• It's snowing in the city. A little girl is walking. She sees a red book in the snow. She picks it up and takes it with her. The girl reads the book, and goes on an adventure.
  
  The Red Book is structured such that each page is a mini-cliffhanger. A child will enjoy answering questions about each page: What is happening? What's in the snow? Where is the girl going? Who is the boy in the book?
  
  Ask the child to guess what is going to happen on the next page. Create excitement by pointing out the conflict in the story: How will the boy and girl meet? What if they don't meet? Do you think they will?
  
  
• A family goes to the Museum of Fine Arts, but the little girl can't take her balloon inside. Grandma stays outside with the balloon. But what happens when the balloon gets away from Grandma?
  
  You Can't Take a Balloon Into the Museum of Fine Arts is both a story about Grandma's balloon chase, as well as a tour of famous works of art. Grandma sees versions of the artworks, cleverly positioned throughout her madcap balloon chase; while inside the museum, the family sees the "real" works of art. A young child will enjoy spotting the "Grandma" versions of the artworks and comparing them to the reproductions of real art in the book. A notes section at the back of the book describes each of the artworks and the artists, which older children will enjoy. In this book, directed questions—Where is that balloon going? What does Grandma see? What do the children in the museum see? Doesn't that look just like what Grandma sees?—will help the child "see" the art and understand the story.
  
  
• The Yellow Balloon is an intricately detailed wordless concept book and then some. At its most basic level, it is a Where's Waldo type of book, where the reader follows a yellow balloon as it travels the world. On closer inspection, small stories are revealed: a man is arrested on one illustration, then escapes on the next; or, a blue car follows a road from page to page. Concepts such as climate, animals, and time periods are explored. Finally, social and environmental issues such as logging, indigenous peoples, and the destruction of the environment are found within the illustrations. A parent can help the young child learn new concepts each time this sophisticated wordless book is examined. A parent can also use this book to open new dialogues with a child to discuss the family value system.

More than a way to make up stories, wordless picture books are an ideal way to start a young child off in the world of reading. Parents will particularly enjoy seeing their child develop a true sense of story.

Bibliography
Dematons, Charlotte. The Yellow Balloon. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press, 2004.

Lehman, Barbara. The Red Book. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.

Reading Is Fundamental. "Wordless and Almost Wordless Picture Books." http://www.rif.org/educators/books/Picture-Books.mspx. (accessed April 1, 2008).

Wetzman, Jacqueline Priess, and Robin Priess Glasser. You Can't Take a Balloon Into the Museum of Fine Arts. NY: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2002.