Thursday, December 20, 2012

Tuesday by David Wiesner

David Wiesner is one of those super talented illustrators who creates master pieces in the form of picture books. The first David Wiesner book I read was June 29, 1999. It introduced me to some oddly named but real vegetables like arugula.

Tuesday is an almost wordless or textless picture book - it contains an amazing fantasy story all told through rich night time illustrations. The story begins on Tuesday evening around eight.  The scene is a swamp and the moon is rising.  The first surprise comes as you turn the page - two huge frogs sitting on lily pads which are floating above the swamp and so the adventures begins as the frog take off over the neighborhood.  At 11.21 a man sitting in his kitchen enjoying a late night snack sees the frogs outside his window.  Later the frogs fly in the open window of an old lady as she dozes by the television. At 4.38  they flee a slobbering dog.  As the sun rises the frogs arrive back in their swamp.  That morning the town's people and police awake to the mystery of discarded lily pads lying all over the town.  The final twist, though, is on the last page - the time is next Tuesday at 7.58pm.

If you have not seen books illustrated by David Wiesner you are in for a real treat.  Take a look at his web site.  Here is a video of Tuesday. Discussion Questions. We have all of his picture books in our school library so ask to borrow one today.  Here is one word from a review that sums up this quirky book - nifty!


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