Most picture books use words and illustrations to tell a story -- but some artists are skilled at storytelling without using any words at all. Here are some of our favorites, in no particular order:

Wave, by Suzy Lee, is a simple book with a long horizontal-rectangle shape, that depicts a little girl interacting with the waves on a seashore. The vibrant blue stands out so well against the black and white, and the exuberance and curiosity is evident on the girl's face as she joyfully watches, kicks, and even taunts the waves. This is a fun book that even young children can "read" to themselves.

David Wiesner has written and illustrated many imaginative and detailed picture books, and Sector 7 is a wordless fantasy that seems to explore the question: What if clouds were alive? A Caldecott Honor book in 2000, this story follows a boy who goes on a school trip to the Empire State Building, where he meets a friendly cloud who takes him through the air to visit "Sector 7," a giant "assignment station" in the sky where clouds are received and dispatched to various places in various forms. But the clouds are unhappy -- they are stuck making the same boring shapes over and over again -- can the boy help them be more creative? And if he can, what will the "powers that be" think of it?

Peter Spier's Noah's Ark won the Caldecott Medal in 1978. Aside from some introductory text, it wordlessly tells the biblical tale of Noah and his floating menagerie. It's fun to see the ways in which he envisions so many animals living together during a flood. By the end of the story, I can really feel the relief and freedom that comes when the ark door opens and everyone is finally free to go their own way.

Sidewalk Flowers, by JonArno Lawson, is full of beautiful black-and-white illustrations that gradually gain more color as the story progresses. The images follow a father and daughter out for a walk. The daughter notices little things that her father does not seem to see -- such as flowers growing up through cracks in the sidewalk and other places. It's a celebration of beauty, and of the natural curiosity of a child, as well as her care and compassion for the lonely things that adults have learned to simply pass by.

Zoom, by Istvan Banyai, is a clever book that simply shows us one image after another, and each time the frame is zoomed out a bit. After a while, we realize that some of the things that seem to be people are simply photos, or otherwise different than initially thought. By the time it's finished, it's hard to fathom how far away it is from the beginning. Each page contains a blank page on the left, and the image on the right, to keep from spoiling any surprises. This is one of the few books out there that is just as fun to "read" backwards!

Wallpaper is a wordless story that's beautifully illustrated with paper collage art. It tells the tale of a young girl who has just moved into a new house, and is nervous about meeting the new children next door. Instead, she takes a journey into the wallpaper where she is chased by an odd yellow creature through several layers of amusingly decorated wallpaper before she realizes the monster just needs a friend. 

Her friendship with the imaginary creature helps give her the courage to say hello to some potential new friends in the real world. I appreciate seeing shyness covered in a children's book, and I also liked the interplay between fantasy and reality. The different "worlds" in the different layers of wallpaper were also well done. 

(Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.)

Scrounged From: NetGalley

Format: Kindle
Author/illustrator: Thao Lam
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: None

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Recently I was introduced to Elly MacKay's illustrations via Red Sky at Night (review here), and was captivated by her unique images, full of texture and light. So I was pretty excited to see that she has a Christmas book available too.

Waltz of the Snowflakes is the wordless story of a girl whose grandmother invites her out to see a ballet. The girl is not all that inerested -- she has to wear a fancy dress and go out in the rain, and doesn't seem to be enjoying herself. But as the Nutcracker story begins, she becomes more and more engaged and awed by the beautiful dances and scenes unfolding on the stage -- she even catches a snowflake during that lovely waltz (my personal favorite of all the Nutcracker pieces).

By the end of the story, she is waltzing her way home -- quite a contrast to the beginning! For those of us who have loved The Nutcracker from a young age, this story evokes all kinds of nostalgia, and celebrates a beautiful, iconic Christmas tradition.

Format: Hardcover
Author/illustrator: Elly MacKay
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: None

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Letters to a Prisoner is a wordless picture book that communicates quite a bit through a story of a man who is arrested for peaceful protest, and is encouraged (and eventually freed) with the aid of letters written by people around the world. 

The story is understandably simplified, with the opposing political factions in the beginning simply denoted by different-colored shapes. Letters become symbolic of flight and freedom all through the story, and a lovely fantastical image helps to illuminate this idea even more at the end.

A note at the end explains that this story is meant to illustrate what can happen (and has) during Amnesty International's Write for Rights events. I had never heard of this before, so I went and looked into it more after finishing the story. 

I definitely felt inspired after reading this, though it also serves as a reminder that not everyone in the world has the same rights that many of us enjoy. I probably would not read this to a preschooler (the images show people being hit and the man being separated from his young child in a fight, which might be upsetting for young children), but it's easy enough for an adult reader to preview for age-appropriateness. 

(Thanks to NetGalley for a review copy.)

Scrounged From: NetGalley

Format: Kindle
Author/Illustrator: Jacques Goldstyn
Pages: 48
Content Advisory: See final paragraph above.

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