Changes, Changes

This has never been effective for me, even when my kids were little. I guess I just don't have the imagination to make up stories for my toys to play. But it does have a good lesson about resilience and a literal interpretation of "picking up the pieces."

This little picture book was a treasure. No words, but an interesting story. It made me want to sit down with a basket of those old wooden blocks and build something.

This sweet book by celebrated author Pat Hutchins tells the story of two block people and their block village with no words. There is no real setting -- the background is completely white, with just the little blocks that the man and woman use to build. In one picture, a fire starts and the block people transform their house into a hose to put out the fire. Then their area fills with water and they build a boat out of the blocks. This is an interesting way for children to learn about cause and effect, and also about how powerful creativity and ingenuity can be. The fact that this book uses no words also teaches children the power of images and how a story can be told without words. They can create their own dialogue and narration, and show more each child's ideas would be different. show less

This book is great for young children, grades Prek-1st. A series of unfortunate events requires the family to use their imagination, and the blocks from their original house in order to get through tough times. The illustrator does a wonderful job using bright colors and building blocks that children play with everyday to tell the story. Children will surely be able to let their minds free during this read!!

SPOILER: Wooden dolls wordlessly build a house out of wooden blocks, and, when a fire breaks out, they use the blocks in various combinations to put out the fire, travel by boat on the water and rebuild their house without the burnt part. It's clever and colorful and makes you want to play with blocks.

A Good Book for Pre-Readers!

This little book is on my entering kindergartener's Summer Reading List and I can certainly understand why. Pat Hutchins tells, without text, the story of how a family overcomes adversity. With colorful artwork and blocks which most children have seen and played with, she demonstrates how thinking and creativity can lead to solutions.

As with most good wordless books for pre- and early readers, it offers the opportunity for children to make up stories to fit the pictures. Such skills are well associated with success in learning to read.

[See also Tomie dePaola's stories for more excellent opportunities to practice reading skills.]

This wordless picture book tells the story of two wooden figurine people who live in a cozy house made of wooden blocks. But when their house starts on fire, they use the wooden blocks to build a fire truck, and then a boat, truck, train, and finally a house again. I like this book for its bright illustrations and its creative transformations with the wooden blocks. This book would be a good concept book to share with a preK-1 classroom to encourage imagination.