Sidewalk Circus, presented by Paul Fleischman and Kevin Hawkes, s a wordless picture book. It was so interesting to compare this book to the other one written and illustrated by the same people. The pictures are painted in bold colors, much like they are in the other book. The text on the inside page automatically draws the reader into the book and really puts you in the circus frame of mind. It activates previous knowledge and memories relating to circuses and circus performers.
Having no words and only pictures was a different idea. It was fun to be able to create meaning out of the pictures for myself. I can’t remember the last time I read a book that didn’t have words, so it was a good experience. Before I started reading the book, I assumed that it would be about an actual circus. I imagined parents taking their children to see the clowns, tightrope walkers, and lion tamers, so I was surprised to see that the stars in this little girl’s circus were people she saw on the street. It’s such a fun concept; it challenges you to think about the world a little differently. That woman walking her dog could be a lion tamer. The little boy running down the street could be a marathon runner. How you look at the world is up to you.
The pictures were so visually pleasing. I felt like I could stare at them for hours and keep noticing something new, like a facial expression or a new detail. I liked that the little girl watching everything was in color while the other people on the street were in black and white. This represents the fact that she is seeing things with her imagination and the others are not. In the picture of the whole street, you can see everything coming together. The dentist and his patient (the sword-swallower) are on the far right, the painters (trapeze artists) are in the middle, the other painters (the stilt-walkers) are in the middle, and the boys on skateboards (clowns) are on the far left. After the little girl gets on the bus, a little boy comes and sits down and starts to see the circus as well, starting with a squirrel tightrope walker. In this book, a picture really was worth a thousand words.
3 comments:
I was pleased to discover that Sidewalk Circus was a wordless picturebook. After looking at the images and formulating my own story from these pictures, I was reminded how these books can serve as powerful stimuli for assisting students with creating their own stories. Oftentimes, students have difficulty with creative writing. Teachers can use wordless picturebooks to stimulate imaginatve thinking while providing students with ample opportunities to create their own narratives. Students can also be tasked to compare their stories with others' in the classroom and identify similarities and differences. I hope to incorporate more wordless picturebooks during my Writer's Workshop to encourage this type of thinking.
A wordless book? The idea seems so strange .. almost wrong .. and yet, I like it. Heather's comment about using worldless picture books in class to have the students generate their own narratives made me think. I often bring in posters or pictures and have my students write a story based on what they see. Why had I not thought of a whole picture book?
Well, I guess it's because I didn't know there were such things as wordless books. I had never really even thought about it. I'm going to have to find some of these books and bring them into class for my next writing project. What a great time I think my middle school kids will have! Thanks for the inspiration!
I chose to comment on this book myself this week on my blog. I read your comments after completing mine, and it's always interesting to see another person's viewpoint of the same thing. My second graders loved it after I challenged them to really observe and not talk about what they see (which was hard because we discuss books so much amongst each other!) They seem to "get" more of the theme of the story when they were required to be thoughtful and more observant through my guidance in a mini-lesson instead of just flipping through it on their own and take the illustrations for a quick face value. As the other ladies who commented to this entry of yours, there is a place for wordless books in the reading and writing workshop venues. I like that having this book as a selection made me give this book a second chance after initially seeing it at the library a few years ago. :)
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