A Ball for Daisy

By Chris Raschka

Winner of the 2012 Caldecott Medal for the year's most "distinguished" artwork.

A Ball for Daisy is a cute wordless picture book.

The thing I love about wordless books is that the story becomes more a part of the "reader's" imagination. You can tell yourself the story a bit differently during different times of experiencing the book.

A great way to share a wordless picture book with children (or on your own) is to ask a lot of questions.

For example:

• What is Daisy's favorite thing to do?
• What is Daisy doing now?
• How do you think Daisy feels when she plays with her ball?
• Why does Daisy move over during her nap?
• What is the girl holding?
• Why does she have that object?
• What will Daisy do next?

and so forth.

I remind children to tell the story in their own head and just think about the answers to the questions while we are looking through the book. When I'm finished I'll allow the children to take turns telling their version of the story. Of course I share the books with 20 or more children at a time. If you are reading with only one or two children you could tell it as you go page by page.

Now back to more specifics of A Ball for Daisy. I enjoyed the book. Daisy was cute and even though the paintings are pretty simple Chris Raschka managed to convey some variety of emotions. It was not my personal preference for the most distinguished art work in a children's book from last year, but it is a cute little book that will appeal to younger "readers"

**1/2