Just a little post because I have noticed a few books (old and new) with variations on the title window or windows. This seems interesting. IBBY Australia are preparing a book talk about Silent Books (you might call them Wordless Books) and we noticed two had the title window. Then I went on to look for more (not wordless just with this title) and I found these. Windows took on more importance while we were all locked in during the year of Covid 19. Walking around my streets it was fun to look into windows hoping to spy a rainbow picture or a teddy bear or even a waving child.
Blurb from Jeanie Baker: A mother and baby look through a window at a view of wilderness and sky as far as they can see. As Sam, the baby, grows, the view changes. At first, in a cleared patch of forest, a single house appears, A few years pass and there is a village in the distance. The village develops into a city. Sam, now a young man, gets married, has a child of his own and moves to the country. Now father and baby look through a window in their new home. The view again is of a wilderness, but in a cleared patch of forest across a dirt road a prophetic sign reads, ‘House Blocks for Sale’.
From Children's Book Council Canada: In this interactive, one-of-a-kind wordless picture book, extraordinary things are happening behind the windows of the city. A young girl is walking home from school in a big city. As she gazes up at window after window in the buildings on her route — each one a different shape and size — she imagines what might be going on behind them. By opening the gatefold, readers will come upon the most fantastical scenes. An indoor jungle.
A whale in a bathtub. Vampires playing badminton. The girl's imagination knows no bounds. Until, behind the very last window, we find the girl back home in her own room, where the toys surrounding her look strangely familiar. This highly original wordless picture book by Marion Arbona is a celebration of curiosity and imagination that is sure to inspire a sense of wonder in readers of all ages.
There are thirteen windows to open in all, and each scene is intricately drawn in black and white and packed with level upon level of extraordinary details to explore: a gathering of gnomes, a deep-sea diver among glowing underwater creatures, a collection of masks, cars that drive up the walls. In a clever touch, each window contains a clue to what's behind it — for example, a plant on the ledge of the window that opens to the jungle, and a window shaped like a porthole that reveals the whale in a bathtub. With so much going on, this book will entice even the youngest children to pore over the pages for close reading, promoting observation skills and visual literacy.
Publisher blurb Hardie Grant (Australia): Windows is an uplifting story of how humanity has pulled together during the Coronavirus pandemic. Written from Patrick's own experience of having to leave the family home due to his son's Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Windows shows how five kids from different parts of the world connect and draw strength from their communities, all from behind the safety of their own windows. Heartwarming, hopeful and surprisingly funny, Windows will resonate with families all over the world and become a valuable time capsule of what life was like in 2020.
From the author website: A girl looks out her window at a magnolia tree in the sunlit yard below and asks, “What’s outside your window?” Twelve replies come from kids around the world. . . This satisfying story concludes with a verse in which the original girl looks out at “the moon we share” and feels a closer kinship to all the others.
Publisher blurb Holiday House: A family learns what home really means, as they leave one beloved residence and make a new home in another. A Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People Home can be many things--a window, a doorway, a rug . . . or a hug. At home, everything always feels the same: comfortable and safe. But sometimes things change, and a home must be left behind. Follow a family as they move out of their beloved, familiar house and learn that they can bring everything they love about their old home to the new one, because they still have each other.
Publisher blurb Cicada Books: A lonely boy finds his feet in a new city by watching his neighbours' lives unfold behind their lit windows. Adjusting to life in a new city is tough. When a young boy moves from the countryside, everyone around him seems so unfriendly. Lonely and home- sick, he sits on a bench outside his new apartment block and watches the busy urban lives going on behind the lit windows. A writer struggles with writers block, a cook creates magnificent meals for herself, a young woman cultivates a luxuriant garden on her balcony and mum struggles to keep four kids under control. Night after night he watches his neighbours' lives unfold before him, observing the tiny details of each story, until one evening someone else is sitting on his bench. Gradually he begins to interact with the people around him, and decides to throw a big party to bring all the neighbours together.... This is a heartwarming tale about fitting in and making friends, illustrated in Aart Jan Venema's distinctive, intricate style. Packed with hilarious details, Night Windows is a beautiful book that will keep children young and old entertained for hours.
Publisher Blurb Barefoot Books: What do you see from your window? This #OwnVoices picture book from Brazil offers a first-hand view of what children growing up in the favelas of Rio de Janiero see everyday. A vibrant and diverse celebration of urban community living, brought to life by unique, colorful illustrations that juxtapose brick buildings with lush jungle plants.
I really like the minimal text found in this book - so much is said but in so few words:
"lights turn on in a neigborhood of paper lanterns."
"You might pass a cat or an early racoon taking a bath in squares of yellow light."
"Others are empty and leave you to fill them up with stories."
Publisher blurb Penguin Random House: Walking his dog at dusk, one boy catches glimpses of the lives around him in this lovely ode to autumn evenings, exploring your neighborhood, and coming home. Before your city goes to sleep, you might head out for a walk, your dog at your side as you go out the door and into the almost-night. Anything can happen on such a walk: you might pass a cat, or a friend, or even an early raccoon. And as you go down your street and around the corner, the windows around you light up one by one until you are walking through a maze of paper lanterns, each one granting you a brief, glowing snapshot of your neighbors as families come together and folks settle in for the night. With a setting that feels both specific and universal and a story full of homages to The Snowy Day, Julia Denos and E. B. Goodale have created a singular book — at once about the idea of home and the magic of curiosity, but also about how a sense of safety and belonging is something to which every child is entitled.
In 1992 the CBCA (Children's Book Council) slogan was Windows into Worlds. It might be time to revisit the ideas behind this theme. Here is the poster from that year by our wonderful illustrator Bob Graham and one from Scholastic Book Club:
One more famous book from 2005:
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