Reviews

The Red Book by Barbara Lehman

hanlapham's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

3.5

Category: Picture Book (wordless)

Title: The Red Book

Author / Illustrator: Barbara Lehman

Date Published: September 27, 2004    

Age Appropriateness: I think this book has potential to reach a vast range of readers. It is entertaining for the young readers, but there are ways to make more out of the story as the readers get older. 

Summary: 

This wordless-book tells the story of two strangers meeting through a red story book. The only way to understand the characters is through the art, specifically through their facial expressions. At the end of the story, the two characters find their way to each other. 

Review:

I definitely think a teacher would need to go through this book with their younger students because it can be unclear. 

I think a theme for older students to get would be to allow your imagination to take you places. 

As kids get older, it is so easy for them to forget that imagination is good and to allow themselves to remember the magic books bring. So, reading this simple book about imagination taking a person far can remind students of the joy it brings.

mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition

3.0

Huh. Well that was a bit weird. Books apparently are two way communication two devices and can carry you away. The art was okay. The basic idea didn't exactly work for me but it was an interesting near miss.

missprint_'s review against another edition

2.0

I have problems with wordless books, so it might be me. But the story seemed really disjointed and kind of didn't make sense by the end.

the_lobrarian's review against another edition

• Illustrations are watercolor, gouache, and ink

 

libraryrobin's review against another edition

3.0

Wordless picture book that begs for a kid to tell the story.

sunny76's review against another edition

5.0

This is an interesting book and depending on the words you choose it could be more interesting.

agudenburr's review against another edition

3.0

A great wordless picture book. Very small in size and would make a great one-on-one story for children.

jerilyn's review against another edition

5.0

I use this book along with Rainstorm by Barbara Lehman for sequencing. It's fun to make PDFs of both books and mix them up and see if the students can determine which book is which based on the book covers. Once they do that, have the students sequence the books, tell the story, narrate it, and provide a different ending for the story in their writing journals. Great activity for third and fourth grade!

rebeccabateman's review against another edition

4.0

Wordless and charming. Not to be confused with Mao Zedong's "The Little Red Book."

calistareads's review against another edition

3.0

This is a wordless book about a kid finding a magic red book. It shows pictures of another kid who found another red book on an island somewhere. The island kid looks lonely and the big city kid is in deep winter. They can see each other in the pictures in the book. The city kid finds a way to the island.

I didn’t think the artwork was anything special here really, but it does tell the story just fine, so it does its job.

The nephew told this story and he had this boy flying all over the place and it was most exciting. There were monsters at the end he had to get to his side that didn’t seem to be in the book, you know, the usual. He gave this 4 stars and the niece gave this 1 star. She wasn’t very amused by it. She really has outgrown these books. We are in the home stretch and I think she will finish it out with me.