Book Review: Wordless Magic

Chalk by Bill Thomson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another wordless gem blending childhood with magic, Bill Thomson's Chalk has photo-realistic art and a mundane opening to lull you into a false sense of normalcy.  But the chalk discovered on a rainy playground by three children is anything but normal.  A quickly sketched sun dries up the real rain and monarchs crawl out of the pavement to flutter past the astonished friends.

Of course, when drawings are coming to life, there are certain things you shouldn't draw, and the last friend sketches out a Tyrannosaurus Rex.  Here Thomson's extreme and forced perspectives are put to best use, as the kids scramble around the climbing gym looking for safety.  Troublemaker becomes problem solver with a cleverly simple idea.

The interest of this book lies in what the magic chalk can do, and the story is able to follow a clear, linear narrative without twists and turns to keep readers hooked.  That makes this an excellent wordless book to share with an ELL student for the exercises described in the BPPG review of David Wiesner's similarly charming and useful Sector 7.



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