiasm spread to every kid in the class), it encouraged the whole class into an entire non-fiction reading unit. 

• National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Dinosaurs - This book is fantastic for the kid just starting out with dinosaurs. There are activity pages at the end of the book to continue the fun.
• The Complete Book of Dinosaurs - Perfect for the older kid who is just starting out with dinosaurs. This book has lots of creatures and lots of pictures.
• Dinosaur Bones - A fun, collage-filled book for younger readers about dinosaurs. There are two levels of text - larger, header like sentences that fill in little readers and smaller, more specific information for the more interested reader.
• My visit to the Dinosaurs - An old book that is a perennial favorite. This book hits on going to see the actual dinosaur bones at your museum. It explains how dinosaurs were discovered, displayed and basics about the dinos.

Stomp! Stomp!
​No dinosaur guide would be complete without some dinosaur models. Kids love to play with models. Some kids want something in their hands when they read, and these would be ideal for that!
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Other great non-fiction animal books:

And because this dinosaur obsession spurred a general look into non-fiction, we found some really excellent animal encyclopedias with beautiful pictures (which I highly recommend, even to keep instead of gift!).

Enjoy!