David Wiesner

I am a firm believer in quality picture books. There was nothing that made my childrens' lit teacher madder than to hear someone excuse a poor quality book as being "good enough for children" (as Anna can attest), and pointed out the wealth of high quality picture books out there. These books are a combination of meaningful art that enhances the text, and a compelling dramatic question. I found myself discovering picture books as an adult that I love for their literary value, rather than sentimentality. One of my most exciting discoveries was David Weisner.

Anna already wrote about his wordless picture book Flotsam. It's a Caldecott award winner and is absolutely genius.

 Another wordless picture book, a Caldecott honor book, and probably my favorite of all his books is Sector 7. It's the story of a boy who goes on a field trip to the Empire State building and ends up messing with the production of a cloud factory. I love his wordless picture books because so much is left to fill in with your imagination, but his other books are fabulous too.

Tuesday is a bizarre, delightful little tale about the strange things that happen on - you guessed it! - Tuesday. I'm pretty sure this book only has three words in it, so I'm not quite sure which category it belongs to.

 The Three Pigs is the classic tale as you've never read it before. Basically, it's the pigs' escape from the world of 2-D animation and their ability to make friends that conquers the wolf in the end. These two are also Caldecott award winners.

And finally there's June 29, 1999. This one's more of a classic picture book than the others, but it definitely has that unique Wiesner style. The main character sends vegetables into the sky as a science experiment - with large results. My favorite part about this story is the hilarious twist at the end. 



So, next time you're at the library, for your kids or for yourself, stop by the picture book section and enjoy a sample of quality literature from David Wiesner.