Picture Books -- Day 1

To celebrate Picture Book Month, I'll be reading a picture book every day in November, and if all goes according to plan, I'll post every day to let you know what I've read.  Feel free to chime in with what you are reading and loving this month.

I start with Unspoken: A Story From the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole.  This wordless book tells the story of a young girl's brief encounter with a runaway slave in beautiful pencil  illustrations.  (Some might quibble that you can't technically read a wordless book, but anyone who has watched a toddler read a book, knows better.)  The frightened girl bravely sneaks out of her house to take food to the hiding fugitive.  I especially liked the scene where slave hunters confront the adults in the house as the girls hide.  A great story filled with tension, courage, and hope.

Unspoken received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly, and School Library Journal, but far more interesting to me was the blog post from Horn Book editor, Roger Sutton.  Read it at Read Roger.  (By the way, I think some of the reviewers got it wrong -- it seems to me that those adults knew exactly what was going on, and they were giving the gifts as well.  What do you think?)

You can read more about this and other books by Henry Cole at his website.

Unspoken: A Story From the Underground Railroad

by Henry Cole

published by Scholastic Press

November 2012