Book Review & Lesson Plan: The Book With No Pictures
The Book With No Pictures (find at your local library or purchase from Amazon) is exactly what the title says — page after page of nothing but words. But what it lacks in illustrations, it more than makes up for in gut-clutching preschool- and kindergarten-level humor. Long story short, even if your head is made of blueberry pizza, you’ll still love this book.
To be certain, the “silly” is the best part of this book, but amidst it all, there are lessons here for kiddos. First and foremost is that even before you can read, you can still enjoy a book that doesn’t have illustrations. And a couple of deeper lessons that kiddos may not realize they’re learning from this book are the importance of listening, and that words are powerful for eliciting emotions.
Words can make you happy, sad, scared, excited, surprised. And in the case of this book, they can make you laugh. A lot. They can make grownups say funny things. Against their will. It’s more of an (air quotes) “Against their will,” but you get the idea.
It’s funny to watch kids’ faces when you first start reading this book. When you explain to them that this book has no pictures and that might seem like “no fun” as the story says. The faces droop a little and glaze over a bit. You can see in their expressions, they’re sure this book is gonna be bleh. And then you read that line that goes like this:
“Here is how books work:
Everything the words say, the person reading the book has to say.”
So now, we have a set of rules laid out that our reader is unswervingly required to follow, because of this on the next page:
“No matter what.”
Well now the deal is sealed with those three foreboding words. The fate of the reader has been set and mass chaos will certainly follow, because “no matter what,” you now know you’re about to make a monkey of yourself. (And you’re going to be admitting that you are a monkey, one who taught itself to read, and you are reading this book with your monkey mouth in your monkey voice. And then there’s robots. But I digress.)
This hilarious story is from the mind of BJ Novak, who you may recall as “Ryan” on the U.S. adaptation of the television show The Office. All throughout the story the reader is required to read hysterical words and sounds, and then must immediately lament the craziness of those words. And beg to stop reading — which, as you’d expect, the roaring children listening to the story, will not allow.
It puts the children in the audience in the delicious position of watching an authority figure essentially self destruct. And that is glorious.
This fabulous read doesn’t particularly fit into any curriculum, it’s just plain fun. We read it during down times or slow days, or as an end-of-the-school-year “fun” book. We have read it after large-group, centers or movement activities and it helps that transition perfectly. But honestly, there’s really no bad time for a full-fledged belly laugh, so it’s a good read any time.
We love this book for 3s and Pre-K on up to adult!
(Below please find a list of reading comprehension questions and vocabulary words. This list is not exhaustive, and it may spark additional questions from your kiddos. As always, we recommend that you scaffold based on your age group and the wigglies of your kiddos.)
* Downloadable/printable copy of lesson plan below
Reading comprehension questions:
Before reading: Show the cover. What is happening on the cover? Are there any pictures? What do you think this book might be about?
After reading title: What do you think it’s about now? Is that the same as what you thought before we read the title? Do you think this sounds like it will be an interesting book? Do you think you will like this book? Explain that when we read books with no pictures, we have to imagine the pictures in our heads.
After reading: Did this book turn out the way you thought it would? How was it different? How was it the same? What was your favorite part? At the end, why do you think the reader asks the kids to choose a book with pictures next time? How did the book make you feel? What did you imagine as you listened to the words? (This is a great segue into our enrichment activity, “Illustrating The Book With No Pictures,” below).
Vocabulary words:
- boring
- serious
- trick
- ridiculous
- hippo
- history
- entire
- utterly
- preposterous
Enrichment Activities:
Art: Encourage your kiddos to illustrate lines from The Book With No Pictures with our free printables. (Combine for a fun class book!) Download “I am a Robot Monkey” and “My head is made of Blueberry Pizza” below.
