I’m a huge fan of wordless books for kids.  This genre has really grown.  It includes books for young students, like one of my favorites, A Ball for Daisy, by Chris Raschka, and complex and beautiful wordless books like The Arrival, by Shaun Tan, meant for middle schoolers.

Younger students and particularly students who aren’t reading yet get such a feeling of confidence when they can read a story on their own.  In the case of my library, students sit quietly and watch the story unfold as I turn the pages for them.  Sometimes I have them tell me the story that they just “read”.  This time, we just closed the book and smiled.

The Red Sled is not a completely wordless book.  The only words that appear are onamatopoeias. The book opens with a red sled sitting outside a house in the snow.  A bear wanders by and notices the sled.  He decides to take it for a ride, and what a wild ride it is!  Soon, a rabbit joins him, then a moose, then two raccoons, an opposum, a porcupine and a mouse.  The illustrations are wonderful, particularly the animals expressions as they tumble down the hill on the red sled. My students were so quiet as they read the book, then, they started smiling and soon they were laughing out loud.  After the animals finish their sled ride, the bear replaces the sled at the door of the small house.  The child who owns the sled walks out the next day, picks up his sled and notices bear tracks.  The book closes with the child swinging from the antlers of the moose as the animals go on another sled right that night.

This is a sweet, quick book that kids will really love.