Chalk

Chalk
By Bill Thomson
2010

When three friends are walking through the park on a rainy day, they discover a bag of seemingly magic chalk hanging from a piece of playground equipment shaped like a dinosaur. When one of the girls draws a sun, the clouds quickly begin to clear and the sky brightens. Everything they draw seems to come to life...butterflies surround them. It's all fun and games until the boy draws a dinosaur. It comes to life almost instantly and begins chasing the children around the playground. They take cover in a tunnel slide and are saved when the boy draws a rain cloud, effectively bringing the storm clouds back and washing away the events of the day. By the last page of the book, it's as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
 
The illustrations in this book are very realistic, which helps to make it seem as if all of this could really happen. The colors are bright and vivid, and a great deal of attention is paid to every detail...from the textured skin of the dinosaur to the individual hairs on the children's heads. This would be an excellent first wordless book experience for younger children because while there is much detail in the illustrations, they are also quite simple. There is not an overwhelming amount of activity on any of the pages. Drawing with chalk is also an activity which most children have experience with, and can consequently place themselves into the story.