Words Aren't Always Needed

Lee Littlewood
Fri, 08 Jun 2018 21:00:00 -0700
Lifestyle

Some picture books don't need many words. Here are some wordless or nearly wordless books that prove a good story and art can take readers on journeys just as involved as those full of letters.

"A Stone for Sascha" by Aaron Becker; Candlewick Press; 48 pages; $17.99.
Updated: Fri Jun 08, 2018

Some picture books don't need many words. Here are some wordless or nearly wordless books that prove a good story and art can take readers on journeys just as involved as those full of letters.

"A Stone for Sascha" by Aaron Becker; Candlewick Press; 48 pages; $17.99.

Aaron Becker wondered what could be learned from a chiseled rock that's seen the rise and fall of empires. He tells the wordless but very dramatic tale of a young girl who loses her beloved dog and goes camping without him, finds a polished rock at a lakeside and ponders what the rock has experienced. In truly gorgeous paintings, Caldecott Honor-winning Becker showcases profound truths about life on Earth, with dinosaurs, Stonehenge, the building of historic temples, a Polynesian Tiki hut and the watery journey of how the stone ended up near a small island where the girl is vacationing.

A truly beautiful all-encompassing journey, Becker's exquisite picture book will resonate with any child who's suffered a loss or needs to be secure in Earth's power and majesty. He wraps up the epic story swimmingly, as the girl brings the stone home with her and it rests on top of her dog's grave as she plays happily with her brother. Fabulous.

"Dog on a Digger" by Kate Prendergast; Old Barn Books; 34 pages; $16.99.

A friendly dog wakes up his owner every morning and visits a construction site, where he helps and is a welcome employee. One day after eating lunch with another worker's small dog, everyone realizes the puppy is missing. The humans search, but it's digger Dog that locates him, stuck in a branch just above a rushing stream of water. A man tries to reach the puppy, but when Dog hops into an excavator to encourage the man to use it to reach the smaller dog, a crisis is averted.

Using detailed pencil drawings with only the colors yellow and blue and black and white, Kate Prendergast tells a heroic tale that is a loving tribute to the magic of dogs. Construction fans will love the truck-filled setting, but it's white Dog that steals the show.

"Dude!" by Aaron Reynolds; illustrated by Dan Santat; Roaring Brook Press; 40 pages; $17.99.

The perfect beachy summer read, Aaron Reynolds' bold, colorful tale has only one word, always with an exclamation point. A sly nod to how "Dude!" can be used as a noun, warning, greeting and question, the story begins as a pair of friends, a platypus and a beaver, runs off excitedly to the waves to surf. They point out a pelican and exclaim, "Dude!" notice a shark and exclaim, "DUDE!!!" share their ice cream with him and surf and crash their boards and lay in the sun with the shark, all with different forms of "Dude!" Hilariously, the shark takes them surfing on his back but then freaks out the entire beach, and they watch the sunset happily with tall ice cream cones.

Dan Santat's action-packed illustrations pop off the page in this truly funny buddy shark tale.

"Walk This Wild World" by Kate Baker; illustrated by Sam Brewster; Big Picture Press; 26 pages; $18.99.

Each page spread of this sturdy large board book features a small rhyming paragraph hidden up high in the sky so as not to distract from each scene's vast beauty. It's the lovely jam-packed-with-nature scenes that star, and little hidden fold-out flaps to open and learn more about desert creatures and rainforest animals, African wildlife and swamp birds. There's so much to observe and appreciate on Sam Brewster's zesty, fun, richly colored pages that the few words, though lilting and descriptive, are definitely not the star.

A truly gorgeous interactive visual nature journey that beings at the top of the world in the Arctic tundra snow and ends in the sands of the searing Australian desert, "Walk This Wild World" is a dazzling celebration of animals and nature.

To find out more about Lee Littlewood, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.