Wordless Books in Story Time via ALSC Blog

Wordless Books in Story Time

ALSC Blog: 8.15.2019 by Amy Steinbauer

I recently observed a story time of a newer story time presenter. I saw their passion and playfulness with the preschool crowd, but felt them trip over the words of the story a bit. Afterwards, we followed up– and I admitted that I only take the words of the books as a suggestion. A tip that I love sharing with parents and caregivers— you don’t have to read every word of the book, every time you read that book. There are many retellings of favorite books, and words are only one part of the story for “reading” the book.

My takeaway from the observation was that they should try wordless books, as they are very animated, expressive, and play to the energy of the audience. However, I have also been advised by others that only more experienced story timers would try a wordless book.

I disagree, and would like to make the case for wordless book story telling.

1. I often implore parents/caregivers to check out wordless books. If parents can handle it, then anyone else can (who regularly reads to children) There are many benefits:

   1. Have the ability to tell your own story– use bigger/rare words to build vocabulary

   2. Use it to allow children to build their narrative skills and retell it how they view the story

   3. Have fun while reading! Try using the pictures to re-tell the story as a scary story or a funny story! It can be so much fun!

   4. Very accessible to multi-language use to build skills, or interactions with language barriers (like caregivers who don’t speak English as their first language), for example read one page in English, then answer it in Spanish.

   5. Talk about emotional skills— how can you tell what the characters are feeling without words? I think that can build general empathy skills– look at the faces and see their emotions.

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My favorite wordless books for story time/read alouds:  READ MORE >>