On a snowy day in a big city a little girl is walking to school and on her way to school she sees a red book in the snow. She picks it up and takes it to school with her. While she is sitting in class she takes the book out and opens it up instead of paying attention to the teacher. When she looks in the book she sees an island and the book zooms in on the island to a young boy who also finds a red book. When he picks the book up and opens it up there is a picture of buildings on a snowy day like the place that the girl is. As the boy turns the pages it zooms in on the little girl sitting in the classroom with the red book in her hand and the little boy on the page. So the little girl is looking at the boy while the boy is looking at the little girl in the same red book. The little girl on her way home from school sees a man selling balloons on the side of the street and takes all of them which makes her begin to float in the sky. The little girl drops the book while she's in the air and this makes the little boy sad. But the little girl flies all the way to the island and they meet each other with open arms.
I would rate this book two out of four stars. The overall idea for the story was very interesting and in some ways like the movie inception. The only thing is that I did not feel a connection to any of the characters in the book. So when the girl and the boy met each other at the end of the book it did not evoke very many emotions in me. Lehman does a great job of pushing her story forward without words but without that connection to the characters the book does not seem as fulfilling as it could have been
Title: The Red Book
Author: Barbara Lehman
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: September 27, 2004
ISBN:978-0618428588
You bring out a very interesting point about the character development in this book. Since the book is wordless, the illustrator draws on the plot to carry the story forward without dwelling too much on developing the characters. They are almost an after thought. My older son absolutely fell in love with this book when he was in Kindergarten. He loved the storyline and the fantastical element at the end, so it may be more effective for children than adults. Barbara Lehman has gone on to write many more wordless picture books, some in fact that are connected in a series. I believe she has improved in her character development since Red Book, but I would be curious to see if you agree or disagree.
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