100 Stories Book Review:
“The Umbrella” – wordless and wonderfully imaginative.
We’ve had some wild weather in Sydney lately, lots of wind and storms causing havoc.
Just the time to share our most favourite wordless picture book published this year- all about a little dog blown away by the wind.The Umbrella by Ingrid & Dieter Schubert, Book Island.
Wordless books are such a powerful part of developing language.
One of our categories on the 100 Stories Before School booklist is Wordless books.
Children have the opportunity to make up their personal story and share their own emotions. These books are particularly good for children and families still developing english. You need to search the illustrations for meaning- an important skill contributing to reading later, of “learning to look”.
We recently showed this book to a number of early educators, librarians and community workers at the Paint The Town Read Conference.
They all just loved it.
The illustrations are luminous, filling each page , from beginning to end.
The book starts with the dog finding the umbrella on the front end paper, and finishes with him trotting home on the last end paper. His friend the cat is still waiting for him when he gets home.
A very definite beginning and ending,with the possibility of more adventures.
Why will children (and adults) love this book?
Children will empathise with a little dog with a jaunty air, suddenly having amazing, and slightly scary, adventures.
He has to use qualities of courage, open mindedness, resourcefulness and adventurousness,
The view from the sky, underwater, snow, and even being thrown up by an enormous whale’s water spout makes you wonder what is coming on the next page.
It’s wind, clouds, African savannah, burning sun, thundering waves, the ocean and its creatures, Amazonian rainforest, the Arctic – you could even get a map out to track the little dogs progress.
Who ever knew there could be so many uses for an umbrella?
There’s opportunity for lots of imaginative play following book sharing.
Children can go on their own adventure, especially if you provide them with their own umbrellas. We’re just waiting for our own Hairy Maclary to trot out the door with an umbrella!
100 Stories Before School Pinterest link
How to read a wordless book, thanks to Teach Preschool.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/569846159073642950/
Definitely a strong contender for an addition to our current list, updated soon!
The Umbrella
By Ingrid & Dieter Schubert,
Book Island, New Zealand.
March 2015
ISBN 987-0-9941098-5-9
Book Island is a small independent New Zealand publisher run by Greet Pauwelijn.
“Book Island is a New Zealand-based publishing house with a bold dream of enriching children’s and adults’ lives in the English- and Dutch-language market. We do this by bringing unique stories from Europe to our shores, then using only the best talent to translate, design and print beautiful high-quality books.
Thanks to our focus on quality, perfection, sustainability and collaboration we manage to publish titles that can be treasured and read time and time again by children and adults alike.
Our titles are now available from every good bookshop in New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands.”
From the Book Island website.
http://www.bookisland.co.nz/en
This copy was provided by the publisher.All our reviews are completely independent.
Other books on our 100 Stories Before School list with similar themes:
Granny went to market– Granny flies around the world on her magic carpet.
Grandpa and Thomas and the Green Umbrella– the wind blows the umbrella at the beach.
Harry the Dirty Dog– Harry and his travels through the day.
Your own photo albums with travel pictures of different places.
Lost and Found-a little boy tries to take a lost penguin back to the Arctic.
Mr Chicken goes to Paris-travel experiences of Mr Chicken, now also in London!
Peggy- Peggy the hen gets blown into the city with a big gust of wind.
Some Dogs Do- can dogs really fly?
For more details download our list for families here:
For Educators here:
Wind Rhymes:
Download a PDF sheet here:
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