The Red Book

Lehman, B. (2004). The Red Book. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Brief Annotation: The Red Book is a wordless picturebook that takes you on an adventure through illustrations. The book is found by a little girl in the snow on her way to school. As she reads about a little boy, he’s reading about her. On her way home from school she picks up balloons and flies away, dropping The Red Book down to the ground. As she flies further and further away, she enters the little boy’s pages. The story is not finished, what happens to The Red Book that fell to the ground, it lands in another’s hands.

Genre: Wordless Picturebook

Grade Level: Pre K-2

Readers who will like this: Children who enjoy making up stories as they see the pictures. Children who are creative and enjoy using their imaginations.

Response/Rating (1-4): 4. A really good wordless picturebook that makes you think about what will happen next.

One question you would ask before a read aloud: Does every book have to have words to tell a story?

Reading Strategies Connection: Picture Carousels (Yopp & Yopp, p. 47). The teacher will have chosen some pictures that she will show to the kids. The pictures can reflect on a unit he/she is teaching. He/she can show the pictures and have the kids tell a story by what they see in the picture. This activity will allow for the children to think, make inferences and respond to questions. This activity shows that books too are like pictures and some books are without words for a reason, but there is still a story being told.