A BALL FOR DAISY by Chris Raschka

Raschka, Chris. 2011. A BALL FOR DAISY. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books. ISBN 978037595861. 

Plot Summary:

The protagonist of the story is a little dog who loves her red ball. One day her owner takes Daisy to the park where another dog takes her ball and pops it. Daisy is saddened by the loss of her ball which is depicted by her facial expressions. Daisy returns home with her owner remains sad by the loss of her ball. Sometime later, Daisy’s owner takes Daisy to the park again where they meet the owner of the dog who popped her ball. The second dog’s owner hands Daisy a blue ball which makes Daisy very happy.  

Critical Analysis:

This emotional story of loss, sadness, gain, and happiness was told by using only watercolor drawings and no text. The story is for children below third grade level who would be able to easily understand the progression of the events in the story. The story spans a timeframe of two days because Daisy is shown sleeping near the beginning and the ending of the story. This drama is set within Daisy’s home and a park which are easily recognizable by the drawings. The illustrator of the book, Chris Raschka is able to portray Daisy’s emotions of happiness, excitement, surprise, confusion, and sadness using only his watercolor drawings.   

Since the protagonist of the story was a dog and the illustrations were done using watercolors, no cultural markers were evident in the story. This absence creates readability for all children of different cultures who will be able to understand the emotions that are revealed in the story.

Review Excerpt:

A  BALL FOR DAISY was the winner of the 2012 Randolph Caldecott Medal and was listed on the New York Times Bestseller and New York Times Best Illustrated book lists. Lolly Robinson of The Horn Book reviewed A BALL FOR DAISY on November 11, 2011 as stated that, “Because Rashcka’s style is so gestural (if I may use that term outside of human figure drawing) and his brush strokes so loose, it’s sometimes hard to see exactly where Daisy’s mouth or eyes are. But there is never any question of the emotion being depicted.”

Connections:

The connection I made with this book is with THE BOY AND THE AIRPLANE by Mark Pett, which is also a wordless book. In this story Mark Pett’s protagonist, a young boy, received an airplane as a gift and is filled with happiness. While playing with it outside it lands on the roof of his house and he becomes sad. The boy tries many ways to retrieve the plane, but all are unsuccessful. He decides to plant a tree close to the house and wait until the tree is large enough to climb and extract the plane, which happens when he is an old man and he is happy again. Once retrieved, he decides to gift the plane to another. These two stories depict similar emotions of happiness, loss, and sadness.  

  

Personal Response:

My experience with wordless books is recent, but I have found that I really enjoy them. Each time I examined A BALL FOR DAISY, I found something that I missed before in the background or I interpreted the drawing differently. The absence of text allows the reader to experience the book in a way the reader wants. The amazing thing that I have found is that this experience will change each time the book is opened, keeping the experience fresh and entertaining.

References:

“A Ball for Daisy.” The Horn Book last modified November 11, 2011, http://www.hbook.com/2011/11/blogs/calling-caldecott/a-ball-for-daisy/ (accessed September 8, 2013).

“A Ball for Daisy.” The Horn Book last modified November 11, 2011, http://www.hbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/a-ball-for-daisy.jpg  (accessed September 8, 2013).