A Ball For Daisy

Raschka, C. (2011). A ball for Daisy. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books.

ISBN:  978-0-375-8586-1

Plot Summary

The main character of the book is the dog, Daisy. Daisy loves her ball so much that she sleeps with it. One day at the park another dog pops the ball and Daisy is crushed. She is sad for the rest of the day. On the next outing to the park, the owner of the dog who popped the ball brings another and all is well in the world and in Daisy’s heart.

Critical Analysis

The illustrations are made of watercolor and use only primary colors of red and blue with some neutrals and black. Raschka illustrates Daisy and her ball in a way that the reader feels as if on a cloud. Something about the illustrations make you feel as if you are pulled into the world of the dog and her emotions come through. The mood is achieved by use of color and expressions on Daisy’s face. One strength is the use of panels of illustrations. The reader gets more of the story this way.

This wordless picture book is a good way to develop the skills of facial expressions by teaching children happy, sad, and angry faces. Another topic for kids to learn is the colors and objects such as a red ball or green couch. Using colors to describe emotions, and describing shapes of things are also other ways to develop children’s skills.

Awards & Review Excerpts

2012 CALDECOTT MEDAL

2012 Notable Children's Book List

New York Times Best Seller

New York Times Best Illustrated Book

“Chris Raschka's extraordinarily expressive ink, watercolor, and gouache illustrations not only clearly convey the storyline through a mix of full-page and borderless panel illustrations but also exude emotion, giving young children ample opportunities to follow, articulate, and interpret the events unfolding on the pages.”-CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, 2012).

“Raschka uses fairly sophisticated comic-book arrangements long, narrow, horizontal panels, and so forth but masks them with soft watercolor edges instead of sharp corners. The result feels like something of pure emotion.” -Daniel Kraus (Booklist, Jun. 1, 2011 (Vol. 107, No. 19).

Connections

This book can be used to talk about emotions. The range of emotions Daisy experienced in one day from event to event children can experience as well. the use of color associated with facial expressions illustrated can be used to talk about what each color means and how they convey a different meaning.

Older children can use the illustrations and write their own words and phrases associated with the images, then they can read them aloud to other children.