Draw!
by Raúl Colón
Simon & Schuster (September 2014)
Audience: Ages 4 to 8 (and older)
IndieBound | WorldCat
Description from GoodReads:
Based on his own childhood, beloved and award-winning artist Raúl Colón's wordless book is about the limitless nature of creativity and imagination.
A boy alone in his room.
Pencils.
Sketchbook in hand.
What would it be like to on safari?
Imagine.
Draw!
A boy named Leonardo begins to imagine and then draw a world afar - first a rhinoceros, and then he meets some monkeys, and he always has a friendly elephant at his side. Soon he finds himself in the jungle and carried away by the sheer power of his imagination, seeing the world through his own eyes and making friends along the way.
Raúl Colón talks about his art style:
Using DRAW! with kids:
Since I first saw DRAW! by Raúl Colón, I have wanted to share it with students and see how they respond. This week I had an opportunity to read it with a group of second graders. Several of the students in this class were ones that I worked with last year so it was extra special to watch how they have grown as writers.
Initially, I explained what a wordless picture book was and how they would read this book. I loved watching them come up with the words to describe the pictures and how they put it all together as a story. When we finished, I was curious to see what they thought about the book and asked them to write about it.
They worked hard as they looked back through the book identifying their favorite parts and the parts that made them laugh and the parts that were just a bit scary.
Check out some of the drafts completed by the students:
I love the drawing in this one...
I knew exactly, which page was this student's favorite part of the book...
I loved the enthusiasm students had for making up the story.
Another one who loved that they got to "make up the book".
"It was a no word book. It was good!" - Love this student endorsement.
I can't wait to share more wordless picture books with this group of students and see what new stories they come up with.
November is Picture Book Month and I am excited to share a different picture book each day this month. Do you have a special picture book or author/illustrator that you love? If so, share it in the comments.