Chalk (original 2010; edition 2010)

Chalk, by Bill Thomson (2010) is a wonderfully illustrated wordless picture book that tells the story of three friends who happen upon a bag of different colored chalk during a rainstorm. Soon they discover that the chalk has magical powers, which they use to solve a problem they got themselves into.

In the classroom, I would use this as a mentor text to talk to kids about how a story can be told using only pictures. Perhaps they'd like to write their own words to go with the story, as well? Grades 2-5. ( )

Three children find themselves on the playground one rainy afternoon, and discovering a bag of chalk hanging from one of the rides - the dinosaur ride! - they begin to draw. To their surprise and delight, whatever they draw is magically made real: a sunny day, a kaleidoscope of butterflies, a Tyrannosaurus Rex! Now, on the run from their creation (well, the boy's creation, in any event), they must find a way to undo what they have done...

Chosen as one of our January selections for the Picture-Book Club to which I belong, where our theme is "wordless picture-books," Chalk is an engaging tale of adventure, ably carried along by Bill Thomson's acrylic and colored-pencil illustrations. I appreciated many of the details of these paintings: the young African-American girl's hands, when she picks up the chalk, the young boy's backward glance, as the friends leave the park. I wasn't disturbed, as some reviewers seem to have been, that it is the boy's actions which both precipitate and resolve the crisis. All in all, this is one I recommend to any young reader who enjoys wordless picture-books! ( )

I love Bill Thomson's art. Love, love, love it. It's one tiny magical step removed from realistic, and it shines from within, somehow. The story is wonderful- there's magic and beauty and a boy who chooses unwisely and then it gets really scary for a minute but it all works out for the best in the end. This one could end up being a favorite. ( )

This book is about sidewalk chalk that magically comes to life. It is pretty awesome. It also has no words. ( )

This book emphasizes the power of imagination. This is evidenced in how the children's chalk drawings came to life and how the children used their imaginations to come up with a solution to their T-rex troubles. This book could also be used in the classroom to teach the comprehension skill of inferring. Since there are no words to help tell the story, readers must use the pictures to infer what is happening and what will happen next.