Lehman, B. (2004) The Red Book. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin.

Brief Annotation: This wordless picture-book tells the story of a little girl. On a dreary walk to school one day, a young girl spies a red covered book peeking out of a snowbank. She takes it and opens it during class and finds pictures of a map, an island, a beach, and a boy around her age. It's a portal, she discovers! The boy finds his own red book, opens it up to a series of pictures of a city, finally zooming in on the girl herself. They are able to view each other through this magical book. After school the girl buys a bunch of helium balloons and floats off to the sky to meet her new friend, accidentally dropping the book.....that is soon picked up by a new little child.

Genre: Wordless Picturebook

Grade Level: Pre-K though 3

Readers who will like this: Creative students who like to draw, younger students who don't know how to read yet.

Response/Rating (1-4): ***. I loved the story more than I loved the illustrations in this book. I liked the message and how well the story was told through no words and just pictures, but for some reason the artwork really bothered me more than it engaged me.

One question you would ask before a read aloud: What does it mean when people say they get "lost in a story"? How does your favorite book make you feel?