The 2012 Caldecott Medal, presented to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children, went to A Ball for Daisy, written and illustrated by Chris Raschka. This charming story is told with no words, and it doesn’t need a one. It embodies the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
Spoiler alert: It’s a story about Daisy, an unstoppable dog, who loses her beloved ball (it actually explodes when another dog plays with it), and she falls into despair. Raschka delves into a gamut of emotions, such as sadness, loss, loneliness, happiness, and love. Thankfully, it has a happy ending.
It is a perfect book for interactive story time for you and your tot – especially one who is learning to form longer sentences (you can go through the book, verbalizing what is going on and ask your tot to do the same). Similar to the appeal of the silent film, images alone are sometimes so much more powerful (if you haven’t seen The Artist, get a sitter and go!).
I’m using this winner of a book to teach Chinese to my tots. It’s easy to convey meaning when you have perfectly illustrated pictures showing exactly what you are talking about. On Amazon
