Best Wordless Book Authors: David Wiesner

Tuesday is representative of Wiesner's work -- magical stories where imaginations come to life in beautiful illustrations.

Tuesday was my introduction to David Weisner. It's Tuesday night, and the time is right for odd happenings involving frogs flying on lilypads. The resulting chaos is hilarious and whimsical. Dogs and cows are surprised, people are shocked, and the evidence the next morning gives the police quite a mystery to solve.

The best part of the book is the ending that makes you long for a sequel. 

What a delightful book. An inquisitive boy playing on the beach finds an underwater camera, washed ashore. After developing the film he finds inside, he discovers fantasy underwater scenes and then a photo of another child. After looking closely, the boy discovers a photo inside a photo inside a photo. When he sees the pattern, he takes his place in the cycle by photgraphing himself and throwing the camera back into the sea.

Small children may not understand this book without some explanation. For independent reading, this book suits grades 4 and above. 

Free Fall would serve as a perfect, child-friendly introduction to surrealism. In this wordless book, a boy's dreams take him from one fantasia to another, with the different worlds seamlessly morphing into the next. 

Wiesner does a great job of portraying how dreams do seem to randomly and illogically change while maintaining some elements such as certain characters or objects. 

Free Fall is different from Wiesner's other wordless books in that there is not a single plot line to follow. Instead, the book is a collection of scenes that eventually lead the boy back to bed, asleep.