In this picturebook, a woman returns home from her exciting life in the city to visit her grandmother, but finds that she is a giant compared to her, representing her sense of maturity and new-found independence. However, as she reconnects with her … [Read more...]
Tierenduin [Whose Zoo]
This look-and-search book challenges the reader to see things differently. The mouth of a tiger hides the face of a sloth; the teeth of a snake become the icebergs upon which a polar bear roams. The book asks us to reconsider what we expect to see … [Read more...]
Ką padarė žirklės? [What the Scissors Did]
The majority of wordless picturebooks produced in Europe are produced in Northern and Western European countries. However, the oldest example of the form used in this corpus is a Lithuanian wordless picturebook originally published in 1961. It has … [Read more...]
כשירד הלילה [When the Night Fell]
This vibrantly illustrated wordless picturebook explores the role of creation and creativity in the imagination of children. A young girl draws a group of monsters, an elephant, and a little girl on a sheet of paper with a set of pencils. The figures … [Read more...]
Where’s the Elephant?
Children, like adults, quickly develop sophisticated expectations of genre and style – for example, seeking to see the similarities that define certain types of picturebooks. This picturebook by French artist Barroux plays upon these expectations by … [Read more...]
Where’s the Starfish?
Barroux’s sequel to Where’s the Elephant? plays upon the same premise. The ludic format of the wimmelbook, such as Where’s Wally, becomes a catalyst for an important message about protecting the environment. Children will have great fun spotting the … [Read more...]
Kim Bu Gelen? [Who is this Coming?]
A game of chess between chickens is disturbed by the loud footsteps of a passing giraffe in this eccentric Turkish wordless picturebook. The chickens try hard to get the attention of the giraffe and the picturebook ends with the arrival of an even … [Read more...]
Zachem? [Why?]
This famous Russian wordless picturebook is one of the oldest picturebooks in the selection, as it was published at the end of the twentieth century. It has been re-published many times since in many different countries: sometimes with words, and … [Read more...]
Il Libro Bianco [The White Book]
A sense of agency is key to this conceptual work, in which the role of children in creating their own lives is represented through the depiction of a small boy who paints and repaints the page. Similar to the classic worded picturebook, Harold and … [Read more...]