Picture Book #6 - Caldecott Medal

Title:  A Ball For Daisy

Author:  Chris Raschka

Illustrator:   Chris Raschka 

Genre:  Children's Fiction 

Subgenre:  Early Reader Wordless Picture Book

Themes: dogs and their toys, relationship with a dog and their owner, dogs personalities, friendship and dogs, how dogs mingle with other dogs, stories without words

Primary and Secondary Characters:  Daisy, Daisy's owner, brown dog, brown dog's owner, the red and blue balls

Awards:  2012 Caldecott Medal Winner 

Date of Publication: 2011 

Publishing Company:  Schwartz & Wade Books

Summary:

This wordless picture book tells a fascinating story about Daisy and her toy ball.  Together they play, sleep and take walks.  It's not until one day that Daisy and her owner (and the red ball) go for a walk and meet up with another dog.  Daisy and the other dog are playing with the red ball until the brown dog pops the red ball.  Daisy is devastated and hangs her head down in sadness as her and her owner walk home.  Daisy is extremely sad and sleeps.  The next day, they venture out for another walk and meet up with the same dog and owner.  That owner had brought a new ball for the dogs to play with, only this time, the ball was blue.  The dogs play together with the ball and some how keep from popping it again.  As their play-date is over, Daisy is allowed to take the blue ball home.  She seems excited and as soon as they get home, Daisy snuggles up to a nice nap with her new ball.

How it will be used in the classroom:
This is such a fun book for students in pre-school that are learning to get interested in books.  This is a great beginners guide to getting kids engaged with books as they are the ones that can tell the story!  This could also be turned into an older student's activity by making them write their own version of the story by using just the pictures from the book.  I would love to have this book a part of my classroom!